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A recent discussion via the MyLinkedInPowerForum asked why US members don’t include their country code in their phone numbers. By that we mean, adding the country code, +1. There are a lot of members on this list, from many different countries.

A discussion ensued which indicated it hadn’t occurred to many in the US to do that, some saying they never call outside of their country so they hadn’t thought about those who call in.

This prompted me to add other frustrations I experience with respect to people not indicating their location for determining time differences or using acronyms that mean little outside of their country. By this I mean things like CST, MDT, PST, EDT, and so on if they’re listing an event for people to attend.

Recently I received a phone call at 2am from someone in another country. Unfortunately their accent made it difficult to understand the number they were giving, they didn’t tell me what country they were calling from (or if they did, I didn’t understand it) and I had no idea whether I had the right number because I had no country code to add. The call went unreturned and these people probably think I was rude and disinterested. They haven’t followed up.

I decided to make some changes at my end. My voicemail message now states that my timezone is +10GMT so that callers from outside of my country understand why I haven’t answered their call during their daytime.

I’ve added a date and timestamp to my website so that visitors can see what time it is right now where I am.

I’ve always added +61 to my phone and fax numbers so that international callers know exactly what to dial.

I’ve added Melbourne, Victoria, Australia for those who need to have a good idea of where I am. Listing my own suburb, and an abbreviated form of my state won’t help those who aren’t in the know.

So, here is my check list for service based businesses with websites that are designed to attract international business. This doesn’t necessarily mean all websites should have this but if you are operating internationally and it’s reasonable to expect a phone call from overseas now and then, this would be good to do.

1. On phone and fax numbers include your country code.
2. Include your state in full with postcode/zipcode.
3. If running an event that requires attendees to dial in or login at a particular time, don’t just put a timezone abbreviation such as EST but include your nearest major city and state. If possible add a link to a meeting planner to assist visitors in working out the time differences.
4. Consider adding a timestamp as I have done, if you provide a service based business for international clients.

Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and wonder just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or webpage to accommodate them.

After all, we all know that this is a common sight in Australia, don’t we?

Oh, and by the way, I heard the other day that some outside of Australia think the kookaburra is a myth! I assure you it isn’t.

Tags: Business Operations, Networking for Business //