As promised, we’re back with more information about Vtiger Social! Previously, we introduced[1] you to the Social module and discussed its Facebook aspect[2]. In this post, ...
One thing that really bothers me in out of office messages is “contact my supervisor” without listing the supervisor’s name. I work in a company with 4 large service departments, and each department is broken into multiple smaller teams. I don’t have a great grasp on who is on or who leads which smaller team, and we don’t have an org chart with that much detail readily available. If you’re saying to contact someone, I think you should always include the person’s name and contact information, not just “my supervisor”, “one of my team members”, etc. !
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I get why that would bug the hell out of you. But on the flip side, having worked with a lot of European colleagues who do this, it’s not that they’ll have to 8 hours of work on vacation, it’s that they won’t be working at all. So if your bit isn’t done by X date, then their bit won’t get done until they return. That’s just the culture there.
One aspect of preparing to take off work for a holiday involves setting up your out of office email reply. By reviewing some key examples of out of office messages, you can craft your own before your holiday time off. In this article, we define holiday …
For non-urgent inquiries during my absence, you can contact [Name] at [email] or [phone number], and they will be happy to assist.
"I'll be out of the office from Monday, 12/14, and will be back on Monday, 12/21."
Agreed, the whole quirky-cute thibg annoys me, but human drives me up the wall. I cant articulate what about it grates me.
While not QUITE as annoying as “Have a great day!” there are several people/departments who use an auto reply for the most frequently asked questions or information for their department…something along the line of an IT auto response that says: “To submit an IT request or check for an updated status on a request, please visit request.business.com”
I would like to think that a professional translator would think to provide their out-of-office message in all languages that they translate. If anybody here is one, is that standard operating procedure?
Literally just “Please note that (date) is a public holiday in (country). I will not be checking my inbox until (next working day).”
Yeah. The overly cute OOO message reminds me of the overly cute messages people used to leave on their answering machines back in the day. “Hi, this is Jim. Hello? *pause* Hello? Is anyone there? *pause* Just kidding, I’m the one who’s not here! Please leave a message after the beep.” or whatever. Like, it’s funny the first time, then it’s just annoying. Just let people know what they need to know.
Depending on the type of holiday, you can create specific templates for various holidays such as Christmas Thanksgiving, New Year etc.:
Best Out of Office MessageBusiness tipsChristmasDigital DetoxEmailHappy New YearHolidaysMarketingMarketing StrategyMerry ChristmasOut of the OfficeOut of the Office MessagesSmall BusinessWashington Post Tweet Share Plus one Pin It
Yes. We do it that way in part because someone might be at a satellite office but out of OUR office and still be able to access emails, OR they might be completely offline at the beach. Saying you’re not answering emails can be helpful.
Plus, he incorporated a delightful technique to let people know that if they really wanted him to read their emails, they should probably send them again after his return. Not only does that keep the sender accountable by saying, "If this is really important, you know when to reach me," but it also helps him truly vacate his work while he's away. And that's hard to do.
It might feel strange to include happy client testimonials in your out-of-office responder, but doing so is easier than you think. A quick note that suggests they read the testimonials if they’re interested in a product or service you offer is an easy inclusion or postscript to your email. Just limit the amount you share to one or two.
Compelling visuals catch the eye, bring automatic messages to life, and they add a spark of creativity and imagination to your message.