Out of office reply: a loss of personality
In one of his books, John Simmons (writer, brand expert and much more) recounts a wonderful story. I’m going to paraphrase the story here (appologies, John, if I get anything wrong):
John had just finished his book Great Brand Stories: Innocent, and emailed one of the founders of Innocent Drinks to let him know everything was done. John received a reply that said something like: “well done, it’s a beautiful day, you should go to the park to celebrate”. So John sent back an email that looked something like this:
Subject: Out of office reply.
John Simmons is not in the office. He’s in the park enjoying the beautiful day.
This story made me think. Are we missing a trick on our out of office replies? Surely, this is a good place to build closer relationships with clients and suppliers. Explaining what you are doing could be the starting point of a friendly dialogue when you get back. It would certainly add a little more personality to your communications - and as we often only ever meet each other over email, extra depth is something we could often use in our work relationships.
Obviously, in some cases, details can be less than helpful. It may not be a good idea to write: “I’m not in the office today. I’m in court facing charges of shoplifting.”
But “I’m skiing in Norway for four days. Barring accidents, I’ll be back in the office on Friday and will get back to you then.” is a nice thing for people to read. We all take holidays, go to children’s birthday parties, travel on business. And it may be nice to share this information with clients.
So, I’m going to try it. I’m out of the office until next Tuesday. Send me an email - and you’ll find out what I’m up to. And of course, I’ll get back to you next week.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I think the whole “out of office” concept needs to change though. Isn’t it unprofessional these days to declare yourself uncontactable just because you’re out of the office. To me it translates to “I only have one static beige-box computer on my desk and have not embraced any other technology”.. something you’d expect from SKAT or the kommune
It really needs to be changed to something indicating a possible delayed response… “I’m skiing in Norway for four days and of course I can check my email, even from the chairlift, but it is my time off work so there may be a delay in replying.”
March 12th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
That’s true. I did see a nice out of office that said: “I’m on holiday, but send me a text and I will get back to as soon as I can.” It’s not as funky as checking emails out on the slopes, but it does offer to be contactable at anytime.
Perhaps we should have two levels:
Out of office = I am uncontactable
Out of office delay = I’m on the road but will get back to you soon
March 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Hello. Congratulations on your new site
March 29th, 2008 at 9:50 am
In the real world of business, of course, you shouldn’t be contactable all the time. It’s up to you whether you stay in touch on holiday, but it would pretty impolite to sit through a workshop, briefing or other client meeting checking your emails and text messages on your mobile device. It’s one sure-fire way of the client cutting your meeting short! (I also think it’s bad practice to leave your phone on and screen calls during meetings, but that’s another topic altogether.) So these are times when an out-of-office message can be a nice gesture.
The other, more sinister side of the argument is that out-of-office messages are a great tool for spammers. It shows that your email address is active and it’s likely to mean you’ll get even more spam. Has anyone got any ideas for a good compromise?