4. You snooze, you lose! The [holiday name] sale will end soon. Even though holiday sales last for quite long, some of us still have trouble finding something special for themselves or their loved ones.
I am out of the office from January 14 to 20, with only limited access to my emails and voicemail. Please be informed that this mail hasn’t been forwarded. I’ll come back to you as soon as possible.
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Or, worse, when someone has left the organization and the organization hasn’t bothered to put up an OOO, so I’m just emailing a blackhole until I call or someone finally checks that inbox. I never fail to set up my OoO reply, and yet most of my external contacts don’t get them. Let’s say I work for LlamaCombs, with an name(@)llamacombs.com address, and this is a company who has two clients AlpacaBrush and VicunaShampoo. I work primarily with the second, and their internal directory lists my contact info as name(@)vicunashampoo.com. It works because any e-mail sent to the second address is auto-forwarded to the first. Except it messes up OoO replies big time. Because the auto-reply is sent to my own alternate address, not to the original sender, and I have no way to change that.
Ugh, I wouldn’t mind changing daily if I could have a couple of prepared responses for normal circumstances (i.e.: “I’ve left for the day, but I’ll be back in the office tomorrow morning to return your call”) to select from, but having to create a new message for Tuesday night when the info for Monday night is the same? Rage inducing. Email is asynchronous, you KNOW you’re not going to get an instant reply and sometimes you email knowing fully well that it won’t be seen until the next morning/week/whatever. Why on earth mandate an auto-reply for that?
You can configure automated reply messages to encourage customers to submit their queries.
I appreciate your message. I am out of the office currently with no office email access. However, return on the following [date-of-return].
The recipient may have filtering turned on that would reject the automatic reply;
Apollo Technical is ready to help you hire better or find your next engineering or IT job. We've got a lot of advice to share about hiring and careers in engineering and IT.
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The majority of your out-of-office emails will go to recipients with whom you communicate regularly. If you are sure that there’s a certain level of familiarity with all of the people that get your auto-reply messages, consider writing something about yourself, a funny note, or a joke. That allows them to develop a more personal relationship with you.
I actually stopped changing my VM and out of office right before I left, bc I just did’nt care anymore lol. This was only one of a number of things that this company did that was bonkers.
“When I got there and found out the bungee was 134 feet high I got terrible cold feet, but I felt that since I wrote it, I had to do it. So I did. It was terrifying and indeed a lesson on making bold claims in a public way!”
Before we leave you to your own devices, we have some sample messages featuring different ways you can automate text replies to serve your business.
But that sounds boring, right? Luckily, there are ways to spice up your OOO message by adding humor in just the right places.
Sample Phone Scripts. After Hours Voicemail for a Small Business: Thanks for calling (our company). The office is currently closed. Office hours are 9am to 6pm, Eastern Time. Please leave a message at the tone and we'll call you back on the next business day. Thank you. Voicemail Script: You have reached (your business name).
How you end a letter is important. It’s your last chance to make a good first impression on your reader. Choose the wrong closing, and you might damage the goodwill you have built up in the rest of your communication.
I think it’s brilliant. Anyone emailing an animal shelter should appreciate a cute animal pic.