Naturally, you want to help your clients and other business associates to contact you in the best and easiest way possible. For that to happen, you should provide out of office messages when you are not available.
I took two weeks off recently and put together a google doc of anticipated things someone might need to know. I slacked it to our whole team with instructions not to call me unless we’re about to lose $1 million or more (we’re a small office and I wear a lot of hats so lots of small things could have been a problem). IDK if anyone actually read it, but it set a tone of “don’t think you can reach me for the next 2 weeks” and let me keep a short OOO response.
.
Businesses that send autoresponder messages need to ensure that they provide alternative contact options. The automated email responses or text messages should clearly mention what way customers can reach out to the business.
In the early 2000s I received an OOO which said “[very senior person] never reads his email, please resend your message to [his PA]”. Post navigation ← coworker loves to abuse robocallers, boss uses Facebook photos without permission, and more Ask a Manager in the media →
The more information you include in your outgoing message about the colleagues who can assist in your absence, the less likely you are to interfere with ongoing projects. This will help ensure you enjoy that well-earned vacation.
An easy win here is to be specific about your out-of-office dates, or to be upbeat about why you are out of office.
Provide customers with some quick information to help them get started with your brand or business. Howdy! Thanks for requesting more info on Hank’s Ranch Membership. Here are some articles that should help get you started! https://txt.st/PQB
Education Details: See some of our business trip out of office messages below. Out of Office on a Business Trip. If you are out of the office on a business trip, you can state so in your auto reply message. If you are traveling for a client, you do not want to get too specific on the location. Instead, leave your email vague. Put your location on your corporate
In this post, I’ll share what makes a good voicemail greeting — and the best voicemail greeting scripts you can use.
Anything worded like Option 1 would never fly at my workplace, exactly because of this. I have colleagues who complain to upper management if their non-urgent tech support questions (that a whole troubleshooting website already answers) don’t get an answer from me or my boss within half a day. And oh, did I mention our job is not actually tech support?
There are some places where the culture absolutely embraces this type of…expression so it may be that it works just fine.
I’ll be enjoying this year’s holiday season from [DATE] until [DATE]. For general inquiries about [DEPARTMENT/ROLE], please email [CONTACT NAME]. If this isn’t time sensitive, feel free to resend this email in [MONTH] once I’m regularly checking emails again. All the best.
Another (also memorialized via a TikTok) is not exactly an OOO responder but it’s a great example of unapologetic bluntness. “Baby, I’m not even here,” the woman in the says while preparing a margarita and talking about not responding to calls or emails during approved time off. “PTO? Prepare The Others. I’m a ghost.”
Hi and thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office on [DATE]. Please contact my manager, [EMAIL] for assistance.
Website: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/temporary-voicemail-greeting-examples-2533547
There was a lot of pushback on this, discussion about how big a risk was that really anyway, people saying that John could word his out of office in such a way that people didn’t have to know he was actually away, and if something really was an emergency people would like to know that they have the opportunity to “direct queries to Sam or Dean” so they could be actioned, or make the judgement call that something could wait for John to return.
When people leave first name contact only as if we’re supposed to know who Susan or Frank are..