Out of office messages provide an excellent chance for you to produce leads and enjoy your vacation in the best way.
I am not able to set OOO messages at all. Most of the people who are contacting me do so through custom aliases that then come to our team, who each handles specifics. Even if I’m out someone else is available, but I can’t know who is supposed to handle that specific email to be able to redirect without naming everyone, and then confusing things more when Client A gets the same reply as Client B but one needs to go to teammate C and the other to teammates D & E. Then to make just that bit more complicated, there are the clients who think that going around the system to email the teammates directly at our personal email addresses is better but pitch a hissy when we’re OOO but they didn’t get a notice? I just set rules to forward those.
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When Amy Spurling, cofounder of the company perks software company Compt, went on vacation, she ended her message with a clear direction about who to contact: “If you need immediate help, please contact [name and email address]. I will be responding to all emails on my return.”
With these tips, you’ll be able to write your next auto-reply message, for holidays or other reasons.
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.
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:
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We had someone at my old job whose auto-reply stated that they were at a “White Privilege Conference”. Granted, the conference was about dismantling White Privilege, but to someone outside our work who didn’t know that, I imagine that got quite the reaction!
We have an office with a phone number and 4 people that work in it to specifically answer these inquiries.
Chances are, you’re taking at least one day off in the coming week. Here’s how, and why, to produce an out-of-office reply that will delight the people emailing you. “Thanks for your message. I’m out of the office for the holidays from Dec. 24-Jan. 2. I’ll respond to your message as soon as I can upon my return. If your message is urgent, please contact (INSERT NAME HERE). It’s benign, and it’s safe. For many people, the example above adheres to “corporate guidelines.” In fact, some companies have templates for out-of-office replies. If you don’t have to adhere to corporate guidelines (strictly), please consider a little creativity with your message. Here’s why: To read the full story, log in. Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content. Sign up today Already a member? Log in here. Learn more about Ragan Insider. Terms of Use | Today's Headlines I accept Terms of Use Topics Social Media Media Relations Crisis Communications Marketing Writing & Editing Health Care What We Do Awards Consulting Custom Workshops Events Host an event Speak at an event Sponsorship White Papers Guidebooks Memberships Ragan Insider Ragan Training Communications Leadership Council Social Media Council Crisis Leadership Network Web Sites Ragan Communications Communications Week Ragan's Workplace Wellness Podcasts About Us About PR Daily Contact Us Receive our newsletter Crisis Comms Briefing FAQ Privacy Policy Site Map Store Follow Us Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Instagram RSS YouTube Forgot your password? Log In Submit Send recovery email Forgot to set up an account? Set it up now. Having trouble? Contact [email protected] or 1-800-878-5331 Trouble logging in? Contact [email protected] or 1-800-878-5331 Login × LOG IN Forgot to set up an account? Set it up now. Trouble logging in? Contact [email protected] or 1-800-878-5331 Create Account × Having trouble? Contact [email protected] or 1-800-878-5331 Setup Password × Having trouble? Contact [email protected] or 1-800-878-5331
It takes careful preparation to prepare your office before you close for the holidays. Proper messaging will ensure that you can plan around the shutdown for your customers, vendors, and employees, and that means you won’t have to deal with a lot of angry complaints before and after the break. That should make for a carefree holiday and well-deserved relaxation. Below are 65 of the best office closed for holiday messages for your customers & clients.
Thanks for writing! You can expect a response to your note in 1-2 business days. While you’re waiting—surprise! Here’s something I made for you: [Include a worksheet, tool, video, blog post, checklist, resource list, or whatever you’d like!] I hope [name of thing] makes your day a little brighter and easier. Thanks for your patience, and talk to you soon!
I do feel like the person who wrote it may have some issues in their organization with, oh let’s call it fire fighting. People who don’t necessarily think through the process of who would be most effective at dealing with the problem at hand. This reads like the message of someone who is used to getting everything dumped in their email and this OOO is an attempt to manage expectations and distribute issues to the people most able to quickly and effectively deal with a range of problems
Not every vacation you take is going to leave you completely unreachable. For those days when you’re out of the office but are still checking and responding to email or phone calls, make sure your message explicitly states that people will still be able to reach you, and how:
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I’ll be back at my desk on [date] and will respond to your message immediately. In case you need urgent assistance, please forward an email to [contact name] at [contact email] so that Santa’s little helpers at our shop may look into it.
With that in mind, we’ve put together five simple examples of what your out-of-office message could look like, from the wild and wacky to the simple and fact-y. And if you’re not sure about the logistics of actually setting your auto-responder, here’s a quick guide on how to do that.