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Manage your customer's expectation by setting up eDesk to auto-respond to any messages that arrive when your offices are closed for a holiday. This help file will guide you through creating Out-Of-Office templates that will be sent automatically to customers during one-off office closures, such as during holiday periods. Before you start You’ll need to have access to Templates in your Settings in order to view, create and edit templates. If you don’t have access, you can request it from an Admin user within your business. Note: To find out about the other types of templates that eDesk supports, click here.
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With all that in mind, take a look at the following tips and tricks and six examples to make your automatic responses more effective:
I’ll be out of the office from 07.07. until 16.07.2020 with no access to my mailbox. Please contact (COLLEAGUE NAME), [email protected].
I like funny OOO – but I am a bad offender regarding these and may slightly overshare. I recently had to be in and out for eye surgery and this was mine:
Boss would put up an OOO when attending an event off-site, but would still be answering their emails, which meant that I would get “Boss said you were the correct contact, can you help?” Inevitably, I would respond and, two hours later, Boss would too, cc-ing me on the original email in which they shared the exact same info I had earlier that day. It was MADDENING.
While this sounds kind of onerous, I don’t think it’s actually a bad idea to say “I don’t have this info but I’ll get back to you when I find out” if it’s going to take a while.
You’ll find everything you need to set up an out of office message at the very bottom of the ‘General’ tab there.
And while it may seem like a simple thing, if your out-of-office message is unclear or incomplete, it can cause problems while you’re out and when you return.
The one that gave a personal cellphone number (they didn’t have a company phone or were required to use it for work) while out on vacation, with a comment like “I’m out on vacation from date x to date y and in my absence please contact Jane Smith but if you don’t get any joy please call my personal number if it’s urgent”.
Or, in the case of Samarah Miel, owner of Amarillo Travel Network, her out of office message is a fabulous mix of sales/bonding with others in the industry/promoting her expertise to clients. Bonus points for including a video!
Meanwhile, I do sometimes put up long ones when I will be away for some days during a season in which there are a confluence of three or four very likely reasons someone would contact me, and who else they need to contact isn’t the same. Like, it’s high llama grooming season, and generally during this month I get two or three requests per week for each of llama bleaching (for which my backup is Stella), llama shaving (for which it’s Arturo), and llama perming (for which it’s Carter). My message says I’ll be out until blah blah, and if it’s not an urgent llama grooming issue, I’ll get back to you after that, but meanwhile, for urgent llama grooming here’s who to call.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.
Depending on the type of holiday, you can create specific templates for various holidays such as Christmas Thanksgiving, New Year etc.:
I am on leave and will be back on X date and answer your query shortly after that point. If it is more urgent please contact Wakeen at [email protected] for issues related to llama and Lucinda at [email protected] for issues related to teapots.
Just because you are away, you still have the chance to keep the business going. Let your email work for you, by offering different things that will ultimately increase the chance to attract new customers. Your marketing team will be so grateful!