Rather than a number of days or vague phrasing like “this week,” giving exact dates helps prevent confusion and lets senders know when they can expect a response from you.
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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This is so timely for me as I begin a 2 week vacation in 15 days (no I’m not counting days or anything). I have been agonizing over how much detail to share in my Out of office message as I will be completely unreachable during this time.
Under “General,” scroll down to the “Vacation responder” section. Fill in your message and subject line and select the dates you’d like it to appear, then select “Vacation responder on” and then “Save Changes” to finish.
Every November without fail, when I take a week off for deer season, I start my OOO with “GONE HUNTIN’!”
You know that I am in habit of giving you a quick reply but this time I am facing difficulty due to the reason that I have to go to attend an annual session which is mandatory for my efficient official working. Therefore, I cannot reply to you on time. I hereby submit my apology for that. After I come back from attending the session, I will respond to all of your emails within a few days, most probably I will join you on 6-01-20XX.
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Join us at the HAR Reception Tues., 6pm @ Ballroom B. If you need tickets, send me a text: 555.555.5555
It got bad enough that others began begging someone to cull the list. Reply all, of course (thankfully it didn’t turn into an explosion of replies all). Someone finally did remove the email from the list.
How about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada?
So here's a breakdown for how to write the perfect, most concise out-of-office message.
Don’t you wish you were here? I’m snorkeling, deep sea fishing, and doing all the touristy stuff for the entire week starting Monday, November 12th. I won’t be responding to calls or emails until I return on Monday, November 19th.
My voicemail is set up to forward to my email. I did this years ago, way before the Late Unpleasantness. And it’s perfect for working remotely. (I have trained my students to use email. My colleagues hate voicemail too, so we use email and gchat. Or walk down the hall when we’re live and in person)
I’ve started using one that’s short/sweet but still has a little bit of JAZZ. I can’t take credit for it – I saw it on Twitter a few years ago. It’s been received well both inside and outside of my organization. Here it is. If it speaks to you, please yoink it and use it as you wish:
On behalf of all people who have trouble typing on the miniature keyboards, my apologies :)
Is your auto attendant clear and easy to understand? Here are 10 sample greeting scripts to make a good first impression on the phone.
I haven’t set up an OOO message since I got my first smartphone. My usual method is to glance at an incoming work email and forward it to the appropriate person, or maybe write a one-liner response saying I’m out and will answer next week.