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 upcoming holidays and leave/vacation schedules, this is a good time to review the steps we all need to take prior to being out of the office.

Change Voicemail Greeting to Unavailable (samples below)
• Thank you for calling Heartland AEA. You have reached Santa Claus. I am currently out of the office until (date you return). If you need immediate assistance, please contact Rudolph at extension 00000, otherwise leave your name and phone number and I will return your call when I am back in the office. Thank you.
• You have reached Santa Claus at Heartland AEA. I am out of the office until (date you return). Please leave your name and phone number, and I will return your call when I am back in the office, or if you need immediate assistance, please press “0” and someone else will assist you. Thank you. (In this case, make sure that you have asked Jim Lagnese to program your phone to zero out to the person who is covering for you.)
• You have reached Santa Claus at Heartland AEA. This is the week of December 26 and our offices will be open on Wednesday, December 28th only. I will be out of the office the entire week, however, if you need assistance you may contact Rudolph at extension 00000 on December 28. Otherwise I will return your call on January 2. 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.

You can also choose to forward your phone to another staff member so that all your calls go directly to their phone. Follow the directions below.

If you press the blue “super key” on your phone, you will be presented with two choices on your phone display. It will show “Phonebook?”, “Yes” and “No.” Press the button below “No.” The next is “Call Forwarding.” Press the button that is below “Yes.” You will see “Always” displayed. Next, press the button below “Review.” Press the button on the left, probably below “Change” and then press the button below “Program.” Type in the extension number that you are forwarding to (or outside number with an “8” before the phone number), then press the button below “Save.” Then press the button below “Change” and then press the button below “Turn On,” which will put an asterisk after the phone number. Then press the button below “Next” and then the blue “super key” and you are done.

Change Kerio E-mail to “Out of Office” (sample below)
• Thank you for contacting Heartland AEA. I will be out of the office until January 2. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Santa Claus at santaclaus@northpole.com or ext. 00000 or Mrs. Claus at mrslcaus@northpole.com or ext. 11111. Thank you. To create an out of office greeting, go to “Settings” in the top left hand corner of Kerio Mail then choose “Out of office.” Click on the circle that says “I am out of office now.” Type in your message using the contact person’s name that is filling in during your absence. Read your message to check for spelling errors, etc. and then click “ok” when finished.

Change Employee Dashboard to “Out of Office”
On your Employee Dashboard home page in the upper left under “Workflow Tasklist” is a box to click when you are out of the office. This enables any workflows to go to the secondary approver when you are set to out of office. This is important if you do purchase requests, so they don’t sit on your tasklist while you are absent.

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.