I’ve had several co-workers over the years use “at my earliest convenience” and it’s always rubbed me the wrong way. It just sounds kind of dismissive like, “I don’t care when you need it, I’ll get to it when I get to it.”
I suppose it’s better than a colleague of mine who’s out of office is always: “I am out of the office until XXX. Please email me if you need assistance.”
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I say I am “away from my desk”, or “unavailable”. To indicate I am working, “I will be at my desk from xhour to yhour on xday”.
Just say you’re away from your desk! Or if you’re out for more than a day, just say you’re “away” until XYZ date.
The subject line. This is the very first thing your customer will see, before they even open your email. The opener. The first line is what greets the customer as soon as they open your email. The “thank you” The body. The email signature.
There is any number of valid reasons why you might skip on your email inbox for a while. You can be on vacation, feel sick or take a few days off to recharge.
Please note on [date], is [holiday name]. Our stores will be closed all day and will open at [time] on [date]. Have a wonderful holiday!
The hours in your signature is a great idea! I’m about to have a non-standard work schedule to accommodate medical appointments. Totally stealing this idea!
Top 7 business voicemail greetings. 1. Hi, you’ve reached [ you name] of [ your business ]. I’m sorry that I’m not available to answer your call at the present time. Please leave your name, number and a quick message at the tone and I’ll forward your message to the appropriate person. 2.
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I do think mine sometimes gets a little wordy because I generally have 2 to 3 people that I direct people to depending on need. But, I figure it’s less hassle than only going through one person and getting shuffled around.
As an employer one of our policies is to Call in absent days not text them in. This hasn’t worked well as employees ( especially young employees) will still text in those types of messages. It would be wonderful to have a feature in the iPhone that allows for instant text response that can be set up for certain contacts( employees). Something similar to an out of office message in email…” I am not receiving text, please call … … …. and speak to me directly”
For non-urgent inquiries, I will return your message as soon as I get back in the office.
To sweeten your wait, I am sending you this great article (hyperlink to your blog) that includes five books you should not miss this summer.
When we set an out-of-office, we don’t immediately think of lead generation. However, it is a good opportunity to this end. For instance, you could encourage attendance for a webinar or future event, suggest sign-ups for online courses, give links to book downloads, or point recipients in the direction of any other product or service you are pushing. As well as informing the recipient of your unavailability, you are encouraging them to act.
Of course, managing a minute and a half response time isn’t so easily accomplished when you’re out of office, receiving hundreds of texts each hour, or shifting your attention to a different project.
I will surely respond to your email when I’m back in the office. But, if this requires an immediate response, please resend any messages that require my immediate attention with a subject line of “URGENT: [Original Subject]”.