soho-life.com

You know what they say about the word assume?  It can make an Ass out of U and Me.  Or something like that.

I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to set up times to meet with people online in the US.  But somehow it never gets through to them that because I don’t live on their shores I have no idea what city might be inside which timezone and how a timezone relates to me specifically.

I mean, I don’t know what city is in CST or CDT.  I do know that means Central time but does that mean I have geographical knowledge of their country?  uh uh.  It doesn’t.  Same with MST, PST and so on. I do know that New York is EST/EDT and I do know that is 14/15/16 hours behind Melbourne, Australia depending on the time of year and which side of daylight savings we’re in.

Make it easy on your audience please, and those you email. If you’re setting up a telephone or online meeting, webinar, podcast, etc and you’re inviting people to participate or attend, then be kind to them and make it easy for them to look up the time difference. Give them the name of a MAJOR CITY and not the timezone.  Or give them options for finding out the relevant time in their own city. I have seen links on sites where people are registering for an event, and they can click on it to work out the time and add it to Outlook if they wish.

Stop making assumptions that everyone knows and understands the geography of your country.  You may find you’ll get even more attending events because you’ve made it easier on them.

By the way – I’m not picking on those in the US because they’re in the US. This can well apply to anyone in any country. It’s just that the majority of people I deal with for events are in the US and I don’t really want to have to take up studying US geography just to work out the right time to attend an event.

Tags: Business Operations, Working Online // 1 Comment »