Mastering your university out of office reply

Out of office replies are mostly unpleasant messages. You have probably experienced it yourself on both sides. Whether you have an urgent matter that you need a quick answer for or you have limited access to your email while away from your office.

When working with student recruitment, you probably get tons of emails concerning application deadlines, scholarship opportunities or simply emails from colleagues. As it is difficult to reply to your emails while attending a conference or going away on a business trip – not to mention with limited internet access, you will have to set up automatic out of office replies and even more while on holiday.

In an ideal world that means your out of office, reply ensures you come back with most people’s burning questions already answered by your team or resources.

But how to make the most of your out of office reply?

• Have a nice greeting
• Empathise with the enquirer: What information would you find helpful if you were a student or a concerned parent? Do they even know who you are and how you can help them? Start with a thank you to the enquirer for contacting you, mention your name and your area of activity, inform them about your absence and your expected return.
• Suggest what they should do in the meantime: Provide the contact info of a colleague, social media information or an emergency contact that can help students in urgent matters. Make sure you add diverse contact information including phone numbers, live chats or even Skype for international students. However don’t leave your cell phone number, unless you are willing to receive calls while away from the office.

Now that you have optimised the content, you need to work on the appearance of the email.

Here are 5 essentials that make your email look more professional:

1. Be fun: Incorporate a joke or creative message that will leave a smile on the senders face
2. Keep it short: The emailer probably now has to send an email to another person, don’t make them read a book beforehand.
3. Check for typos: Prevent an unprofessional impression.
4. Mention available contacts: Only provide contacts that have their auto-reply switched off, to prevent a ping-pong message war.
5. Emphasise: Use bold or italic typeface to emphasise crucial information in your message.

With these tips, you are good to go. A neatly set up out of office reply will not only make your respondents happy but also prevent confusions.

Use our out of office reply template as a guidance for your future out of office emails.