How can I set up a recurring automatic reply during specific hours?

Anonymous
2024-01-31T22:31:14+00:00

I work in an industry where my clients may require urgent assistance outside of normal business hours. My business engages a third party to handle after-hours emergencies on behalf of the team, but we often receive complaints that clients cannot easily access the after-hours emergency contact number, despite it being available on our website and our after-hours voicemail. In most cases, clients will call the team and disregard the voicemail, then follow up with an email complaining that we're unavailable.

It would be beneficial to have the option to set up an automatic reply where the after-hours contact information is sent to clients when our staff are emailed between 5pm and 8:30am, 5 days per week.

I have tried using the rules feature and fiddled around with the automatic reply feature, but neither would allow me to set up a recurring automatic reply without setting a start and finish date/time. I also checked whether it's possible to synchronize an automatic reply with my calendar block-outs, but this wasn't possible either.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-10-29T15:11:29+00:00

    need this baked in (set up OOO of Fridays), power automate seems so confusing

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-05T13:01:29+00:00

    Absolutely agree - I don't work Mondays, and it would be so much simpler if I could have something like this. It seems like such a straightforward request, not sure why it hasn't been developed!

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-02-02T15:01:52+00:00

    Hi KGGS,

    Good day.

    Thank you for posting to the Microsoft Community. We are glad to assist.

    You can set up a recurring automatic reply during specific hours in Outlook by configuring the automatic replies in the new Outlook client.

    Go to SettingsThen AccountThen Automatic Replies. 

    1. Select the Turn on automatic replies toggle.
    2. Select Send replies only during a period, and then enter start and end times.
    3. Under Send automatic replies inside your organization, enter the message to send while you're away. (You can use the formatting options for text alignment, color, and emphasis.)
      To set up automatic replies to other people, select Send replies outside your organization, then add a separate message for that audience.
    4. When you're done, select Save.

    unfortunately, there is no easy way to make the recurring automatic reply you need to enable this manually.

    Should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me. Look forward to hearing from you.

    Please understand that our initial response may not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

    Best regards,

    Community Moderator

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-05-16T07:55:26+00:00

    You can try with Power Automate, search for Recurring Autoreply and it will help you set up a flow for this. I just created it (I don't work on Mondays) but not tested yet, hope it works.

    I just wonder how to stop it (hopefully it stops automatically???) when I set up a classic OOO autoreply when I'm e.g. on annual leave a whole week including Monday, I don't want it to send 2 autoreplies on Mondays now - if anybody knows more on this please let me know!

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