When on Vacation -Answering Machine Message

[equinecpa]

I'm curious. I work out of my home office. When I go on vacation I never know what to do with my answering machine message. I hate to announce to the world "I"m out of the country ..won't be back until" -seems like an invitation to be robbed, so, I don't change it. However when I come back I get messages like "I"ve already left 2 messages this week...please call ASAP", or a full voicemail box...

What answering machine message do you leave? I'm thinking of maybe saying "my office will be closed from X to Y -Please call after Y and I'll be available to take your call or leave a message and I'll return it when I'm back in the office". Do you think this would be appropriate? Or do you think it still says " rob me!"

Carolyn

[erchess]

Client Service

I do not change my message because even when I am on vacation I call the machine a couple times a day and I return client calls. I don't plan to change this behavior unless I am surprised by becoming too sick to keep it up or I hire associates who can assist clients in my absence.

[oceanlovin'ea]

check in

I too check my messages when I am gone for a few days. But we are going on a cruise in December. I can't check from the boat. I will probably have my daughter check my messages and if anything sounds urgent, she can call that person and tell them I am out of town and will call when I return.

I don't want to advertise that I am gone either so I don't change my message. Most of the time people are understanding if you call them and say "got your message. I'm out of town. I will get with you when I come back."

So just enjoy your vacation.

Linda

[RitaB]

Agree with others

I would not change the greeting, but try to check messages.

I am always amazed at my Facebook friends who announce everything they are doing. I keep expecting to read: "Needa Tenshun is working on getting house back in order after it was ransacked. You know, when we were at the beach. You saw the pics by mobile upload."

My sign on the office door currently says, "Closed Wednesdays April 16 - December 31. Open Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri" Guy came in the other day and says, "So, I see on your sign that you're taking a vacation. Where ya goin?"

Yes, that was totally random and off topic.

[equinecpa]

I do try to check messages but my problem is I don't want to deal with them while I"m away on vacation. I don't want to get stuck on the phone. I wonder if there is such thing as a prerecorded voice reply that would return the calls and say I'm out of the office until such and such a date. The phone is one of biggest day to day aggravations so getting away from it is part of being on vacation.

[JohnH]

Use every opportunity to migrate them over to email.
It reduces time-wasting phone calls and is much more time-and-information efficient.

[DTS]

V/m

What is a vacation?

Kidding aside, when we would take them for more than a couple days, I had trusted friends come in and retrieve them for me and then erase those to free up space for the new ones to come. Like you, I did not want to be getting messages while I was trying to relax.

[BOB W]

I call forward to my cell phone as most calls this time of the year are quickies. Those that are potentially long calls, I tell them that I do not have access to their records and I'm out of the office for the rest of the week and I can not comment without my records. Call me again on ________. I have not had any problems with this.

I have most of my clients in my cell phone's address book so I can see who is calling. I don't have answer when the call comes in. I call back when I choose. My cell has missed calls that I can delete to free up that section. I don't travel out of the US so I guess it is easy for me.

Using EMail for chatting could be a good alternative if you go out of US.

[Gretel]

Besides of not being in my office all the time after tax season, I also do out of town work and I record every absence on my voice mail. I check my voice mail when absent and then decide if I call back while absent or not.

I never crossed my mind that I could be robbed. Whoever would want to rob me could easily do so on the weekends anyway, so I don't see what difference it makes letting the world know that there are other days I am absent.

I don't like calling places or going places and finding no good info about availability of the person I try to reach. I feel this is bad customer service. No judgment on any of you, just an expression on how I feel if I encounter this situation myself.

[DTS]

...I don't like calling places or going places and finding no good info about availability of the person I try to reach. I feel this is bad customer service. No judgment on any of you, just an expression on how I feel if I encounter this situation myself.

Good point. My clients have complete access to me 7 days a week, 12-13 hours each day. They don't need to know I'm out of town each time I take off and visa versa. Some of them have even called on Thanksgiving or Christmas, which is irritating to say the least.

A workaround on being available might be to leave the message alone, but have a "temp" come in every couple of days, retrieve messages and then call the clients personally about your schedule and nothing more.

[JohnH]

One more mention of email and then I'll shut up about it. Communication is vastly different today than it was even a couple of years ago. Phone calls are a colossal waste of everyone's time for the most part. Email is a much better alternative - it's brief, convenient, and it forces people to think about their question rather than go off on a half-dozen rabbit trails once they get you on the phone.

While I understand that some clients won't or can't use email, I've found that the great majority of them will gladly use it. Surprisingly, it isn't just the youger clients - many of the older clients are just as comfortable with it (except for the very elderly).

I order to push them toward email, I tell my clients that I TRY to reply to phone messages same day or within 24 hours. However, I'll usually reply to an email inquiry within an hour or so, unless I'm totally indisposed. I try to stick to that policy even if the reply is simply to acknowledge receipt of the email and that I'll have to get back to them. It's interesting how patient they will be as long as they know you have their question and you're thinking about it, whereas with an unanswered voice mail they're left wondering if you even got the message.

So migrating clients over to email and carrying a Blackberry, iphone, etc is a great way to relieve some of the stress that client communications can cause. It will keep that voice mail from filling up as well. Personally, when I'm on vacation I do take my laptop (now my iPad) as well as my Blackberry. I also check voice mail messages every couple of days and respond as appropriate, if there are an messages at all. It makes vacation more relaxing and returning much more enjoyable because I know I don't have a dozen snakes & alligators waiting for me on my desk the following Monday.

If you use email, most major cruise lines now offer internet access in some form or another. Of course if you're primarily using voice mail and you're on a cruise or out of the country, then you don't have much choice but to either leave some status info on the voice mail or have a trusted person check your messages & call people to explain when you'll be back. It's also a good idea to be pre-emptive if you have clients who tend to call on a regular basis - just let them know before you leave that you'll be away.

[Lion]

Away Message

I have a separate land line for my home office (at only $14.95/month with all the voice mail and other features of my main line) so have changed the message when away for more than a week or know I won't be able to check every day and expect an issue. I've also forwarded calls to my iPhone. But, one of the features is to forward voice messages to my email -- which I can check on my iPhone or my netbook. Therefore, I can check my email once/day and stay up to date on all types of messages. I email a response unless I don't have an email address for that client. (Like John, I try to get clients to use email.) Lately, I've not been changing my message. Of course, I tell active clients that are likely to be contacting me while we're in the midst of preparing their returns or dealing with an issue how to contact me via email and when I'll be back in my office.