Your Vacation Message: Make It Work for You
Going on vacation this month? Your out-of-office message will probably be the only point of contact between you and your colleagues and clients.
Going on vacation this month? Your out-of-office message will probably be the only point of contact between you and your colleagues and clients.
Going away on vacation this month? Your out-of-office message will probably be the only point of contact between you and your colleagues and clients during that time.
Yet most people dash off their vacation messages at the last minute, with only the briefest need-to-know information. With a little extra detail, your out-of-office messages can serve as promotional vehicles to boost your credentials and forge better personal relationships.
I don’t have any actual statistics on open rates for vacation messages, but my sense is they’re probably clicked on more than most. After all, if you’re working with a colleague or vendor on a project, you need to know when she’ll return and you probably have some interest in her business and personal lives.
To write your next vacation message, start with the basics:
Now, take a look at your message and see what’s missing.
If your auto-responder is like mine, it doesn’t automatically include your signature line. You’ll need to recreate it, including your Web site address and other contact information.
Then, consider some extra details you can add to your message to provide more impact. If you are:
Of course, you should use discretion and judgment in what you include in an out-of-office message. You obviously won’t include information about a confidential project. It may not be especially wise to broadcast that you’re taking a few days off to finalize your messy divorce or bail your teenager out of jail. And if you’ve been taking a lot of days off recently, you may want to stay under the corporate radar and not broadcast it.
Finally, don’t forget to send a “before the vacation” message a few weeks ahead to notify your colleagues and business partners of your upcoming absence so everyone can plan accordingly.
Have you read any really fun or innovative out-of-office messages lately? Send them to me. If I get enough, I’ll run a column devoted to the best.
Karen is off this week. Today’s column ran earlier on ClickZ.
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