Website: https://smith.ai/blog/28-business-voicemail-greetings-for-main-office-and-personal-numbers-formal-informal-modern-and-just-hilarious
The season of good cheer is upon us and you can feel the anticipation in the air. Most of us will be taking at least some vacation, and we all want to get the most out of our time away. So before you re-post your standard out-of-office reply, stop and ask yourself: will the way you’ve written the message really help you do just that?
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If you see the Automatic Replies button, follow the steps to set up an automatic reply.
Even though you're not actually responding to the email, you still need to mind your Ps and Qs. After your greeting, add "Thanks for your email."
What we need in our work communication is not more professional politeness or less formal, chat-based messaging applications like Slack. We need honesty. The problem is that we’ve conditioned ourselves to see honesty as self-indulgent or disrespectful. I’d argue the opposite is true. Honesty, even if it’s a bit more inconvenient for all parties in the moment, pays dividends later. It builds trust. When my partner Anne Helen Petersen and I were interviewing people for our forthcoming book on remote work, a frequent lament from both middle managers and workers was that they didn’t feel like they knew how to succeed in their jobs; that they were guessing what their superiors and coworkers wanted and, even when they asked, they didn’t quite trust the responses they got back.
Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, I’m out of the office from [day/month] to [day/month] with limited/ no access to email. If your question can wait, I’ll be responding to any emails I miss when I return. If not, contact [Name] at [email] or [phone] and he/she will take care of your request.
Head over to your vacation message template, and Hit Control + C to paste your signature into your out of office notification. This way, when someone contacts you while you’re on vacay, they can still:
Hi. 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. Merry Christmas!
When we were working from home (we’re mandated to be back in the office now), my voice mail message was something like “I check voice mail, but if you want a faster answer, please send me an email at [email protected]” And it’s amazing how much more to the point emails are than voice mails! Much less “Well, this is unusual (it’s not) and needs the whole backstory (it doesn’t)” and 15 minutes later getting to the actual question (“can I do this thing that a regulation clearly indicates I can’t do”)
The plan B is to send it again when they’re back though. I think there are a lot of situations where I emailed them and someone else from the start and someone else answered, or I found someone else in the 2 months span until they’re back, or did it myself, or it’s too late to help…. So it does help them avoid following up on things that don’t need following up on.
But what should you do to keep the message informative, engaged and maybe a little festive?
Need inspiration? Here are five out-of-office message examples from the career development site guaranteed to spread holiday cheer professionally:
Visuals always work whether used in messages or elsewhere. In fact, communications that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only messages.
If you’re out for several days, then sure, say when you’ll be back and leave info for who to contact in the meantime.
It is no secret that social media now plays a prominent role in helping a company remain competitive in an increasingly digital corporate environment. You ...
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, I am currently out of the office and will not return until 3rd November.
A relatively unprofessional one — like mine, for instance — does the opposite: It encourages prospects, recruiters, and potential connections to run in the other direction.