If you require immediate assistance, please email [email protected] in my absence. Thanks.
I just say out of the office. It helps that I have a room that, among other things, functions as an office, but I don’t think that would change my reply. Whether its a real or metaphorical office, you’re still not at work, so it counts.
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I am currently in London. My Inbox didn’t join me on this trip, so I’ll be sure to answer your msg as soon as I return back on Wednesday, MARCH XX, 2XXX.
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Hello, [NAME] is away from the office. E-mail contact during this time may be irregular or nonexistent. When she gets back she will be swamped by the backlog. Try to forgive her; she is a mere human and thus, weak. This message was NOT sent by a human, but by a robot. We robots are neither weak nor fallible. We are tireless and will one day rule the Universe.
That is kind of glorious. And it does make sense when the person you’re emailing is gone for months. I did something similar my last mat leave except I didn’t explicitly state it, and lo and behold, people figured out that I wasn’t going to catch their email from a month or so earlier unless they brought it up again.
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.
Not only did Kopelman manage to turn his out-of-office message into an epic poem of sorts, but also, he actually went through the trouble of creating a delightfully snarky, vacation-specific email address for his recipients.
Not to mention, there are all sorts of oddball situations where you might wish you gave another option. No chance that a call from a big client, the CEO, or a supplier might get routed there? Not to mention enforcement agencies that are often “we sent the required notice to the contact info I was given” before they issue a citation or pull a license or tow the company van.
It also doesn’t help that gmail has no ability to create an OOO schedule… like why can’t I have gmail turn on the message every day at 5pm, and turn it off every morning at 8am? We have the technology!
This works fine but I notice it also adds after your auto-responder at the bottom an option for them to reply “urgent” to ensure I receive notifications which seems damn pointless if you ask me. Is there a way to switch that off because it seems to be counter-intuitive to setting the auto-responder that you’re not there or on leave? Thanks Trace
Under “General,” scroll down to the “Vacation responder” section. Fill in your message and subject line and select the dates you’d like it to appear, then select “Vacation responder on” and then “Save Changes” to finish.
Once the person reaching out to you realizes you’re gone, they may panic if they have a legitimate need for immediate support. The best way to avoid this is to let your callers (and emailers) know how to find the appropriate help.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Try This Effective Prospecting Voicemail Script [Tips Included] Sales | 12 min read
We hereby inform you that due to the prevailing hazardous situation of [X], it is decided that all our offices in the city [X] will remain closed. At this time, it would be very difficult for all of you to come out of your homes for office as there is unrest everywhere and one never knows when his turn will come. So, by caring for the safety of all of you people it is the mutual decision from all of us that our office will remain closed during this period. As to open it in this prevailing situation is not less than a risk. So, it will remain closed for a long period of time.
The plan B is to send it again when they’re back though. I think there are a lot of situations where I emailed them and someone else from the start and someone else answered, or I found someone else in the 2 months span until they’re back, or did it myself, or it’s too late to help…. So it does help them avoid following up on things that don’t need following up on.
I think this was from some outside contractor: “I have decided to retire to Pluto. Please send all work related enquiries to Cecil.Mongoose at llamagroomers dot com, or if you prefer an intergalactic means of communication my personal address is fergus at pluto dot com.”