There are multiple ways to craft your out-of-office message, but there are a couple of standard best practices to follow that will ensure you don’t come back to angry or confused customers, coworkers, or vendors.
Think about whether you want to leave a forwarding email, which is helpful for dealing with any loose ends you forgot about, in the excitement of leaving.
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“Hi, I’m Troy McClure!” We’re not sure who wrote the original Troy McClure out of office message, but this version by Paul Sokol of Infusionsoft is a real gem.
There's no shame in using Christmas to indulge in your childhood movie tastes, but there is shame in not sharing that adorable side of yourself when people are trying to reach you during the holidays.
Yes! I would roll my eyes *a*lot* at that message – it comes across as someone taking themselves way too seriously.
My immediate team does this with calendar invites for our scheduled PTO (set to “Show As Free”), and I actually find it really helpful. I certainly wouldn’t want to get an email from dozens of people that I may or may not need to get in touch with, but if I am quickly looking at my calendar to set up time with my team, it’s helpful to have a reminder of who is out and who is not. I definitely wouldn’t remember if my teammates sent an email or a chat. I’ll invite relevant coworkers to an event called “Applesauced on PTO” that shows up as free on their calendar, and make a separate event for myself to be marked out of office in the system
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As long as you’ve covered the basics—dates of your absence and who to contact in your absence—you should be good to go.
You don’t have to stop using OOO messages. Instead, they need to be used wisely. It’s okay to suggest an alternate contact while you are unavailable or add a date when you will be back in action. Just skip the details about why you set up the out of office message. No one needs to know that your son is getting married in Paris. Remove any personal details in that message, including personal cell phone numbers or an alternate email where you can temporarily be reached.
So you've said your farewells and it's time to pack up your desk before getting escorted out. While you're there, you might as well create an out of office message to any hapless person that missed out on the news of your leaving.
If you require immediate assistance, please email [email protected] in my absence. Thanks.
Naturally, she had to take the day off — and couldn’t let folks know with any old generic auto-response. Instead, she made a guessing game of it in her out-of-office email, which you can use for yourself, below.
In the meantime, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as nothing can stop me from sharing some good marketing tips and advice – not even a holiday.
I am currently out of the office and will not have access to email. Please contact Elena Prince at [email protected] in my absence.
If you set up a vacation reply but people say they are not getting the reply, it could be one of the following:
Out of office (OOO), messages can be an incredible tool to fuel your success. A good away message allows you to tell your customers that you’re away and encourages them to move within the sales funnel with more ease. Using automated messages during holidays or conferences can create social connections with recipients.
I might sound nitpicky but the language is important. “Might” or “may be” or “slower than usual” are vague and don’t offer the sender all that much information about when you’re really going to respond to them. Worse, they do a horrible job of protecting the time of the email receiver who, as the responder notes, is not in the office! Such a responder implies that, not only will the vacationer reply to the email, but they may not even miss a beat. They may be slow to respond, but they also might not.