I wonder if anyone ever calculated how much time was wasted producing those messages.
Admittedly the several people I know who do this are also very lazy so I may be reading into tone? Because it definitely was going to be whenever it was going to be convenient for them, not so much for the business.
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Usually, people take leave for vacation, business traveling, maternity leave, or sickness. Additionally, sometimes employees who will no longer work in a company also need to provide an out-of-office message for their customers, especially if they are in a high-level management position working closely with those customers.
Yeah, I have to agree. It’s a lot of explaining of things that are likely to be obvious to many people, as though they haven’t considered these options, but that they have to sit through anyway in order to get the information they need about who to contact. And the people who most need to listen to it probably won’t.
Like email, business text messaging is a platform that’s always on. But that doesn’t mean you have to be. So sit back, relax, and let the leads begin to manage themselves!
I worked with a guy years ago who would update his voicemail greeting literally every time he left the office.
So, take a lesson from @courtwhip, editor at PEDESTRIAN.TV, who wrote the above hilarious out-of-office email, fully stocked with mentions of the best movies from the 1990s. (By the way, “Splinter” is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and as we all know, he loves pizza.)
Depending on what provider you use for your text marketing software, the step-by-step instructions for setting up an away message varies. You can find ours here.
Sample voicemail for individual’s work phone: “You have reached the voicemail for (name) at The University of Toledo. The University is closed for winter break. Please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone, and I will return your call after New Year's Day. Thank you and happy holidays.”
My favorite thing is setting my OOO to only run for a specific amount of time. I will absolutely forget to turn it off if I have to do it manually, but we can just set a date/time range for it to start/stop. So I usually start it around 4 pm the day before and end it at 7 or 8pm the night before I return.
This particular message is too freakin long and it makes me watch it, too. Har har, thanks for wasting my time.
Hi, Thanks for your email. You can expect a response when I return on [MM/DD]. Please contact [name] at [email] or [phone] for anything urgent. While you’re waiting, here’s something I made for you: [blogpost, ebook, brochure, checklist, etc.] I hope [name of thing] makes your day a little easier.
I pretty much never pay attention to out of office replies, just note if there is one. If I really need something urgently I’ll look to see if there’s another person’s contact info, but it’s rarely that urgent. I might also look for a return date, if that matters to me. It would annoy me if I had to wade through a wall of text to find either of those things.
Website: https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-end-a-business-email-with-a-professional-closing--cms-29097
Please note that [date], is [holiday name]. The store will be closed all day and will open again at [time] on [date]. We hope you will enjoy the holiday with your family and friends. For those of you who plan to go skiing, please come back safely.
Purchasing and receiving for The University of Toledo Medical Center and clinics will run operations as usual during winter break, with no interruption to service.
Notice of Office Closure for Holiday for Whole Day/ Early Closing. It is always advisable that the notice of any holiday, when the office will remain closed, should be given well in advance - so that no employee is put to inconvenience of coming to the office on a day when it is closed.