E-mail Away Message Basics

Today alone I received 7 away message autoresponders when my Weekly E-mail Etiquette Tips were sent out that stated the recipient would be back in the office on Monday. This past Monday, July 28th!

When using away messages, especially for business, there are several things you need to consider and follow through upon so that they are useful as intended and not a nuisance:

1. Most importantly, if your e-mail address is subscribed to any discussion mailing lists, unsub before you engage your away message. Otherwise, each time a message is sent from the list, your autoresponder will go out to everyone else who gets posts to the list or to the list or board owner. You may find that you are unsubbed by the list owner and may even have some unpleasant e-mails waiting for you from other subscribers upon your return.  I highly recommend you have a separate e-mail address that you use for subscribing to lists, forums, groups, etc. that will never have an away message attached to it.  Just imagine all the unnecessary away messages being sent to folks like me that could be avoided?
2. Create a message that is brief, includes your return date and who can be contacted in your absence and their contact information. A note stating you will respond promptly to pending messages upon your return is a nice touch too.  Include a greeting and closing as you would with any other e-mail that you send.
3. Engage your away message right before you leave to go away and do not intend on responding to any further e-mails until you return.  Nothing like getting a response after someone has stated they are no longer available and you’ve already contacted the person noted in the away message!
4. Right then and there, write yourself a note, post-it or put it in red letters on your calendar by your computer to take down the autoresponder when you get back. Make this one of the first things that you do upon your return. If you want to give the perception of being unorganized or forgetful, have away messages going out that are outdated.  It’s Thursday and I’m getting messages from folks who should have been back in the office 4 days ago?
5. Upon your return, make it a priority to respond promptly to waiting messages. You don’t want folks wondering if their messages got lost in the shuffle or make them feel they are not important to you.

So once again the bottom line is to think about how your away message can affect others.  By including the information needed in your absence in a courteous and professional way is just the start.  Making the extra efforts to minimize unnecessary messages going out to those who really have no need or concern about your status, is simply common sense.

If you are too busy, forgetful or unorganized enough to not be able to follow theses tips or remember to disengage your away message upon your return, it may be best you do not turn in on in the first place.

Some More Info for You:

1. Business Email Away Message Etiquette
2. “Out of Office” Auto-spam
3. Marketing on Message Boards and Forums
4. Return Receipt (RR) Etiquette
5. CAN-SPAM and Your Business Email