Same. I also have a version that is customer facing/external and one that is internal. My coworkers get a little more info.
I get really annoyed at people that don’t have put up OOO messages and I am left wondering if they are out or just ignoring me. I collaborated with a woman who was out frequently but never put an OOO. She also got very prickly if she felt you were going around her. So anytime we didn’t get a response from her, we had to go through this guessing game of “do we wait, do we talk to someone else, how important is our request.” I was glad when she moved on.
.
The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or endorsement of webcontactus.com.
We also had to reply to any emails we received within 4 hours. Even if we didn’t have an answer.
6.) Herzlich willkommen bei Mustermann. Unsere Telefon-Hotline ist über die Festtage nicht besetzt. Genaue Öffnungszeiten erfahren sie auf unser Website unter www.mustermann.de. Wir bedanken uns für Ihr Vertrauen und wünschen Ihnen und Ihren Lieben erholsame Feiertage und ein gutes neues Jahr.
Just imagine the ease your customers feel when they receive a warm and friendly automated message that sounds human. Hence when you craft autoresponders, keeping your brand’s voice and style is very important to give a human touch.
When was today? Did you leave the sign up or is it freshly posted? Etc. People, use dates!
We’ve certainly come a long way since the honeymoon days of You’ve Got Mail, the 1998 Meg Ryan romcom in which each new electronic missive set Tom Hanks’ heart fluttering (and vice versa). These days, in tech circles, you’ll hear tales of folk who’ve set their email servers up to automatically delete unread emails after a week – before going on holiday for a full fortnight. Others have reduced the OOO to a single word in the subject line: “Nope.”
I had a colleague that managed to set up a rule for an OOO that would only get sent if you cc’d or bcc’d him, which basically said that all those cc mails would get automatically put in a separate folder and he may or may not ever read them – may the odds be ever in your favor basically.
I do this too! Depending on how busy my inbox is that day, I’ll also set it to start around 4:30 pm my last day in the office before going on vacation. I have a lot of people that email me at 4:56 expecting to be #1 on my list the next morning so I try to catch them that way.
Smugness: it’s almost impossible to dodge in an OOO. London-based poet Rishi Dastidar, whose debut collection Ticker-Tape is billed as a “maximalist take on 21st Century living”, embraces this and lets his inner show-off have free rein by penning poems for his OOOs. “Yes, the tone of these poems is a little self-satisfied – but if you have to tell colleagues you are away, why not try and do it with a little style and pizzaz?” he points out, adding that it’s also one of the few mediums where you’re guaranteed an audience. Here’s how he explained he was away in France:
Ukraine's forgotten 'Holocaust by Bullets' VideoUkraine's forgotten 'Holocaust by Bullets'
Yes, qualifiers can be helpful. Limited vs no email access, out of the office versus working off site, regular out of the office versus extended leave, etc.
Before we leave you to your own devices, we have some sample messages featuring different ways you can automate text replies to serve your business.
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Follow Top Posts & Pages Perfect Email Templates for Communicating with Your Boss Perfect Email Templates for Writing to Your Clients [Urgent]: The Most Important Thing You’ll Learn About Email Subject Lines Today How to Email Your Senator and Make Your Voice Heard! Sending Passwords via Email — Why it’s a Bad Idea, and What to Do Instead SocialView SaneBox’s profile on FacebookView SaneBox’s profile on TwitterView teamsanebox’s profile on Instagram Categories Email Other Productivity SaneBox Security
Careful. Holiday revelry and debauchery ahead. Proceed with caution (if you dare).
Erin Ollila is a content strategist and writer who believes in the power of words and how a message can inform — and even transform — its intended audience. Reach out to her on Instagram at @ErinOllila, or visit her website erinollila.com.