Once I got an auto reply from a stakeholder on a project that said something to the effect of “Thanks for contacting me. Due to the large volume of email I receive, I don’t read them all. If I haven’t responded within 3 business days, please try again.”
This is so timely for me as I begin a 2 week vacation in 15 days (no I’m not counting days or anything). I have been agonizing over how much detail to share in my Out of office message as I will be completely unreachable during this time.
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Hello, I’m away for the weekend. Back on Wednesday. I’m in [COUNTRY] drinking coffee. Eating lots of food. Should have internet on the evenings to answer the important emails. Please send photos of penguins to Twitter @[HANDLE] to alert me that you’ve sent an email. This is most important.
Including even a passing reference stating that your customer’s email is important to you shows your appreciation for the message that you are currently unable to respond to.
I appreciate your attempt to connect with me today, but unfortunately I am no longer available at this email, or organization.
My favorite thing is setting my OOO to only run for a specific amount of time. I will absolutely forget to turn it off if I have to do it manually, but we can just set a date/time range for it to start/stop. So I usually start it around 4 pm the day before and end it at 7 or 8pm the night before I return.
Here is a good example of setting a queue message when all your support agents are busy.
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I once had a coworker who attempted to put up an OOO for all of busy season that basically said “I’m busy with urgent deadlines, so please expect a delay in my response.” I think she was asked to take it down.
Please contact my colleague (YOUR COLLEAGUE’SNAME) for your urgent concerns. Otherwise, I´ll attend to your emails upon my return at 08.02.2021.
1. Out of Office and Limited Access to Email Example. [Greeting] Thank you for your email message. I am going to be out of the office and will be back at (Date of Your Return).
Amanda works at HubSpot, and she came with a unique auto respondent that asked her contacts to guess where she is. To give background, she flew down to Boston to attend a Red Sox training game in the spring with her father. She chose to ask her contacts whether where they think she might be, and also this played some wonderful use of litotes here:
I am out of the office on leave and will return on September 25. Please contact Jean Awad at [email protected] in my absence.
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Editor's Note: This was originally posted in July 2018 and updated and republished on the date posted in the article. Enjoy!
In your case it’s actually related to your work! WHOMST would not like a cute pet picture, what a bonus?!
The above automated messages do not sound assuring as the time is not specified in terms of hours, days, or week. Here is a good example that businesses can follow to deliver effective customer service communication.