Did you know your ‘out of office’ is actually a really powerful communication tool.  

So I know a lot of us just use it to say, “Hey, we’re going to be out of the office on this date, if you need a hand contact x,y and z”.  

A couple of things though.  

Firstly, you can use that space or that opportunity to tell people, not just that you’re going to be out of the office or what your availability is but tell them what you’re doing.  

So if you’re going off on a beautiful holiday around the Whitsundays with your family (says me when we’re still in lock down) and let them know that. 

Let them know you’re practicing what you preach, which is going out there and living a fun, happy life.  

Let them know if you going to a training program and what you’re going to be learning, what goodness you’re going to be filling your brain with that you could then bring back to their table.  

But use it as a way to let them know what it is that you’re up to, not just that you’re out of the office.  

And even better, you could do a video and put that video in and say, “hey check this out”.  

And actually, have the link that actually goes to you talking and telling them what you’re going to be doing.  

Now not everyone’s going to click that link, but some will trust me, some will.  

The other thing is that when you receive ‘out of offices’, I don’t know about you, but it’s really easy to just dismiss them and delete them, you get the drift they’re out of the office.   

But instead use that as a chance that when you receive the out of office, check their details cause normally people have their most up to date role, if they’re they’ve got a job.  

They’ve got their most up to date phone number or contact information… in that out of office message.  

So if you get it, you’ve then got up to date information that you can then reconcile against your database information to check that you’ve got the most current details.  

Likewise, they might have shared something about what they’re doing.  

So when they do get back you’ve got another excuse to make contact on a personal level to say, “Hey, I saw you going away to the Whitsundays with your family, how was it?   

It just makes it feel a little bit more personal.  

And all of that happened with that beautiful automatic tool called ‘out of office’.  

Don’t waste it.   

Use it as a communication tool that you’ve got access to easily to really help others know what you’re doing and to take note of what they’re doing and their details because after all, You are Valuable.Page Break