Tips for vacation

[kevs]

When go vacation, I leave phone message, a vague message saying may be in
and out of town so don't be upset if I don't return call.

For e mail, I don't do anything. I have my home address on my website, and
don't want to tip anyone off I'm away, still, I would love to hear any ideas
on how to handle this for clients I may be alienating. Thanks!

Kevs




OS 10.4.7
Office 2004

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

For e mail, I don't do anything. I have my home address on my website, and
don't want to tip anyone off I'm away, still, I would love to hear any ideas
on how to handle this for clients I may be alienating. Thanks!

You can create a script in Entourage to send an "I'm away" message only
to selected contacts from your address book.
That would require to leave ENtourage running the entire time you are
away, but at least you could use that to ignor most e-mails but still
send an "away" message to selected clients trying to contact you by
e-mail,

Corentin

 

[kevs]

You can create a script in Entourage to send an "I'm away" message only
to selected contacts from your address book.
That would require to leave ENtourage running the entire time you are
away, but at least you could use that to ignor most e-mails but still
send an "away" message to selected clients trying to contact you by
e-mail,

Corentin

ThanksC. Well, it's actually the strangers I'm worried about, the "new"
clients, but I'm not sure what I could say that would be polite and say I"m
away without saying I'm away.



OS 10.4.7
Office 2004

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

ThanksC. Well, it's actually the strangers I'm worried about, the "new"
clients, but I'm not sure what I could say that would be polite and say I"m
away without saying I'm away.

The problem with the "strager" is that you would then send the out of
office notification to all discussion lists, spammers,etc, as well :-\


Corentin

 

[Holman, David]

Well, it's actually the strangers I'm worried about

here's a very non-technical solution: check your account on the road, daily
if you're able. I was in the same situation, concerned about responses to my
on-going marketing while away. auto-responses are fine for your regular
clients/business contacts, but inquiries and referrals require personal
attention in order to maximize that initial contact.

I planned entire vacations around hitting wireless hotspots and toted my
G4book along for the ride. I was able to field some important messages and
sleep well at night knowing my bases were covered.

with the availability of wireless in coffee shops and hotels over the last
few years, your destination list is very broad. here's a great start for
that travel plan (I've found the first to be more complete):
<http://www.wififreespot.com/index.html>
<http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/>

_ DA Holman _

 

[Mickey Stevens]

You can create a script in Entourage to send an "I'm away" message only
to selected contacts from your address book.
That would require to leave ENtourage running the entire time you are
away, but at least you could use that to ignor most e-mails but still
send an "away" message to selected clients trying to contact you by
e-mail,

You could actually do this without a script simply by assigning a category
like "Send Vacation Reply" (see Edit > Categories > Edit Categories),
assigning the category to the contacts to whom you want to send the reply,
and then creating a rule like this:
* Execute action if any criteria are met
IF From Is in Category Send Vacation Reply
THEN Reply

You can do create other categories & corresponding rules to send different
messages to other contacts.

 

[kevs]

The problem with the "strager" is that you would then send the out of
office notification to all discussion lists, spammers,etc, as well :-\


Corentin

Thanks Coretin:
Great point! I always see this auto responses, but forgot that those folks
are corporate types with 9-5 jobs using that. Your right, I would end up
not just with the prospective clients, but all idiots too. Thanks! I'm
forgetting about it. At least with the phone you only get a handful of
calls a day -- e mail is still nefarious world.

Thanks David: not at that point yet where be checking so much when travel
for pleasure, but good info to have -- maybe for business trips

Wont work Mickey, the ones I feel bad about most are the prospective
clients, the strangers-- the ones I would like to say, "hey, I might be tied
up so wait a bit..." . People I care about know I'm away.



OS 10.4.7

Office 2004

 

[kevs]

Thanks Coretin:
Great point! I always see this auto responses, but forgot that those folks
are corporate types with 9-5 jobs using that. Your right, I would end up
not just with the prospective clients, but all idiots too. Thanks! I'm
forgetting about it. At least with the phone you only get a handful of
calls a day -- e mail is still nefarious world.

Thanks David: not at that point yet where be checking so much when travel
for pleasure, but good info to have -- maybe for business trips

Wont work Mickey, the ones I feel bad about most are the prospective
clients, the strangers-- the ones I would like to say, "hey, I might be tied
up so wait a bit..." . People I care about know I'm away.



OS 10.4.7

Office 2004

Ok, had idea to today, and want to know what you think:

I make an auto reply that says:
To all existing and prospective clients,
(spammers and newsgroups please ignore this)

note that I will be tied up until Feb 23. Please contact me after that date.
I appreciate it.

What do you all think?

I think it's an idea, but still not sure I will do it. I'd like some
feedback thanks
OS 10.4.7
Office 2004

 

[Diane Ross]

I make an auto reply that says:
To all existing and prospective clients,
(spammers and newsgroups please ignore this)

PLEASE make sure your reply does not get sent to any mailing lists as a mail
loop can result and make you very unpopular! Be sure to add "is not from a
mailing list".

See both examples:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule003.html>

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/outofoffice.html>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[kevs]

PLEASE make sure your reply does not get sent to any mailing lists as a mail
loop can result and make you very unpopular! Be sure to add "is not from a
mailing list".

See both examples:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule003.html>

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/outofoffice.html>

Probably wont do this at all, what do others think?


OS 10.4.7
Office 2004