Are you looking for formal phrases and sentences to complete your meeting rescheduling email? You are at the right place. In this article, we will discuss not only the common phrases you can use for different situations but also the structure of the postponing email.
1. Rescheduling email examples
Eg 1: Formal type – Changing an appointment with a business partner
Dear Mr. Smith,
Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen business, I will be unable to keep our appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Would it be possible to arrange another time later in the week? I apologize for any inconvenience.
Yours sincerely,
Alice Tran
(Source: Clare Whitmell – Business Writing Essentials)
Eg 2: Formal type – Postponing a meeting to a specific date in the future
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I’m afraid I have to request to reschedule our meeting in the afternoon of 22nd August because I have to travel to LA that day to resolve some urgent work. May I suggest 27th August at 4:00 PM?
Even if you’re not available at that time, I am willing to work around your schedule. I will use the extra time to think about the contract changes you requested.
I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. I am looking forwards to your confirmation as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Alex Tran
Eg 3: Informal type – Reschedule a meeting with your colleagues
Hi everyone,
Due to a meeting room problem, the time of the project kick-off meeting has to be changed from Tuesday, August 21st at 2 pm in room A3 to Thursday, August 23rd at 16:00 in room 324.
Sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best regards,
Miranda
Eg 4: Formal type – Reschedule a job interview
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am writing this to inform you that I got an interview notice for the position of Creative Director at your company yesterday via email. My interview has been decided at 2 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2018. Unfortunately, I am not possible to attend at that time as I have made an appointment with my doctor.
I extremely apologize for asking the rescheduling of my job interview.
I appreciate so much if you can reschedule my interview to any other time as I am available after 4th of September.
I am very eager to attend the interview and work with your company. I hope you will consider my request and reschedule the interview to another date. I am looking forward for a positive response.
Yours Sincerely,
Miranda
Learn how to write other types of business emails which may help you so much in work in our other blog posts:
- The complete guide to business email etiquette
- How to write an action required email
- How to write an email to inform something
2. Format of a meeting rescheduling email
To write this email as sincere as it should, put yourself in the other’s shoes. Imagine all the inconvenience, wasted time, and money this might cause them. You must try to milden their dissatisfaction through much politeness and apology. Thus, the key rules here are politeness, reasonableness, and timeliness.
2.1. Step 1: Clearly describe changes
When terminating an appointment, you should give a clear notice immediately. It’s just a simple sentence such as: “I am sorry to inform you that I won’t be able to attend our meeting tomorrow.”
2.2. Step 2: Provide a good explanation
Certainly, you must explain why you cannot attend. If this part is lacking, your customers, partners, bosses, etc may start to think that you are not a reliable person. However, there’s no need to write a very detailed explanation. In order to keep the email brief and to-the-point, just give them a short but reasonable reason.
2.3. Step 3: What’s the solution?
You also need to suggest another appointment. Proposing a new time to reschedule means that meeting this person is still important to you. Despite the unexpected need to terminate it, you are still interested in the appointment.
You had better provide several options from which they can select an alternate day and time. Since you are the one who needs to apologize, stay open to counter-proposals and give your recipient the possibility to adjust the schedule.
2.4. Step 4: End the email with apology and appreciation
At the end of your email, you must not only say sorry to but also thank the person for his or her consideration of your situation. This shows your respect. Appreciate the fact that they will have to spend time reading your email and maybe even compromise their plans because of you. Especially for business people, making adjustments in a schedule is not easy at all.
Example:
- Please accept our sincere apologies
- I’m sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you and your team.
However, an apology can also be inserted in the first few lines of the email.
For example:
“We are sorry to inform you that I cannot make it on time for our meeting on this Friday”,
“On behalf of the team, I apologize…”
3. Common words & phrases used in a rescheduling email
The following words and phrases are often used when you want to change an appointment.
- postpone: take place at a time later than expected or originally scheduled
- I postponed the meeting until Thursday.
- The meeting has been postponed until Friday.
- delay: happen at a later time than expected or originally scheduled
- Our flight from Taipei to Beijing was delayed by 2 and a half hours.
- Some problems delayed the release of the product.
Don’t just copy and paste the phrases, here’s how to remember them forever
I want to remind you that it’s best if you can write the email by your own, without browsing the internet for words and phrases. What if you can remember those phrases and write them down as if they are your own words? That would be perfect. How can you do that? How to make the words become your own? The smart tool below will empower your skills.
Make sure you download the eJOY Extension first. While reading the next part, select the words or phrases you want to remember forever and save them to your word book on eJOY. Every day, eJOY will tell you which words you are about to forget and it’s time to review them with spaced repetition. By practicing 5 minutes a day, you will gradually build a wider range of business vocabulary that makes you confident and fluent in English business communication.
- move forward: move an appointment to advance (an earlier time or date).
- Can we move the date of our meeting forward?
- They moved the date of the event forward to Monday.
- move back: move a meeting to a later time or date.
- I’m afraid that we have to move the meeting back.
- They’re arriving later than we expected, so we have to move the start back.
- unable to keep our appointment
- I’m afraid that I would be unable to keep our appointment this Tuesday 28th October.
- something unexpected has come up
- Unfortunately, as something unexpected has come up on Wednesday morning, I would highly appreciate if we could postpone our meeting until next week.
- be away on business
- Because I would be away on business next week, could we delay the meeting to the first Friday of next month?
- be available on
- Would you be available on Tuesday morning?
- suitable time for you
- Could you please confirm if this is a suitable time for you?
- would Friday suit you? (informal)
- I will be busy on Tuesday. Would Friday suit you?
4. Things to keep in mind
4.1. Send your mail as soon as possible
The sooner you send the mail, the easier it will be for your recipient to make changes in their schedule, and the more chances they will be able to do so. In absolutely no case should you postpone sending your email for canceling a meeting until the very last minute. Do not linger over your email once you’ve written it.
4.2. Call them if needed
In urgent cases, if you want to be 100% sure that your recipients has received the notification, you can also directly call them on the phone after sending the email. In most cases, sending an email is sufficient.
4.3. One extra advice
When you eventually meet them, thank them for their patience directly and show how much you appreciate the opportunity to get together.
Having to postpone an appointment is a thing everyone has to do occasionally. The key is to make sure you have a good reason, always be pro-active in suggesting another time, as long as be straightforward and polite. And don’t forget to save words and phrases you may use frequently to your word book with eJOY Extension. Once you review your vocabulary every day in eJOY Game Center, you will find yourself confidently write business emails in your own words.
eJOY Extension is an excellent tool to learn English on a desktop. With just one click, you can watch your favorite TV shows, movies, or videos with dual subtitles, translate, and look up any word right on the captions.
