A retired small town newspaper guy once told me about the first time the publisher went on vacation and left him in charge (this would have been in the 80s). The publisher told him “Don’t call me unless the building burns down, and even then, don’t call me until the fire is out.” Good example of management setting vacation expectations.
So, take a lesson from @courtwhip, editor at PEDESTRIAN.TV, who wrote the above hilarious out-of-office email, fully stocked with mentions of the best movies from the 1990s. (By the way, “Splinter” is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and as we all know, he loves pizza.)
.
Website: http://www.effective-business-letters.com/Letter-Informing-about-Holiday-Closure.html
We are having a temporary office move soon, and our head of facilities was delighted he didn’t need to find data ports for the phones as well as the PCs ;)
Not quite an OOO, but a former boss had an email signature that said she was doing field work so her email responses would be delayed.
As a matter of courtesy – and to give you the peace of mind needed to be present wherever you are going (either away from the office or on vacation) – you should send each of your clients a simple email to let them know you’ll be away. Below I’ve offered some sample text for to you use as a template. Feel free to make it a TextExpander snippet, Gmail canned response, or whatever. Just use it (or something like it). Please.
Having a strong, professional and concise ‘Out of Office Message’ is key in projecting a sense of expertise and professionalism to customers. Getting this done perfectly could mean longer retention of clients, even with disruptions or shortcomings in other aspects of your service. Setup Google Voice Auto Reply Driving Text To Speach Mode Quick Response Text Messages Text Auto Reply Android App SMS Auto Reply App SMS Autoresponder App Auto Reply while Driving Sleeping Guard – Auto Reply App LeMi Apps LeMi Apps (was started in 2009) is one of the most forward-thinking application development companies in the mobile technology with highly skilled team providing original and premium apps to the world. $6.90 Auto Reply for WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business $5.80 Business Marketing Autoresponder is a simple, yet effective Mobile Business Text Messaging App, that allows customers instantly request service / product info and you send promotional information to the customer’s phone. ★ NO need to buy short code, NO setup fee, NO per message payments ★
I include my boss because I have different backups for five or six different parts of my job, and my boss is more likely to know the nuances of which one is the appropriate contact than the person sending the email, so it’s more likely to get to the right person if she redirects than if the emailer tries to guess which one of the six contacts I listed is the one who can solve their problem. (My specialty is the “other things as requested” section of my job description; I’m sort of a jack of all trades around here. :) )
You got this email immediately (classic autoresponder behavior), which means I’m out of office on vacation.
Hi, I’m out of the office with no access to email until [MM/DD]. If your request is urgent, you can contact [email] for assistance. Otherwise, I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible when I return. While you wait, subscribe to our fantastic newsletter[link]. Get actionable tips once per week geared toward helping you grow your business.
I’m mostly back in my actual office now, but I went with “away from my computer between X and Z” a couple of times and just straight up “I am on annual leave between X and Z” a couple of times.
Something about it gets my goat up! Like she’s working and emailing me about things she wants me to work on, but her OOO is telling me to buzz off coz she’s too busy to get to my emails. Also she still has it set up and we’ve been in lockdown for over a week. How long does she intend to have her OOO triaging everything and making excuses for delays? We all know there’s a lockdown, that’s why everyone is scrambling for their events to be rescheduled – it just comes across as very self-important at a time where everyone is under stress. No one else in the organisation has this so it seems very bizarre to have an OOO while still working!
It Rhymes! Rejection doesn’t have to hurt. Why not soften the blow with an adorable poem that informs and delights? Thanks for the email, but I’m afraid to say I cannot reply as I am away.
I’m out of town. I’m looking forward to connecting with you when I return. If you’re getting this note, it means that I’ve received your email. (Thank you!) I’ll respond to your note as soon as I can. In the meantime, here’s a list of five questions that I get asked often. I’ve included brief answers to each one below. Take a peek. You might find the answer that you’re looking for—right away! [Include brief FAQs here] I hope those FAQs were helpful. Don’t worry, though—even if your question was one of the questions listed above, I will still send a personal response to your note as quickly as I can, just to make sure that your question or problem has been completely resolved. Talk to you soon!
Logging off will happen to every one of us, whether you're on vacation, have a family emergency, or need to attend a work conference. So we're going to put your mind at ease, creating a unique out of office message to greet your clients and take care of them until you return.
Thanks for explaining, that makes sense. To me, it seemed like a well-communicated coverage plan and I would have especially appreciated the setting of expectations on how soon I could expect a response so never would have even considered that to be condescending.
Are you fully inspired by the creative out-of-office messages above? It's time to write your own — your upcoming vacation depends on it. Try HubSpot's OOO Email Generator if you’re feeling stuck, and remember, an out-of-office email doesn’t need to be boring. On the contrary, it should inform and entertain. You don’t want people hating on you because you took a much-needed break.