A good out-of-office reply says when you are back, names somebody who can help now, and gives no more detail than that. Send strangers less than colleagues, and keep shared inboxes covered by a person.

Away until the 22nd

Summer is when automatic replies go on. The owner leaves for two weeks, switches on the out-of-office message, and every email that arrives gets the same answer.

The usual wording is some version of: out of the office until July 22, limited access to email, will respond on my return.

It is polite, and it fails at the one thing the sender needed. It gives them nobody to contact and nothing to do except wait.

It also goes to everybody: a new customer asking for a quote, a supplier, a newsletter, and sometimes whoever sent the spam.

What goes wrong

The second is the one people underestimate. A detailed reply tells a stranger when whoever approves payments is away, which is when a fake invoice or an urgent request in your name is most likely to work.

Who actually receives it

An automatic reply goes back to whoever sent the message, and most systems make no distinction between a customer and anyone else.

Customers and suppliers are the people it is meant for. Spam that slips past the filter can get a reply too, which confirms the address is real and in use.

Some systems reply once to each sender. Others, including some older autoresponders set up in a hosting control panel, reply far more often unless somebody sets a limit.

Office 365 lets you write one reply for people inside the business and a different one, or none, for people outside it. G Suite can limit replies to your contacts or to your own colleagues.

What a good reply says

Three things, and very little else.

When you are back, as a weekday and a date. Who can help in the meantime, by name or role, with a phone number or address. And, if it applies, what to do in an emergency.

Leave out where you are going, why, and with whom. Leave out limited access to email, which tells the sender you might reply and leaves them waiting to find out.

Give the return date as the day after you are actually back. The first morning is for catching up, and a reply that promises answers from the first hour sets an expectation you cannot meet.

Inside and outside the business

Colleagues can have the detail: which jobs are waiting, who is covering what, where the file for the big order lives.

People outside the business need only the three things above. Where the system allows it, write the outside reply first, since it is the one strangers see.

A business that deals mostly with existing clients can limit replies to its contacts. One that wins new work by email should not, since the stranger asking for a quote is exactly who the reply is for.

A worked example

A kitchen cabinet maker with a small showroom and five staff ran on the owner's inbox. Quotes, measuring appointments and supplier orders all came to one address.

Last July the owner left for two weeks, with a reply saying they were out of the office and had no access to email.

The showroom stayed open the whole time, with a manager who could book appointments and answer most questions. The reply never mentioned it.

Customers who emailed reasonably concluded the whole business was closed. The owner only found out when one of them walked into the showroom in August and said so.

This year's reply is two sentences: the date the owner is back, and that the showroom is open as usual, with the manager's name and the showroom number.

The owner's address also forwards to the manager while they are away, so nothing urgent waits for a return date.

Shared inboxes

An address such as info or office usually has several people reading it, and that changes the rules.

An out-of-office reply on a shared address, switched on because one person is away, tells every sender the business is unavailable while colleagues are reading the same messages.

Shared inboxes need cover rather than automatic replies: a named person reading them each day, agreed before anybody leaves.

A year-round acknowledgement is a different thing and can be useful, provided it states a reply time the business actually meets.

When the whole business closes

A week's closure in August is the one case where every address should carry a reply.

Use the same dates everywhere: every inbox, the voicemail greeting, the website and your Google My Business hours. A customer who sees three different reopening dates will believe the least convenient one.

Say what happens to messages sent during the closure, whether they are answered in order when you reopen or urgent ones should go elsewhere. Then switch every reply off on the morning you reopen.

The counter-case

A sole trader with nobody to name has a harder job, and an honest reply is still better than none.

Give the return date, a realistic reply time, and an emergency route if there genuinely is one. Nobody expects a one-person business to have cover; they expect to know when they will hear back.

And somebody who checks email every evening while away may not need an automatic reply at all. A promise of no access that is then broken confuses people more than silence.

For everyone else: a return date, a named alternative, and nothing a stranger could use.

Before you leave

  1. Write the outside reply first.
  2. Name somebody who can help now.
  3. Give a return date one day late.
  4. Leave out travel plans and personal details.
  5. Set an end date in the system.
  6. Arrange cover for shared inboxes.
  7. Test it from a personal address.

Step two is the one that does the work. A reply with a named alternative turns a dead end into a route to somebody who can help, which is what the sender needed in the first place.

Why the reply should come from an address on your own domain is covered in email from an address that matches your domain.

Frequently asked questions

What should an out-of-office reply say?

When you are back, as a weekday and a date, who can help in the meantime with a phone number or address, and, where relevant, what to do in an emergency.

What should it leave out?

Where you have gone, why, with whom, and phrases like limited access to email. Strangers do not need the detail, and some could use it.

Why is a detailed reply a security risk?

It tells a stranger when the person who approves payments is away, which is when a fake invoice or urgent request sent in your name is most likely to work.

Should the reply go to everyone who emails?

Only if you win new work by email. Office 365 can send outsiders a different reply, and G Suite can limit replies to your contacts or colleagues.

What about a shared info address?

Do not switch on an out-of-office reply because one person is away. Name somebody to read the shared inbox each day instead, agreed before anybody leaves.

When should the reply be switched off?

Set an end date in the system when you switch it on, and give the return date as the day after you are actually back.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Leaving for two weeks this summer?

Write the outside reply first. We will check it before you go, and set up forwarding so nothing urgent waits.

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