Yeah, it’s very strange. I understood changing voicemails to explain that the line can’t actually be answered, but someone is checking the messages and will respond (though that was also only an issue for the first few months), but they had no reason to even mention it for email. I started my job 3 months into lockdown, and by that point, procedures were in place to pretty much allow us to operate normally, albeit with a lot more done electronically than before.
Website: http://www.effective-business-letters.com/Letter-Informing-about-Holiday-Closure.html
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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.
I’m at Growth Marketing Conference – Are You? Bonjour from France! 🇫🇷Happy Holidays! I’m at home with my family.
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.
I worked in a call center for Big-Evil-Bank for five years, and every new manager would have a different OOO policy/pet peeve that they would require phone-miners to follow. In particular, the memory of the six month period where we were forced to put an OOO up if we left our desk for so much as ONE HOUR smacked me in the face when I saw question. That was by far the worst/strangest/most tedious OOO policy I have ever been forced to follow.
I will be out of the office starting (Starting Date) through (End Date) returning(Date of Return). If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact (Contacts Name) at (Contacts Email Address). Otherwise, I will respond to your emails as soon as possible upon my return. What is the best out of office message?
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John Whatsisname has retired. Please contact [insert name and email] for enquiries relating to [subjects], or myself at [email] for personal matters. Thank you to my colleagues and clients for your support over the years.
For comparison my current (not great) boss sent an out of office recently detailing how he would be out because he was on his personal sail boat all day, sailing from vacation destination X back to our port city. At length. In a pandemic. When we all had our wages frozen at the start of the crisis.
Thank you for your email. I’ll be offline starting Friday, November 20 through the Thanksgiving holiday with limited access to email, and will respond to your email upon my return on Monday, November 30. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Maria Gonzalez, my fellow digital marketing manager here at MixCo Media, at [email protected]. Thanks for your patience!
Student emails at 3am Saturday morning, then is sends an email Sunday night, miffed you didn’t reply.
How about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada?
By completing these items, you alleviate any concerns that may arise during your closure. This also ensures your business continues providing transparency to your customers. No misunderstandings.
For me, life isn’t just about having my brain cryogenically frozen so I can be revived two hundred years after the apocalypse to dance with the chosen few along the gilded path to Valhalla.
If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact [contact’s name] at [contact’s email address]. Otherwise, I will respond to your emails as soon as possible when I return.
Our office will remain closed for Christmas. We assure you that all your emails will be answered as soon as we return to the office.