I’ll be back in front of my computer on [date] and will respond to your message at that time. If you need immediate assistance, please send an email to [contact name] at [contact email]. For Those Who Intend to Chill in a Galaxy Far Far Away (Where There Is No Internet)
I use a basic OOO message – “Hi! I’m out of the office x date(s). I will return your email when I’m back at my computer on x date. If you have an urgent matter, please contact x or y. Have a nice weekend/holiday/etc!/Thanks!” My office WANTS us to use more personal and witty OOO messages like this article’s message. And that stresses me out. I don’t want to spend time worried about whether my OOO is witty. I don’t want to annoy other people just looking for basic info like when am I back and who they can contact in the meantime. I correspond a lot with third parties on serious matters (legal), and I don’t think a message like that is appropriate. So, I just keep using my basic message and hope my supervisor’s supervisor doesn’t email me and see that I’m not “trying.” Ugh.
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A voicemail greeting can be act as a introduction to your company and set the tone for the rest of your company's relationship with a client so it's important to create a voicemail that suits your company's brand. But if you're not sure where to start, we have a few suggestions you can use to get your voicemail going.
I also do not have an OOO for external people – only internal. I always monitor my email enough to be able to forward important external emails to the right person to handle. IDK why, I just don’t like them having the burden of emailing someone else if I’m out. I’d rather my employee contact them and say “Hey, DataQueen let me know you were having an issue and asked me to connect with you.” My last CEO was out for a full year and almost none of our clients knew (we weren’t trying to hide it, it was just not pertinent to them).
Rather than sounding like a boring email robot, you could add a funny tone to your letter. Use a GIF or a meme to joke about what you’re doing on vacation, but remember not to go overboard.
Feel free to share some examples of auto-reply messages that you have used or such that you’ve received. Include those in the comments below, and we can have a chat.
Hello, All our stores will be closed until the end of the week for [Christmas]. We will respond to all your inquiries once we are back on [date]. Merry Christmas! Regards [Name/signature]
If your request is urgent, don’t sit around. Send your request to [contact’s name] at [contact’s email].
Naturally, she had to take the day off — and couldn't let folks know with any old generic auto-response. Instead, she made a guessing game of it in her out-of-office email, which you can use for yourself, below.
This is the perfect way to reduce the sheer email volume that you’ll return to, with a little anarchy involved…
Yup pretty sure. I remember stuff like they’re going to visit Mickey, they miss him, they haven’t seen him in a long time…honestly it read to me like someone under the influence of something when they wrote it.
Witty and funny out of office messages are great, but check out how New York Times' VP of Operations, Erin Grau, uses her out of office response for parental leave as a teachable moment. That's a powerful message about something she feels passionate and connected to.
Over Twitter DMs, one woman sent me her OOO messages from when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The messages — composed while she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments and recovering from surgery — were detailed and unique. They offered touches of humor, honesty, details about her treatment schedules and set expectations for others trying to reach her. She offered alternative contact options for potential emailers to make sure urgent requests didn’t fall through the cracks but offered a dose or reality as well. I particularly appreciated this line:
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. Thank you for your message. How do you respond to holiday greetings? "And (also) to you!" You too! Thanks, same to you! Happy New Year to you and yours (when you want to extend the wishes to the other person's family) How do you let clients know you are going on vacation?
Yes! I HATE the voicemails that are like “can you give me a call back?” Like… give me some context so you can end up on my to-do list in the right place. People who leave these voicemails automatically go on the bottom.
Ryan Reynolds (of Deadpool fame) doesn't just act. But you probably knew that. Why? Because he has some wildly funny out of office replies that went viral after he and good ol' Jimmy Fallon invited viewers to send Ryan an email.
You can also schedule your auto replies ahead to send at a specific time for a set it and forget it solution.