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!
I worked at a public agency and would have different out-of-office messages for internal and external. I was chastised for having a “too informal” message- because the idiot talking to me didn’t realize me saying “I’ll be back next Tuesday for the big staff meeting” (or whatever) was just for co-workers and not the public. I told them but of course it didn’t matter. So from then on I always made sure to start my internal OOOs- “Hello Company X comrade…. blah.” So it was clear which was which. I am not able to respond to your email promptly because my husband died. I will not be accepting zoom invitations. Please do not respond by suggesting future alternative dates. I don’t know when I will be able to speak without crying.
.
(Depending on your email host, the process of setting up your out of office assistant may vary. You can find a guide on how to access your out of office settings in Outlook here.)
I agree. I think this one is way too long and comes off as trying to be too cute.
Yet, sometimes compiling the right words can be a bit daunting. You want to be polite, clear, firm, and perhaps even a little festive. Plus, it’s often a task we leave until we’re just about to run out the door for a holiday break.
I’ve only seen it used for certain roles – usually admin-type ones – where people are fielding a significant amount of requests, so the potential vacation backlog could become prohibative and discourage people from taking time off.
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 think the problem is that “at your earliest convenience” is a formulaic convention that uses explicit, almost exaggerated politeness to basically issue a stern direction, meaning “as soon as you possibly can”. When you turn it into “at my earliest convenience” it’s unclear if you mean “whenever it’s convenient for me to get to it” (what the words say) or “as soon as I possibly can” (what the meaning of the formulaic original is). Or else it sounds like you didn’t quite understand how “at your earliest convenience” works.
If you receive a high volume of customer service texts, you may want an auto-response in place that acknowledges a customer query has been received. This can help buy you some time while attempting to reach as many people as you can. Hello! We received your inquiry and our support team is on it. We’ll get back to you in 20-30 minutes. Thank you for your patience!
Are you the office prankster? Are you also taking some time off to relax during lockdown? Everyone loves a cheeky out of office response. We’re big fans of the example below. You’ll have your whole office in hysterics.
On that same day, President Eisenhower sent a letter to the Honorable Harvey V. Higley, Administrator of Veterans' Affairs (VA), designating him as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee.
You can set the ‘favourites’ phone calls to pass through the DND but does this also apply to their text messages or only their phone calls?
That sounds like she’s using an auto-responder, not an Out of Office. The primary difference, as far as I can tell, is that an auto-response will respond to every email, whereas the OOO message will only reply once per sender when it’s turned on. (Turning it off and then back on resets it)
Thanks for writing! You can expect a response to your note in 1-2 business days. While you’re waiting—surprise! Here’s something I made for you: [Include a worksheet, tool, video, blog post, checklist, resource list, or whatever you’d like!] I hope [name of thing] makes your day a little brighter and easier. Thanks for your patience, and talk to you soon!
One year my organization mistakenly left me off the phone directory. I made no attempt to correct that. The only people who could call me we’re those who knew my number; everyone else had to use email.
It’s kind of a ridiculous OOO anyway since by the time I get it from you, I have already sent my email.
There was a lot of pushback on this, discussion about how big a risk was that really anyway, people saying that John could word his out of office in such a way that people didn’t have to know he was actually away, and if something really was an emergency people would like to know that they have the opportunity to “direct queries to Sam or Dean” so they could be actioned, or make the judgement call that something could wait for John to return.