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Out of Office
Overview
The Out of Office feature allows you to set an automatic response to go out if you receive incoming text messages to your personal Cadence number and/or a Shared Inbox while you or your team are away.
This article will explain how to configure and enable your out of office message, how to schedule Out of Office hours, how to turn it off, and items to consider in your planning.
Set Up Out of Office - Personal Inbox
To configure and enable your out of office message:
From your personal inbox ( Messages) click "Out of Office"
After arriving at the setup page:
1. Enter your desired "Out of Office" text message in the message box. You can choose from a template and/or add emoji's to your message. You can ask AI to generate a message for you by clicking the purple diamonds icon. This message only applies to contacts who text your inbox while your "Out of Office" is enabled.
To get an AI Generated Out of Office message, click the purple diamonds.
You can give the AI bot some information about what you want in your message. You can include things such as the department, tone, variable fields and length.
If you want a different message, click "Try Again" until you find one that you would like to use. Hover over the message and click "Insert" to use the message for your out of office response.
2. Next, set your Out of Office to be either "On" or "Auto" or "Off" to disable it.
- "Off" will disable your Out of Office and will not send any messages.
- "On" will send your Out of Office message to any incoming messages after you click SAVE.
- "Auto" allows you to schedule your Out of Office message to hours that you set.
3. If you would like to set your Out of Office based on a schedule or your specific office hours, select " Auto" and click "Add Hours"
Here, you will select the day(s) that you are available (office hours) to text with your contacts.
NOTE: The Out of Office message will only send during times outside of your selected office hours. For example: If you are available from 9am to 5pm, your out of office will be enabled after 5pm.
Each day is scheduled individually to allow custom availability. You also have the ability to customize your office hours to be more than one scheduled time on a single day:
If your availability is the same throughout the week, you can choose to select one of the preset (weekdays or weekends) office hour schedules:
4. Click [ Save]. You will see an on-screen confirmation that out of office is enabled.
And the Out of Office is ON radio button.
When enabled, your out of office text message will automatically be sent as a response to incoming messages. This will occur once per calendar day for each number that sends you a text; recipients will not receive your out of office message twice in a day.
The once per calendar day calculation is based on the current time in your institution's time zone.
When your out of office message is enabled, you will see a notification in the top right hand corner of Cadence to remind you. It will remain enabled until you manually turn it off (see below for details on turning off your out of office message).
Set Up Out of Office - Shared Inbox
When your office is closed or your team is away, the Out of Office feature will send automatic responses notifying anyone who texted the Shared Inbox.
To configure and enable your out of office message for your Shared Inbox:
Click on your shared inbox on the left navigation> "Out of Office"
1. Enter your desired "Out of Office" text message in the message box. You can insert emojis and/or templates. This message only applies to contacts who text your shared inbox while your "Out of Office" is enabled.
To get an AI Generated Out of Office message, click the purple diamonds.
You can give the AI bot some information about what you want in your message. You can include things such as the department, tone, variable fields and length.
If you want a different message, click "Try Again" until you find one that you would like to use. Hover over the message and click "Insert" to use the message for your out of office response.
2. Next, set your shared inbox Out of Office to be either "On" or "Auto" or "Off" to disable it. .
- "Off" will disable your Out of Office and will not send any messages.
- "On" will send your Out of Office message to any incoming messages after you click SAVE.
- "Auto" allows you to schedule your Out of Office message to hours that you set.
3. Next, you will select the day(s) that your team is available (office hours) to text.
NOTE: The Out of Office message will only send during times outside of your selected office hours. For example: If your team is available from 9am to 5pm, the out of office will be enabled after 5pm.
Each day can be scheduled individually to allow custom availability. You also have the ability to customize your office hours to be more than one scheduled time on a single day:
OR you can select one of our preset schedules (weekdays or weekends).
3. Click SAVE.
The Out of Office feature for Shared Inboxes displays which user turned it on or off and when. (Note: there is no timestamp for when the Out of Office message was updated.)
You will see an on-screen confirmation that out of office is enabled for a Shared Inbox.
When enabled, your out of office text message will automatically be sent as a response to incoming messages to the Shared Inbox. This will occur once per calendar day for each number that sends you a text; recipients will not receive your out of office message twice in a day.
The once per calendar day calculation is based on the current time in your institution's time zone.
When your out of office message is enabled, you will see a notification in the top right hand corner of Cadence to remind you. It will remain enabled until you manually turn it off.
Note: Incoming messages that match an Auto Reply or Smart Message keywords will not receive the Out of Office reply.
Turning Off Out of Office
To turn off your out of office message, navigate to the Out of Office page in your personal or shared inbox:
1. Click the Out of Office is OFF radio button.
2. Click [ Save]. The on-screen notification that your out of office message is on will disappear and the message itself will be grayed out, confirming that it has been turned off.
Personal Inbox:
Or toggle the notification button in the top right corner to OFF
Shared Inbox:
Considerations
Best Practices
- We highly recommend crafting your out of office message in a way that clearly explains that you are not currently available, when you will be able to reply, and (if applicable) who to contact in your absence.
- Remember that there is a 24-calendar hour rule in place that determines how frequently recipients will receive your out of office message. This is in place to simplify the functionality while making sure to not over-message individuals who send you a text message while your out of office message is enabled.
- Turn off your out of office message when actively engaging in a conversation with a contact or before composing a new message.
-Incoming messages that match an Auto Reply or Smart Message keywords will not receive the Out of Office reply.
Out of Office and Other Cadence Functions
- If you are caretaking someone's account, be aware that the user you are caretaking may have their out of office message turned on. If you plan on sending texts on behalf of that user, it is best to first turn off their out of office message before responding. If a user enables their out of office message, it does not automatically prevent them from having a caretaker assigned.
- If utilizing the Send as Assigned User function, be aware of vacation/out-of-office schedules within your team to avoid a situation where you are sending messages on behalf of other users that are currently out of the office. It would be confusing for a recipient to receive a message, send a response, and immediately receive an out of office message.
- If utilizing the Auto Reply feature within a personal inbox and your Out of Office is on, any matching keywords will receive the keyword auto reply and not the out of office. Any messages received that do not match a keyword, will receive the out of office reply as normal.
Also known as: Vacation Responder, Vacation Message, Away Response, Away Notification, or Away Message in other platforms.