The appropriate tone depends on the holiday. If you’re closing for Christmas or New Year’s, it’s safe to assume your customers expect you to be festive and maybe even humorous. Conversely, if you’re closed for Veterans’ day, your email should strike a more serious chord. Use our templates and double-check your tone before you hit send.
If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona ([email protected]) and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.
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An easy win here is to be specific about your out-of-office dates, or to be upbeat about why you are out of office.
A Christmas closure email is an email sent to the staff stating that the office, institution, etc. will be closed for the Christmas holidays. It can be one that a store will send to customers as well.
I wish I could block my voicemail. I would so get fired if I had a message like this and was caught, though.
Thanks for your email. I’m currently on holiday with my family for the first time in what seems like forever. For urgent matters, [NAME] will help you. She doesn’t have a cape, but she is basically Superwoman. See you real soon. (Source: Futureofworking.com)
Customize any phone experience. Easily manage your voicemail greetings, phone tree menus (press 1 to schedule an appointment) and hold music to create any phone experience. No more re-recording messages or running into the office last minute for a holiday office closure …
I worked somewhere that required we use them when we left for the day or if we were in meetings all day. It was rather annoying to do every single day. Now I am not at a place that requires it thankfully. I will often put one up if I leave early or if I am arriving late. Also if I am actually out of the office I will also put one up.
“I am out of the office until X date. Your email has been deleted unread. If it is still important, please resend it after my return.”
Oh man, I mostly loved my European colleagues, but the “we were gone for a month, why haven’t you done more?” made me so, so stabby. That or the whole “hey, you really need to work harder to get this done by June 25th because none of us are going to be around to take care of our part by July 1.” So, I’m working 65 hour weeks for a month so you don’t have to spend 8 hours of your vacation working? Sounds fair.
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I usually put my boss in my OOO, because if something is so urgent that it needs to be delegated RIGHT NOW then it’s urgent enough that my boss should know about it, and he’s also in the best position to know who on the team to delegate it to based on everyone’s workloads and what can be dropped. But the most likely result is that whoever is emailing me either waits for me to get back because it’s not that urgent or goes to the next/backup person based on our central documentation about who to contact for particular issues.
This would go over like a lead balloon at my company, and, were that person on my team, I’d tell them to change it. It does have a connotation of “when I feel like it” about it, and most of my team is not high enough up the food chain to take that sort of stance (and the ones who are high enough up are client-facing and have the good sense not to do so).
Mine tend towards the latter for both internal and external and only get a little more expository if it’s a closedown period and I’m adding leave to one end of it, but that’s a simple “The organisation is shut between X and Y. For emergencies during this time please contact Team. I am on leave between Z and B and will not be accessing my email during this time. Please contact Email Address if your enquiry is urgent otherwise I will attend to your email as soon as is practicable upon my return.”
I am out of the office from [date range]. If you need immediate assistance, please contact [name, title and contact information].
There is no one right day (or way!) to send a letter to a customer. However, holidays and special occasions can be a great opportunity for your business to reach out. Holiday letters are an excellent way to keep customers up-to-date, send out promotions, and show customers you care.
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