Note: For Outlook 2007, to turn off out-of-office replies, select Tools > Out of Office Assistant and uncheck the Send Out of Office auto-replies checkbox. Find more information on automatic replies at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/send-automatic-out-of-office-replies-from-outlook-9742f476-5348-4f9f-997f-5e208513bd67. Was this answer helpful? Yes No How to fix a compromised (hacked) Microsoft Office 365 account One of the most common security support requests we receive from our Office 365 customers is... Office 365 Pop/IMAP Settings
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.
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Between now and then, I recommend escaping the summer heat with a delicious Aviation & Tonic. Here’s my recipe:
Yup. Well, I do specify I will have “sporadic/intermittent” access to email or “no” access to email, because there is a difference. But short and sweet is the way to go.
An old boss had a pet peeve about this so I became very conscious of making sure that I listed out who to contact on what day… before the group email. So it looked something like this:
I still will get urgent messages from coworkers with multiple follow-ups during my OOO period. Then an angry call or email when I return that the response time was too long. When I check with Jane about the status she says she was never contacted about the issue. I always push back “Why didn’t you contact Jane?” but I think a lot of people in my organization like to shift blame when they are behind on their deadlines. If it was really so urgent, why did you wait a week just to get an answer from me?
If you’re off to have fun on your vacation, you might as well have some fun in your OOO message! And hey, you might inspire someone else to start planning their next holiday.
If I got an OoO just to tell me to have a good day, I would find that person and throw water on their computer. They’re obviously not qualified to operate one.
My trick though is to leave the out of office on for the first day after I return so folks know to expect delays while I get caught up/triage my inbox. Works for my company.
Thank you for your message! I'm out of the office from X DATE to Y DATE and will not be checking email. I'll follow up with you as soon as possible upon my return. If you have an urgent request, please contact XX person at YY email address.
While you shouldn’t use a vacation message like the first example in this article, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little bit of fun with your emails.
First things first: let’s go over the basics of an OOO email. In your away message, you typically include the following: A quick “I’m out of the office” phrase. The date or time range you’ll be out. Who to reach out to in case the sender needs immediate attention. A sign-off.
My employer uses Outlook and it has an option to display all OOO messages when you add the person into the To/CC/BCC fields of an email, prior to sending it. It’s pretty great and actually saves an email sometimes because I can see who I should contact and just go to them.
We are closed on [your business' closed days]. Please leave us a message with your name, number, and any other necessary information, and we will return your call when the office reopens. Thank you for calling." As you can see, this professional voicemail greeting is similar to the absent receptionist greeting but more inclusive.
I had a peer whose auto-reply included “I will respond at my earliest convenience.” Along with other personality traits, this grated on me like nothing else. It was oddly formal for our organization and always came across as “I’ll get back to you when I feel like it.” My advising team, especially during peak times, has auto replies that sets reply expectations. With each person doing about 300 students, it makes sense even though I don’t love it.
Seriously, literally, anything but a voicemail. I’d take “sharpie on a dirty napkin delivered by carrier pigeon to my island vacation” over voicemails. I can’t flag voicemails for later. And also, we have this cool new feature where you can see missed calls. I do not need a voicemail just saying “Hey its Bob, call me back.”
In 2013, researcher danah boyd wrote a LinkedIn blog post advocating for the nuclear option which was framed in the piece as an “email sabbatical.” Coming back to an empty inbox after a vacation is should be a break from the insanity, not a procrastination of it,” boyd wrote of the decision to send everything to the trash.