| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Do you tell your clients when you are going on holidays? Thread poster: Ivana de Sousa Santos
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Susana Galilea 
United States
Local time: 05:50
English to Spanish
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Armorel Young wrote:
All you people who set up automatic out-of-office e-mail replies - does that mean you leave your computer on all the time you are away? Even if it means that the computer is left on in an empty house for two weeks or more?
There's no need to leave the computer on in order for the auto-reply system to be active. This is simply an email option, it works as long as your email program works.
Susana
| | | | Angela Dickson (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:50
French to English
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All you people who set up automatic out-of-office e-mail replies - does that mean you leave your computer on all the time you are away? Even if it means that the computer is left on in an empty house for two weeks or more?
The out-of-office reply is an instruction sent to the email server saying basically 'if a message comes in to my address, reply to the sender with this message' and it does not depend on your computer being on.
Having said that, I don't use auto-reply because I tell all my regulars I'm going away anyway, and I subscribe to so many groups that it would be a hassle to unsubscribe to all of them so that they didn't receive the auto-reply along with everyone else. Plus I get a fair amount of spam and I don't want the senders of *that* to know that my address works.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 12:50
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| No, read your mail, I say | Jun 13, 2006 |
Riccardo Schiaffino wrote: Samuel Murray wrote:
Check your mail every day
No: if you are on vacation, you are on vacation. Otherwise, you'll soon be tempted to yield to that request for "just a short translation", and slave away on your laptop while the family is on the beach.
I see your point, but I think it's good PR to be able to reply to those clients who didn't bother to read your "I'm on holidays" e-mail in the first place. Laptop? No, go to an internet cafe where they charge per 15 mins, so you won't be tempted to do any work.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 12:50
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| No, filter at the server | Jun 13, 2006 |
Armorel Young wrote:
All you people who set up automatic out-of-office e-mail replies - does that mean you leave your computer on all the time you are away?
No, you must set up the autoreply at the server. If you're using an e-mail address from your ISP that doesn't allow you to set such things at server level, then perhaps it's time you invest in your own domain name (with control panel) so that you can set your own autoreplies at the server. Or use a thirdparty e-mail service that allows you to set autoreplies on the webmail interface (I think Gmail does this).
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| For that I use the auto-responder | Jun 13, 2006 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
I see your point, but I think it's good PR to be able to reply to those clients who didn't bother to read your "I'm on holidays" e-mail in the first place.
That's what the auto-responder is for. I set it up to answer only once a day to any customer, and my message is quite specific ("I'll be away from [date], with no access to voice mail or e-mail, and will again be available to take on assignments from [date]. While I'm away, please call my parter xy at nnn @ xyz.com").
It is true that using an auto-responder increases the amount of spam one ends up receiving, but I find that the combination of the spam filter built in Office 2003 and the spam filter used by my ISP lower the level of spam I receive to a manageable level.
[Edited at 2006-06-13 16:34]
[Edited at 2006-06-13 16:34]
| | | | | How does one set up auto-response at the server? | Jun 13, 2006 |
Several people have commented that an automatic e-mail response must be set up at the server and not at the computer itself. I'm not clear how to do this - I've found instructions for setting up auto reply in Outlook Express but this does require leaving the computer on all the time. How does one do it at the server? No doubt the answer is that it depends on your ISP - I've got a broadband connection with ntl and I can't find anything in their information about auto replies so I'd be grateful fo... See more Several people have commented that an automatic e-mail response must be set up at the server and not at the computer itself. I'm not clear how to do this - I've found instructions for setting up auto reply in Outlook Express but this does require leaving the computer on all the time. How does one do it at the server? No doubt the answer is that it depends on your ISP - I've got a broadband connection with ntl and I can't find anything in their information about auto replies so I'd be grateful for info for how one starts out on this. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Unfortunately, it really depends from your provider | Jun 14, 2006 |
Armorel Young wrote:
How does one do it at the server? No doubt the answer is that it depends on your ISP - I've got a broadband connection with ntl and I can't find anything in their information about auto replies so I'd be grateful for info for how one starts out on this.
Each provider has different ways to provide an auto-responder (if they provide it at all: not everybody does) - look under "e-mail settings", "my account" or something similar; however, if you cannot find anything promising, e-mail the technical support of your provider to ask for assistance.
| | | | Fan Gao
Australia
Local time: 20:50
English to Chinese
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| Gmail is good for an auto reply service | Jun 14, 2006 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
If you're using an e-mail address from your ISP that doesn't allow you to set such things at server level, then perhaps it's time you invest in your own domain name (with control panel) so that you can set your own autoreplies at the server. Or use a thirdparty e-mail service that allows you to set autoreplies on the webmail interface (I think Gmail does this).
We have an email address that came free with our website but it only has a 25mb capacity which is of course too small if you have clients sending you large files. It can be increased at a price but we decided to go with Gmail which is working great for us.
All of our email that comes into our domain email address is redirected to our Gmail account and we can send emails from Gmail using our domain email account as the sender which looks more professional.
The "out of office" works great too. With Gmail you can select to either send your chosen message to all of the senders who send you an email or you can just select to send your out of office reply to just senders who appear in your address book which cuts out replying to spam and acknowledging your valid address.
The only problem with that of course is that if you get an email from a new client who you have never worked with before then they won't appear in your address book and therefore will just assume you are not interested in working with them through your lack of response!
Almost there but still haven't quite found the perfect solution.
Best wishes to all,
Mark
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RosettaT
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:50
Member (2004)
English to German
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| Do you tell your clients - an agency view | Jun 19, 2006 |
Ivana de Sousa Santos wrote:
Now I've got much more (for some of them I actually did only 1 or 2 translations, so I don't consider them as regular clients) and I am not sure if I must write to all of my clients informing them I am going on holidays or not.
From the perspective of an (agency) client, I would say that a) you have no obligation as such to tell anybody but that b) it is definitely nice to receive these emails, particularly from regular collaborators.
I would even be tempted to also write to clients that have only used your services once or twice. I feel that, in the context of a business relationship, informing the other party about time away is never out of place. On the upside, this is a good excuse to remind them of you in a polite way.
Best,
Eric Fixmer
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