Visuals always work whether used in messages or elsewhere. In fact, communications that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only messages.
Josh Kopelman’s vacation email is a classic example of taking a blunt approach at OOO messages.
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If you want people to remember that you’re away, do something humorous or different, suggests Misner. “The normal out of office message that says you’re not available and you’re on vacation is fine, but not memorable,” he says.
I also think you should give this email tactic a try – especially when you return from an extended break or vacation.
There’s nothing worse than dreading a return from being away from the desk. After all, you’re likely to have an overflowing email inbox left untended while you were on vacation. Sending out this one email before you go anywhere for an extended period of time will help lessen that feeling.
You can show just how thrilled you are about your vacation while still providing an apology (of sorts... not really).
Yep. I work with people all over the US so I have no idea who is at home or actually in the office.
Using autoresponder emails when you are not available at the office is a part of the professional communication between business associates. That said, you should be careful about the information you are sharing in your OOO messages.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s had experiences in the past with people not getting an immediate answer then upping the urgency–we’ve had letters about such coworkers here. There’s an email, then a followup email, then a chat message, then a phone call, then they walk over, all within ten minutes of the initial email.
Top of the iceberg though. Oh, and she also works with external contacts, including prospective clients.
I found the video funny and would actually laugh at the sense of humor in that out of office message.
I ran a nonprofit organization staffed entirely be volunteers (I was one). After one too many people incensed that we did not follow up to their emails within two hours, we had to include an OOO message that said we were a volunteer organization, and any request may take up to two weeks to process. Please email again if you have not heard from us by then.
1. Simple Autoreply Message #1. If you’re looking for a simple autoreply message sample for your business, you can use this template. Keep in mind that you’ll have to change the field id and the date before you save it.
Thanks for the email!. I’m currently out of my office and will be back at 11th of May. I will have very limited or no access to my email.
Set your automatic out of office reply under the Outside My Organization tab. This is for people outside your company such as clients and suppliers. You can copy what you typed in for Inside My Organization or you can put something else for people outside your organization. You can even untick the “Auto-reply…” box if you don’t want to send them an automatic reply while you’re away.
Please contact my colleague (YOUR COLLEAGUE’SNAME) for your urgent concerns. Otherwise, I´ll attend to your emails upon my return at 08.02.2021.
I’ll be back in front of my computer on [date] and will respond to your message at that time. If you need immediate assistance, please send an email to [contact name] at [contact email] so that the other elves in this workshop can help you out.