Q. As an employee or faculty member, will I be able to use our on-campus recreation facilities during winter break?
Maybe you’re still available on email, but your location means there might be a little bit of an issue with time differences. This response is clever and a little bit geeky!
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I am on emergency leave for today with no access to emails and phone calls. Hence, kindly expect a delayed response. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
A good voicemail greeting is short and professional, lets people know that you’ll get back to them, and invites callers to continue engaging with a call-to-action. You should also show your personality if you’re in an industry or role that allows that. If your industry is more conservative, however, you’ll want to keep humor and personal touches to a minimum. A greeting Your name Your company A simple explanation for missing the call (e.g. you’re away from the phone or are on holiday) A rough estimate of when you’ll get back to the person An alternative person to reach out to (if you’re out of office) An alternative mode of communication (if you prefer email or text) A call-to-action such as “Leave a message” or “Send me an email at [email protected]”
When you’re trying to contact someone on a matter of importance (or even urgency) on one side of the equation and you find out via an autoresponder that they are away for vacation, it can be incredibly frustrating unless they’ve done the front-end work beforehand. (I’m speaking from personal – and recent – experience here. And worse, there was no auto-responder set up. I had to use the – gasp! – telephone to find out what was going on.)
Please note that employees should not be on campus during the closure without the permission of the relevant vice president or dean to ensure we achieve the goal of decreasing the density of campus.
By which I mean to say: I’m on holiday, I’m definitely sunburnt, and I’m sorry I missed your email.
I have literally never seen an OOO that wasn’t “I will be out of the office until DATE/further notice. Please contact X or Y at EMAIL/PHONE if you need assistance.” This is fascinating stuff.
How to Set Your Out of Office in GmailOut-of-Office Message Best PracticesOut-of-Office Message Examples
My office has a shared vacation calendar, which I think is a more helpful way to handle this.
Hello, It’s that time of the year. The time where I save up all my vacation (4 weeks) and spend it on one epic adventure. Where am I? [COUNTRY], the land of magic realism. And I’ll be completely disconnected. In fact, I’ve asked [NAME] from IT to change my password so I can’t check my email at all. #vacationorbust. If you have any questions about [PROMOTION] or anything else, get in touch with [NAME] at [EMAIL] If you want to talk about the hottest job opening at [COMPANY], [POSITION/TITLE] get in contact with our People and Culture team at [EMAIL].
In the digital age, most of us follow brands on social media. When a client follows a company on social media, it keeps them fresh in their mind and makes them more likely to do business with them. You can set an out-of-office to make it easy for a customer to connect, stay current, and maintain the brand loyalty that social media provides.
*using a professional email marketing solution you can personalize your emails by using your customers’ first name as well as other personalized tokens containing info you have about your customers
Ryan Reynolds (of Deadpool fame) doesn't just act. But you probably knew that. Why? Because he has some wildly funny out of office replies that went viral after he and good ol' Jimmy Fallon invited viewers to send Ryan an email.
Note: Not all email clients show animated gifs. Some may show only the first slide.
Thank you for your email. I’m away from my desk until [return date] trying to corral my kids between family visits and holiday sugar highs.
You can configure automated reply messages to encourage customers to submit their queries.