How to schedule automatic responses in Outlook?

  • Auto-replies are useful for keeping friends and colleagues informed.
  • Scheduling automatic responses helps manage your inbox after you're away.
  • The content of the message should be formal for work and relaxed for friends.
  • Including dates of absence and alternate contacts is essential in the response.

outlook mail

An automatic response message is a very useful resource for users who have gone on vacation, traveled or who, for whatever reason, are temporarily unable to attend to their inbox. A kind of notice that we are not available, but we will be back soon. In this post we are going to see how to schedule automatic responses in Outlook In a simple way.

There are many reasons why this resource is enormously useful. But, above all, it is a very correct way to keep friends, clients, collaborators informed about our status...  In short, to anyone who is trying to contact us. An automatic response message is always better than silence, which could be interpreted as a lack of diligence or interest on our part.

When is it necessary to put an automatic response in our email?

There are two big reasons why it is advisable to program an automatic response in our email. The first is for an elementary question of good education: You should never leave questions unanswered, otherwise it is a lack of consideration. On the other hand, these answers help us maintain contact with other people and not be disconnected from matters that may be important, both in the private and professional spheres.

An “I'm out of office” message can be very helpful for delegate our work to colleagues, who will take care of our tasks while we are away. Otherwise, we risk finding our inbox full of unanswered messages (some several days old) when we return from our vacation or our period of disconnection.

Microsoft Outlook allows us set up an auto reply message both through its desktop application and its mobile application, easily from any device. Below we explain the steps to follow to configure this message.

Guide to automatic responses in Microsoft Outlook

outlook automatic response

Scheduling automatic responses in Outlook is a relatively simple process. Here's how to do it step by step:

Let's go to the Settings panel

To start, we open the application Outlook on our Windows desktop with our ID and password and click on the icon Configuration (the one with the gear wheel), shown in the upper right corner. Depending on the version of Outlook we have, in this first step we will have to go directly to "Records".

Select “See all Outlook settings”

Within the Settings menu, we select the tab «View all Outlook settings», to then open the email options.

We select "Mail"

In the menu corresponding to Outlook, we go directly to the "Mail" section, which is where we are going to implement the configuration changes to schedule automatic responses in Outlook.

We click on "Automatic responses"

The next step is to activate the “Automatic responses” option. There we must select the checkbox to respond for a period of time and then Set the start and end time range of the message. That is, the time during which we want to have it activated.

Once activated, anyone who emails us will receive the exact same response.

Compose the automatic response

Finally, all that remains is to write the text of the message that we want to show as a response to the people who have sent us an email. In the desktop application we will find the option to write different reply messages, depending on whether the email comes to us from our own company or organization or from outside. This is not possible from the mobile application. Once done, click "Save" for the changes to take effect.

To know exactly what and how to do it, we encourage you to follow the guidelines indicated in the following section:

What to put in the automatic response of our email?

Outlook automatic response

The possibility of generating an automatic email announcing that we are going to be disconnected or unreachable for some time, in addition to being a courtesy gesture, is a resource to not miss any important contact. The text that must appear in the automatic response, as well as its form, They will depend on several factors. Above all, who are the recipients of said response.

If it involves work matters (responses to clients, suppliers, bosses, colleagues, collaborators, etc.) it is best to opt for a brief and formal message. Here is an example:

Thank you very much for your email. I'll be out of the office all this week. Upon my return I will respond to your message with pleasure. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

On the other hand, if it is an automated response to messages from friends, the possibilities expand. In that case we can allow ourselvesUse a more relaxed tone and even include a note of humor. It could be something like this:

I'm going to take a well-deserved vacation and I don't plan to deal with the mail until I return on August 15. Please don't bother me until then!

As you can see, the options can be very varied. In any case, whether it is about work or communications with friends, there are several elements that should appear in these messages:

  • La exact information on the dates of our absence. Or, at least, the date of our return to activity.
  • El contact of the person or people who can be contacted while we are not available, detailing the exact contact for each type of matter.
  • Optionally, a series of links or anticipated responses to the questions or issues that we usually discuss in our emails. This serves to convey the idea that, even if we are not available, we are responsible and we continue to take care of everything.

Conclusions

If our work or daily activity involves sending and receiving emails with some regularity, the ability to schedule automatic responses through Outlook can be very useful.

This function allows us keep all our contacts informed about our current situation, as well as redirect questions to other people who will be in charge of answering them during our absence. Very practical.


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