Imagine if you contacted a business for support and have not heard back from them for a few days. Isn’t it a frustrating situation? This is one of the common scenarios many customers face as businesses fail to understand problems by putting themselves in clients’ shoes.
Those of us who are back in the office haven’t bothered plugging most of the phones back in. We aren’t in roles where we get phone calls, those people are still mostly WFH. There is one persistant caller who does not seem to comprehend ‘X is working from home – please email them’, but that’s the only call we ever get.
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If you’ve written an out-of-office message before, you’ll surely know some of the basics. For the most part, they still apply during the pandemic, with a few additional considerations. Here’s a quick overview of what you should keep in mind as you compose your autoreply these days:
What Should Your Vacation Message Include?A subject, with the dates you leave and returnWho to contact in an emergency (name, email, and phone number)Point of contact for non-urgent inquiries (name, email, and phone number)Keep Your Message Professional
Voicemail Greeting: Select a current greeting or click Customize to record or upload a custom greeting. Leave Voicemail to : Select Current Extension . If you have an IVR: In the Business Hours or Closed Hours sections, click Edit next to Route to Interactive Voice Response (IVR) .
While you’re writing and activating your out of office message, avoid including the following:
Hey, I was looking for useful information on iPads and just came across your blog and found it quite interesting, can’t wait to see your new post. You’ve been sharing really insightful posts and I’m an avid reader of your posts. Keep sharing the knowledge and adding value to our lives.
This is a notice to all tenants that leasing office will be closed on [date] in observance of [holiday]. Please contact [name] and [company] for any immediate concerns or questions. Thank you and may everyone have a safe and happy [holiday Name]
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I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m really tired of the ones that are basically “I’m in a meeting for an hour and I’ll check my messages when I return.”
“No! I'm adamant that when you're out of the office and away from work, you should be out of the office,” Sullivan says. “We all need time to rest and recover, and to be human beings instead of workers. Anything that needs to be handled at work can be done by someone else, or can wait until your return.”
If you receive a high volume of customer service texts, you may want an auto-response in place that acknowledges a customer query has been received. This can help buy you some time while attempting to reach as many people as you can. Hello! We received your inquiry and our support team is on it. We’ll get back to you in 20-30 minutes. Thank you for your patience!
Our office will remain closed until the end of this week for Thanksgiving Holidays. We assure you that all your emails will be answered as soon as we return to the office. Happy Thanksgiving!
An out-of-office message is an automatic response to emails you receive that lets the sender know you’re not currently working.
I once worked with a guy whose out of office reply stated that he was out at an interview, and whether or not he returned depended on how the interview went. He returned, so I guess it didn’t go THAT well.
Hey, I am currently out of office. If something urgent comes up, you can email [name and email]. Kind regards.
I have a colleague who usually does different ones for internal and external: internal will be “I’m currently in the pouring rain in a tent in the Cotswolds. I get back (hopefully without trenchfoot!) on Monday Date. Whilst I’m getting soggy please contact Email Address.” and external is just “I’m on annual leave between X and Y and will not be accessing my email. Please contact Email Address if you need assistance during this time.” We all really like their internal ones.