During the holiday season, people are out of the office quite often, but unless this is properly conveyed to those reaching out to them, it could look like negligence on the employees’ part. To make sure you are as transparent as possible with your out-of-office time, be sure to set up a message. Here’s how you can do it in Microsoft Outlook.

Setting Up Your Out-of-Office Message

To set your autoresponder out-of-office message, open up Outlook and select the File option from the top menu.

You’ll see the Info section with the Home icon, so click on it and make sure you select your account. You should see an option for Automatic Replies here.

A box will appear that has the option for Send Automatic Replies. You can configure your auto replies to act during a specific timeframe using the designated drop-down boxes and date ranges. Once you have your dates set, you can use the text box underneath to write out your message. This message will be sent to anyone who contacts you during the autoreply period.

You have quite a lot of control over the text in the box, so we urge you to include links to resources, who the sender might contact while you are out of the office, when you plan to return, and so on. We’d like to see your business provide a bit of direction in its out-of-office messages. Doing so means that you are going the extra mile for anyone who might be trying to get in touch, and it can make a world of difference for your customers.

If you found this message helpful, we urge you to share it with your coworkers and colleagues, and be sure to subscribe to our blog for additional content.