Who says an autoresponder needs to be impersonal? You can use your OOO message to continue building a relationship with present and potential customers by showing off the knowledge and products you have to offer. You can include a case study, a downloadable to your latest report, or a link to an excellent blog post you published. Not only does this further your credibility, but it also allays the feelings of frustration customers might feel while not being able to reach you.
So, not the literal first second I’m back at my desk. But as soon as I can, depending on where you land once I’ve taken a look at everything and set some priorities.
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I’ve run into the “no voicemail” thing at a few businesses where phone was the main mode of contact too, and it was hugely frustrating. You call your doctor to ask about, say, a billing issue, and it turns out they’re closed, but then it just says the office hours and “goodbye *click*”. Seriously? Sorry, /end rant.
3. Out of Office Template #3 For the Person Who Keeps Things Festive. Season’s greetings! It’s my favorite time of year, which means I’m currently away from my inbox chugging mugs of cocoa, stuffing my face with cookies, and attempting to fulfill my life-long goal of memorizing every single line of [your favorite holiday movie].
What would be annoying would be receiving multiple emails from me to see if the pet changes each time the OoO is triggered, along with follow-up emails from me inquiring about Fluffiekins’s adoption status. :-) Otherwise, this is BRILLIANT. And on brand.
1.) Welcome to John Doe. Our telephone hotline is not occupied over the holidays. Our office hours can be found on our website at www.joendoe.de - Thank you for your confidence. We wish you and your loved ones happy holidays and a happy new year.
Hi, I am out of the office for my annual year-end vacation and will not be able to check my mail until after the New Year. Have a Happy New Year!
There was a lot of pushback on this, discussion about how big a risk was that really anyway, people saying that John could word his out of office in such a way that people didn’t have to know he was actually away, and if something really was an emergency people would like to know that they have the opportunity to “direct queries to Sam or Dean” so they could be actioned, or make the judgement call that something could wait for John to return.
Whatever style you may ultimately decide to adopt, each of these emails should feature these essential elements: Precise reference to the period in which you will be away, as the receiver will want to know when they can reach you again. Inform your correspondent about the date by which they can expect to receive a response to the email they send you during the holiday season. Indication that your will reply to the email when they return. Check Out these examples:
The head of llama engagement called my boss and reamed her out for my “poor behaviour” and then called me and reamed me out, too. She said it didn’t matter if project X was the biggest thing our company did all year – her requests took precedence.
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I’m guessing that this comment was gratuitously cruel on purpose just for the lulz, but I’ll give it a serious response anyway:
20. "Hey there, this is [your name] from [your company]. I'm out of the office until [date]. In the meantime, please direct your inquiries to [coworker's name] at [email address]. They can also be reached at [phone number]. Thank you."
You don’t have to inform people why you are out of the office, adds Gugino Panté. “Because of privacy or safety issues, you may not want to state that you are on vacation or at a conference,” she says. “Simply stating that you are out of the office should be sufficient enough.”
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. !
This person decided that setting their out-of-office message was a prime time to settle an ongoing office argument about which Die Hard film is the best, complete with an integrated poll to add a little festive cheer to the auto-reply.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Recent Posts 38 Account-Based Marketing Stats to Know in 2021 The Top Business Podcasts You Need to Be Listening To How Advertisers are Navigating iOS 14’s Mobile Tracking Changes How Google’s Head of Startups LATAM Helps Brands Globalize Their Business [+Tips for Marketers] 278 Social Media Holidays for Your 2021 Content Calendar [+Template]