If you want to add a humorous spin to your vacation responder email, here’s a great idea:
If you need assistance before my return please contact (name of colleague covering for you, with contact details).
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I am celebrating the season. I'll respond to your email when I return to work on [date]. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you and your loved ones have a joyous holiday.
Here are some examples of effective text for out of office messages you can use to keep your clients notified of your absence and unavailability during a holiday.
The recipient may have filtering turned on that would reject the automatic reply;
If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact (Contact Person with email and phone). Upon my return, I will reply to your emails in a timely manner.
Hello! I’m going to be out of the office until [date]. If you need something before then, please contact [colleague] at [email] or [phone number] to receive assistance.Hello! Thank you for your email. I am out of the office right now but get back to you ASAP. You can expect a reply by [day] latest. For anything you need right away, you can contact [alternative contact option].
Therefore, if your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please forwarded it to my personal email [email] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly. If you think someone else at [company] might be able to help you, please contact [name] at [email] or [phone], and they’ll try to point you in the right direction. Otherwise, I’ll respond when I return.
My snarky colleague sure did in his out-of-office message below. We send thank-you letters in response to holiday gifts, so it's only natural to expect the same gesture in our work inboxes …
1. Out of Office Template #1 For the Person Who Works at a Traditional Company. Hello, Thank you for your email, I’m currently offline until [date]. I’ll reply to your message promptly when I return.
This seems like information that would be better in an email signature than an OOO, really. That’s how my organisation does it.
I am currently out of office on annual leave. I’ll get back to you straight away when I return on [end date]. If it’s urgent you can contact [contact’s name] on (contact’s email).
3) I am out of the office from mm/dd to mm/dd and will not be checking email. It’s likely your note will be swallowed in a sea of inbox banality, never to be seen again. If you require a response, please re-send your email after mm/dd.
Of course, every message sends a message, even a barebones OOO that seems to say nothing more than that you’re away until next week, so why not try to inject a little personality? You could get quirky by giving your auto-responder robot a personality. You could dispense with words altogether and substitute a gif or emojis. Or how about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada? It might be worth noting here that the amount of personality you inject depends on your trade. What earns you cachet in the creative industries might backfire in the financial sector, for instance.
8. "Hi, you've reached [your name]. I'm unable to come to the phone right now. But if you leave your name, number, and a short message, I'll be sure to call back."
After one negative service experience, 51% of customers will never do business with that company again. Hence, delivering excellent service is the most important part of customer retention strategies. Auto reply messages are the best ways to maintain a transparent connection with your clientele.
But you can do better than that. Surprisingly, you can get so much more out of such a simple letter. A good out-of-office can serve as a tool to generate leads, promote content, and help you stand out by showing off some creativity.