Out-of-Office Protocols For Quality Customer Service

It is important to have correct referral information available to internal and external customers who may call or e-mail staff members during absences. Considering our upcoming Winter Break, this is a good time to review the steps we all need to take prior to being out of the office. 

Change Gmail Vacation Responder (Out-of-Office message) (sample below)
Thank you for contacting Heartland AEA. I will be out of the office until Jan. 5, 2015, as our Heartland AEA offices are closed for Winter Break. I will return your message as soon as I can. Thank you. 

To turn on a vacation responder message, go to the gear-shaped icon in the top right corner of Gmail. Scroll down to and then click on “Settings.” Click on the first link that says “General” and scroll down until you see the information for “Vacation responder.” Click the button next to Vacation responder “on” and then enter your message in the space provided. You have the option to set the time when your message will begin and end. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page when you are finished. 

Tips: If you use your out-of-office email reply for every little thing, people might just stop reading it. Use your out-of-office email response only in the instances you’ll truly be unresponsive for an extended period of time—like vacation. The customer will actually read it because they haven’t gotten multiple iterations of your bounce-back email on a continuous basis. Be clear and concise about when you’ll be responding, and leave out the personal information about where you are going and why. 

Change Voicemail Greeting to Unavailable (samples below) 
Thank you for calling Heartland AEA. You have reached Sally Smith. I am currently out of the office until Jan. 5, 2015, as Heartland AEA is currently on Winter Break. Please leave a message, and I will return your call when I am back in the office. Thank you. 

Tip: If you want to change your voicemail greeting from your home phone or cell phone, you may do so by calling either (515) 270-0405 or (515) 473-7450 and pressing # when you begin to hear the greeting. This gets you into your voicemail, and you can then follow the prompts to access your messages, change your voicemail greeting or set it to out of office if you are ill and want callers to get immediate help. Please be mindful not to refer a customer to another staff member who is also scheduled to be out of the office. Check with that person to make sure he or she will be available and aware that you are forwarding customers and/or staff members to them during your absence.