It is important that Sales and others in customer facing roles consider their use of an out of office reply as a sales or communication tool.
We covered in another post the common mistakes and how to avoid them by writing a good out of office email reply (originally written in 2008 and updated in 2017).
In case you do not want to read the post, they include:
- Date Confusion – I will be out of the office starting 09/08/2017 and will not return until 23/08/2017 – ask yourself about the date and are you an American or not?
- Mixing Language – Thank you for your message. Sorry I’m not in the Office until 20th of Mai and I have no access to my Emails.
Usually we suggest a simple and correct form:
Acceptable out of office email example
Thank you for your e-mail.
I am out of the office till Thursday, 27th of April 2017 and your email will not be forwarded.
Should the matter be important, please contact XXXX XXX ( email address) in my absence.
Best regards
Your Name
So how can sales use this simple email reply to their best advantage?
In another example we could use the following:
Dear Mail Sender,
Thank you for your mail. I will be out of office from today and will be back on Thursday, May 27th. I will have limited access to my e-mail during this period.
In my absence, please feel free to contact XX XX on +41 44 319 3338 or e-mail XXX@thebostonschool.com.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,
Your Name
PS In my absence I thought you may be interested in learning about our new product x / company video on xxx . I would be keen to know your thoughts after I get back
Signature block with links to Linkedin or Xing Company Page, other Social media
Do you see what you have just done?
As an English School not all our learning is from books and for someone in sales, the door is now open to speak to someone specifically about a product or service.
All whilst they were on holiday
For more insight and clever use of English, please do not hesitate to follow The Boston School on Facebook or Linkedin or contact us to discuss your training needs in English.
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