soho-life.com

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: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
7 Comments »

The week of 24th March marked a number of milestones for me. 14 years in business, I reached the 1,000 mark in LinkedIn connections (thanks Mike) and had published my 300th post on my VA blog.

Those of you who read my VA blog will know I had a week of giveaways for new subscribers to the blog and it produced a whole lot of interest and fun.

What have I learnt in those 14 years? Lots - like don’t hold back on an idea but surge forward with it and action it if you believe in it. I did and ended up pioneering a new industry in my country even though I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time. Hindsight is such a great thing, isn’t it?

Networking is another valuable thing I’ve learnt. You never know who is going to be able to lead you to whom or where so it’s important to treat everyone as you would like to be treated yourself. You never know when you might need those contacts. I’ve been able to introduce my daughters to some interesting people for their own life plans as a result of being in the right place at the right time - so leaving the office and actually going out and meeting people is a good idea.

Be prepared to learn new skills and don’t knock back opportunities. Much of what I do today for clients is as a result of saying ‘yes’ when a client asked me to explore something on their behalf. Otherwise I’d still be doing just typing and data entry and nothing else.

Finally, have fun. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing on a daily basis, then perhaps you need to reassess what’s happening in your life. If it’s for the short-term and you have a definite goal in mind, then that’s fine. But if it’s long-term and you have no goals, then something is adrift - time to find out what and why.

Tags: Author's Thoughts, LinkedIn by Kathie Thomas
6 Comments »

I’ve recently had a number of business people in the US contact me with plans to call me and have a chat about business opportunities. But they often quote their timezone and do not seem to understand that as I don’t live in their country we don’t work with the same timezones. A bit difficult when someone is going to call me first thing in the morning PST only to be told by me (after I’ve done the research) that equates to around 2 or 3am the following morning for me. Not a good time for a business call! Not all overseas contacts do this but sufficiently enough for me to find it a somewhat annoying and repetitive exercise.

When I make contact with others in different countries and if the need arises to speak to them on the phone or Skype, one of the first things I do is look up their nearest major city so I can do a time comparison and organise a meeting. I often wonder why others don’t bother to do the same?

I asked a business contact last week what his nearest major city was so I could look him up and he came back with California. Huh? That’s a state and I don’t know his country well enough to know what major city is in it. Sorry, but I didn’t study US geography at school and it certainly hasn’t been an extra curricular subject I’ve picked up since (mind you if I was about to travel there, it might be a different story). If I told someone in another country that I am in Victoria would they have any idea what major or capital city was here if they weren’t familiar with Australia? I doubt it - they would have to look it up.

Perhaps I’m showing myself to be arrogant or obstinate but I do feel that if I’m contacted by a business person overseas to make an appointment then perhaps it would be in their best interests to familiarise themselves with my location and timezone, or at least not talk in their local lingo (PST, MST or BST for example) and actually help me to work out a suitable time. Oh, and then stick to it - I sat by the phone for almost a half hour waiting for a call that actually came an hour later. As I had other appointments I missed the call and am yet to find out if the time had been incorrectly worked out or whether he did not understand that I might have other appointments since it was the start of my business day although it was late afternoon for him.

For those of you planning an international meeting with others from different countries, then why not visit the meeting planner at timeanddate.com to assist you with your plans? The meeting planner looks up major cities (not states) and works out the time differences and even makes allowances for the various daylight savings changes around the world. When planning your next virtual meeting, impress your contacts by having all the facts prior to setting a suitable mutually convenient time.

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
1 Comment »

Had an interesting discussion with one of my clients just recently. She asked me about a particular service available online and it is one I’ve been using personally for some years. I had mentioned it some time ago to her, as I do to all my clients, but it was dismissed at the time as something not of value.

She’s recently been reading material from someone else who promoted this particular service and the client emailed me, asking what I knew about it. I had to smile and reminded her I had mentioned it some time ago and that I use the service constantly.

That’s when she said to me something that is important for us all to remember ‘it depends on when you’re ready to receive the information’. I should have mentioned it to her again perhaps - I neglected to do so and so she found the information elsewhere.

If you’re a service provider to a client base it probably is a good idea to regularly let your clients know about various services you can provide to them - after all, it’s almost like ‘do you want chips with that?’ Sometimes they’re going to say ‘no’ but one day, when they’re ready, they’ll say ‘yes’.

We all get into ‘information overload’ and so there are always going to be times that aren’t the right time and other times when we are ready. Much like I’d been planning to find a new template for this blog - I just hadn’t gotten serious enough to do the research. I’ve found one I like now so if you receive this post via email, do click on the subject heading link and come for a look! Also, if you receive this via the old feed (Feedblitz) please re-subscribe at the Feedburner (email feed) or RSS feed links on the blog - I’ll be closing off the old feed sometime soon.

Oh! And what was the service I’m referring to? Google Alert! I posted about it just last month on this blog. I’ve since got my client to subscribe to my blog so she can read my material!

Going back to ‘being ready’ - if you have services you haven’t promoted to some of your clients for awhile, why not go back to them now and remind them? It’s still close to the beginning of the year and now’s as good a time as any to reconnect with your clients!

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
4 Comments »