While you’re writing and activating your out of office message, avoid including the following:
24. "Thank you for calling [company]. We're closed for [holiday] from [date] until [date]. Please leave your message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a happy holiday season!"
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According to American Express, “Six in ten customers feel that companies meet their service expectations”. Customers look for faster resolution and rely on the expectations that businesses set with queue time for evaluating their service quality.
I once had a coworker who would put up OOOs for absolutely everything, and it irked me to an unreasonable level. Spending the afternoon working with a colleague on a project? OOO. Just returned from vacation and trying to catch up? OOO. A lot of meetings that day? OOO.
The big issue I have with the example in the post is that not only is it unnecessarily long-winded, but you have to listen through all the chattiness to get to the “here’s who to contact in a real emergency” part. The tone does rub me wrong, but I’m willing to roll with that as a personality/company culture thing.
“Greetings. I’m away on holidays for a week and unable to respond to your call/message. I will return to the office on Jan. 20 and respond to you at the earliest. Hope to talk to you soon.”
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We're talking about engagement here. Do you have a webinar clients can watch in case they miss your face or want to hear your voice? Do you have a special going for new clients or referrals? Do you have a hot new blog post you wrote just before stepping out? Tell your people to click on that!
4.) Bienvenido/a a soluciones John Doe. Por motivos de organización interna nuestro equipo no se encuentra disponible hoy. Si lo desea, puede dejarnos un mensaje. Volveremos a atenderle el lunes. Gracias por su comprensión.
Above a certain level in my agency managers have to designate an official delegate when they’re out, which can easily result in out of office messages like what you’ve listed. Not the most elegant, but clear and useful!
Hello, Thank you for your email. I’m out of the office and will be back on [DATE]. During this period, I will have limited access to email. For immediate assistance please contact by cell number at [PHONE]. Best Regards.
Not sure how that particular storm shook out, but it was a classic example of the owner’s narcissism and need to have all of our lives centered around her business “family” with no boundaries.
Hey, Thanks for your email. I’m not in the office and am on a family vacation. I assure you that all your emails will be answered as soon as I return to the office on [date]. Kind regards.
Setting up an out of office message is quite simple. It can be set using the auto-reply function of your mail provider or program – just don’t forget to turn it off when you return!
What was weirder is that it took a couple weeks after covid hit for her to turn the message off – which meant that when the entire company was wfh, we would still get an fyi message from her that she was also working from home.
The appropriate tone depends on the holiday. If you’re closing for Christmas or New Year’s, it’s safe to assume your customers expect you to be festive and maybe even humorous. Conversely, if you’re closed for Veterans’ day, your email should strike a more serious chord. Use our templates and double-check your tone before you hit send.
Mary founded Instructional Solutions in 1998, and is an internationally recognized business writing trainer and executive writing coach with two decades of experience helping thousands of individuals and businesses master the strategic skill of business writing. She excels at designing customized business writing training programs to maximize productivity, advance business objectives, and convey complex information. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Rhode Island, an M.A. in English Literature from Boston College, and a C.A.G.S. in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of New Hampshire.