Automated reply messages are a great way for businesses to fulfill customer support expectations of receiving a prompt response for their chat or email requests. Automated reply messages empower businesses to:
What’s the best way to spread the festive cheer? Getting your email senders excited about your favourite holiday of course! Here’s a great one: Season’s greetings! It’s my favorite time of the year, which means I’m currently out-of-office stuffing my face with cookies, sipping on cocktails, and watching [your favourite holiday movie] for the 67th time. I’ll be back at work on [date] and will respond to your email then. If you need immediate assistance, the other elves in the workshop are happy to help out! You can reach them at [email] or [phone]. Happy ho-ho-holidays,
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Peace and joy to you and your family this holiday season.I hope you have a nice and warm holiday season! I'm truly grateful to have a friend like you! Thinking of you with lots of love!I hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas!
I worked at an office where we used OOO messages on voicemail pretty regularly and if we forgot to change the message, our callers were quick to tell us the outgoing message was outdated. That end date feature would have been a big help for us! A local council in Wales needed to get a road sign translated into Welsh. (All official signs in Wales have to be in both English and Welsh.) They got an out of office message in Welsh from the translator they contacted, assumed that was the translation and printed the out of office message on the sign. They didn’t realise their mistake till a Welsh speaker pointed it out…
Apparently it’s a thing where people say in their out of office that they do not intend to read any emails that came in when they were out and your email will be deleted. If you still need assistance you need to resend your email after the person’s return date. While I get it, I’ve been in those positions where you get over 100 emails a day and if you are going to be out and unplugged for a week or more, trying to wade through all the junk and find the stuff that actually needs your attention, I do find this…rude? I don’t know the word I would use, but I have a negative reaction to it.
I would be SUPER annoyed to get this! I agree it seems condescending and it’s just too long.
There’s a department at my workplace where this is common practice too. My old department worked with clients in similar ways, and I was half expecting we’d also be required to do it, but luckily that never happened. Further proof that, at this (generally progressive, flexible-working) company, your actual work-life balance heavily depends who manages you.
I used to have this on my personal voice mail, back when voice mail was used often since internet was over phone lines. I stopped using it because it confused too many callers. Invariably the first message would be “Hello? Hello? Mark? Fu-” (click). Then there’d be another call with a proper message.
Workplace ExperienceBusiness EmailsCustomer Service EmailsWorkplace EmailsHR E-mailsPeople ExperienceOperationsBasic Guidelines & TipsProfessional E-mail Responses
After all, a professional voicemail recording boosts your credibility, makes you seem more competent, and encourages whoever's listening to it to continue the relationship.
Hello, I will be out of the office [DATE] through [DATE] returning [DATE]. If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact [CONTACT NAME] at [EMAIL]. Otherwise, I will respond to your emails as soon as possible upon my return.
I guess I generally dislike ones where the person is actually around but just might take longer than usual to answer emails (except in public-facing inboxes, etc.) I understand that if I’m using email, you might not respond right away.
One of your European connections here. When I know the person covering me will also be away for part of the time I’m gone, I get another colleague to cover for those dates and put that in my OOO. Saying “Your e-mail will not be read” or similar is really off-putting. The youth worker at my church does this and I find it infuriating. Of course it won’t. That’s the point of a holiday. When I get an answer from someone who reads his e-mails on vacation I’m pleasantly surprised.
I’ll reply to your message promptly, after I delete the dozen email newsletters about losing weight. If your question or request is not time sensitive, wonderful! If you require immediate assistance, please send contact to [insert name] at [contact email].
If you want to add a humorous spin to your vacation responder email, here’s a great idea:
البريد الالكتروني إلى [email protected]. شكرا جزيلا. نتمنى لكم يوما جميلا John - Doe AG الخاص بكم.
It’s my favorite time of year, which means I’m currently out of the office 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].