Not to mention, there are all sorts of oddball situations where you might wish you gave another option. No chance that a call from a big client, the CEO, or a supplier might get routed there? Not to mention enforcement agencies that are often “we sent the required notice to the contact info I was given” before they issue a citation or pull a license or tow the company van.
I definitely hate the overshares. And I have one coworker whose rigidly precise & formal language comes off as pretentious and condescending. She sets up an out of office every time she leaves slightly early, so I get them A LOT.
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I, for one, tend to forget to set my automated out-of-office (OOO) email responder and scramble to do it before the plane takes off 🙈 It’s important to inform your customers and business associates (and remind your colleagues!) that you’re away, especially if they’re expecting a prompt response.
I apologize in advance for any inconvenience that this may cause you, and I want you to know that I can help you rectify this if you contact me on the email or phone number below.
As a person who hates voicemail, I applaud this. Send me an email. Give me a paper trail.
One of my favorite OOO messages I ever received was from a customer who was a barrister or soliciter (not sure the right term for an English lawyer). It said he would be unavailable because he is “on trial.”
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For immediate assistance, please contact me on my cell phone at (your cell phone number).
I feel like this is the only reason to do this, otherwise its just a big piss off.
That’s right. An out-of-office response is an automated email message that will be sent back to anyone who shoots you an email while you’re on leave. They are important. For starters, you don’t want to appear snobbish, and… you might even get some new leads just by leaving a well-thought-of out-of-office email message.
7. Out of office lead generation and content promotion templates. As with email signatures, out of office messages can be used for lead generation purposes and promoting new content.
I am celebrating the season. I'll respond to your email when I return to work on [date]. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you and your loved ones have a joyous holiday.
I might sound nitpicky but the language is important. “Might” or “may be” or “slower than usual” are vague and don’t offer the sender all that much information about when you’re really going to respond to them. Worse, they do a horrible job of protecting the time of the email receiver who, as the responder notes, is not in the office! Such a responder implies that, not only will the vacationer reply to the email, but they may not even miss a beat. They may be slow to respond, but they also might not.
My employer uses Outlook and it has an option to display all OOO messages when you add the person into the To/CC/BCC fields of an email, prior to sending it. It’s pretty great and actually saves an email sometimes because I can see who I should contact and just go to them.
Happy Holidays and thank you for your email! I’m currently out of the office and will return on [insert date].
While you’re writing and activating your out-of-office message, sidestep these pitfalls:
6.) Bienvenido/a a John Doe. Nuestras líneas de teléfono no están operativas durante los períodos de vacaciones. El horario de oficina se puede encontrar en nuestra página web www.johndoe.de. Le damos las gracias por su confianza y le deseamos a usted y a su familia unas felices fiestas y un próspero año nuevo.