Issues with Microsoft email addresses

Microsoft has a very strict delivery management algorithm within its email clients (Hotmail, Live, Outlook.com etc) that affects all third party email senders.  If a sender is strong, like we are, but doesn't send very frequent emails to users or initiates a program of emailing to a Microsoft user, then Microsoft's mail management algorithm accepts these emails but doesn't actually deliver them to their users.  They sit there in a queue waiting to be delivered and as a sender, we actually see in our reporting that they were delivered.  Clearly this is a pain and will only be resolvable over time as the Microsoft algorithm gains experience in dealing with our mail.  To be clear, this has nothing to do with sending reputation but is just how they do business to protect their users.

What can be done?

• Before a user is scanned ask them what their email address is.  If its one of the above (bolded) Microsoft email addresses then ask them to first send a quick email to [e-mail].
• They can include any subject line text or body text they wish.  The content isn't what's important so much as the fact that Microsoft's algorithm sees that the user has sent an email to our domain.  This frees up the algorithm to allow our emails to pass through.
• If the user has already been scanned and hasn't received his or her email, then the trick in point 1 above will still work.  Simply ask them to send an email to [e-mail] and the emails we send should free up. 
• In most cases, we've seen that queued up emails from the past are freed up and sent to the user.  If they still don't see the emails then ask them to check their spam folder. 
• If they still don't see it, ask them to confirm that they sent the original email to [e-mail].  If they mistyped, it might cause the email to bounce and won't free up our emails.  
• If they sent the email to the correct email address, then you can try triggering out a new Welcome email to the user through the partner portal.  The email should be deliverable now.
• If none of these actions resolve the issue, then please contact Spiral Health support for further assistance.