What Should Your ‘Out of Office’ Say?

Christmas is just around the corner, which for most of us means a mass exodus from the office. Opening hours at this time of year vary from business to business, so ensuring your employees or colleagues have their ‘out of office’ response set on their emails is an important part of your communications with your customers.

Create a template for your employees or colleagues, which they can personalise if they wish, with some of the vital information should customers get in touch whilst your offices are closed.

This should:
• Inform recipients that you are unable to respond and when you expect to return to the office
• Include emergency contact details
• Send a copy of each automatic reply to any other employees who need to be contacted or need to view your email updates by using Cc: and Bcc:

Your ‘out of office’ reply can be tailored to send to only a select few contacts as there may be some clients that you still need to contact over the holiday.

Additionally, if you are using versions of Outlook after 2010 you are able to display the automatic reply alert above the sender’s message, so you can inform them you are away before the email is sent out. This allows the sender to cancel the message or send it to another person, reducing the number of emails you have to deal with when you return to the office.

Whether you are on holiday for a few hours, days or weeks, it is important to arrange your ‘out of office’ settings not just for your clients’ benefit but also your own. Clients and other colleagues will be informed you are away and not to expect a response, so they can stay productive themselves, while you stay free from emails and able to enjoy the festivities undisturbed.

Find out how to set your Outlook to ‘out of office’ with Microsoft.