KEVS-KORNER

POP QUIZ: What time zone does your software coder live in? How about the person who creates your web pages? What about the person who just sent you an email from halfway around the world? Or the person who left you a voicemail after you left work yesterday, inviting you to call him back? Don't know? What do you do - just pick up the phone and dial without checking?

Have you heard the story about the Elgin, Illinois (a Chicago suburb) church that got a ticket from the police for being too noisy? True story. Or the Korean church in Hawaii that wakes up nearby residents at about 5am on weekday mornings to the sound of drums? Read these reports and then tell me if you don’t think it’s just common sense for people to keep the noise level down when others (especially your neighbors!) are trying to sleep. One of the leaders in the Elgin church was surprised to learn that the ‘joyful noise’ his church had been making for months had been waking many people who never bothered to complain to them about it (a good illustration of how people often just don’t tell you when you rub them the wrong way). He insisted that his congregation wasn’t trying to wake up the neighborhood.

He just doesn’t get it. That’s the absolute wrong way to approach this issue. If YOU are the person initiating the noise, it’s up to YOU to check with the neighborhood first. Common sense dictates that most people in working families are sleeping at 5 am. It’s a big mistake to think that just because people don’t tell you that you interrupt their sleep time every morning means everything is OK.

Likewise, if you are going to call someone on the phone, it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re calling them at a convenient, if not optimal time. It doesn't matter that you didn't intend to call at a bad time. You need to check first.

I have found that there is a very widespread, nonchalant attitude about this very important issue. It’s one of those things that if you do it right, few people notice – but if you blow this, you could lose some serious business deals and possibly not even know it.

It was 5:30 am PST my time one fine winter morning earlier this year. The phone rang and I groggily groped for it in the dark. Finally, I managed to grab the handset before the 3 rd ring.

At the other end of the line was a very chipper, cheery voice “Good Morning Mr. Wirth, this is attorney ABC calling from XYZ law firm in Virginia, and how you are you today?”

“Oh” came the startled reply, “did I wake you? I’m soooo sorry. I forgot to check….I had no idea…I was just going to leave you a message…isn’t this your office phone? I just remembered - you are out West, aren’t you…”

“Yes, I am” I replied, now fully awake. “And the rooster next door hasn’t even crowed yet”.

If you received a call like this, what would you be mulling over at this point (if you weren’t going back to sleep)? Would you be thinking “Gee, I really want to do business with this person who doesn’t even bother to read my “best time to call’ which is clearly included in the signature line at the end of my email”?

In fact, I’d be willing to bet your interest in in doing any business with this person has just dropped to zero quicker than investors who own Enron stock. For some of us, such an interruption wouldn’t matter but for others, it could be a totally annoying incident. In many cases, the deal the caller was hoping to do with you might be about as viable as an earthworm on a freeway in 90 degree weather.

If you were the person making this call, would you change your habit after this? I doubt it. My experience is, you probably wouldn’t because it’s just too much hassle for you to try and figure out the time zone thing before you make a call (which is one reason I decided to write this article – I’m giving you all the resources you need so you have no excuse!).

I run my business from home, and I have a business phone number. Usually I unplug it at night, but sometimes, I do forget. And it seems that every time I do, Murphy’s Law is in full effect.

Recently, I sent off an email around 10 pm my time to a vendor in Australia, and I took specific care to say at the end of my correspondence that if he wanted to call me, he should do so between 9am-6pm PST, and that I reside at –8 GMT. About 1:30 am I got a phone call from…guess who?

“Well, normally at 1:30 am I would be asleep, but – lucky for you I’m still up. Did you read my note at the end asking that you call me during normal business hours?"

Now here’s a guy who KNEW that I was in the USA, and he knew he was in Australia. You’re telling me that it never even occurred to him to check the time zone first? His reason for calling me? He was more focused on doing a deal than he was in figuring out if he might possibly be waking me up. I could hardly believe he saw my phone number but not my 'best time to call' - one follows right after the other.

What is the very FIRST THING you need to be thinking about before you make a phone call?

The correct answer is “I wonder what time zone they are in and if I’m calling at a decent hour?” You need to know the Best Time To Call (BTTC) that person, or else make sure you place your call no sooner than 9 am. Consideration of your customer is the first rule of good business, and knowing when and when not to call needs to be at the very top of your etiquette list. If you don’t know your customer’s time zone – stop – and do NOT pick up that phone until you find out!

I had a conversation with another vendor about this recently who called me too early one morning, and after I explained to her that she really needed to check my time zone before calling, she peevishly said “You know Kevin, I really didn’t mean to irritate you by calling so early.”

FLASHBACK: Remember the man at the Korean church at the beginning of this article who insisted that his congregation wasn’t trying to wake up the neighborhood? Same difference.

Living in a global economy is a great boon for internet based business, but it does not mean we all live in the same time zone. And we all have a different BTTC. So remember that the next time you go to pick up the phone. Or, use MSN of ICQ. And post that contact info at the end of your email sig line as well. For example, here's one of my sig lines:

Here are some resources I recommend you consult to help you make sure you know what time you are placing a call to someone:

Use a World Clock . Perhaps the easiest way to calculate your time versus the time of the person you are calling, is to refer to a World Clock. A world clock will post the current time for all major cities of the world, and if you can find a major city in your time zone and the time zone of the person you are calling, voila – you’re done right now. Or, you can try looking at a World Time Converter.
Check a time zone map . Let me ask you – if you do business internationally, do you know off the top of your head what your GMT is? No? Then this is one of the first things you should learn – your GMT and the GMT of the person you are calling. Then you need to learn how to calculate how many hours apart you are from each other (the map below makes this easy). Make it a habit before you call to look at a time zone map and figure out the best time to call. Here’s a sample map:

Time Zone Map

Time Zone Table

Abbreviation	Time Zone	+ or – from GMT
GST	Pacific Guam Time Zone	+10
AST	Atlantic Time Zone	-4
EST	Eastern Time Zone	-5
CST	Central Time Zone	-6
MST	Mountain Time Zone	-7
PST	Pacific Time Zone	-8
ALA	Alaska Time Zone	-9
HAW	Hawaii Time Zone	-10
AT	American Samoa Time Zone	-11

3. Check the area code for state or country . If you live in the USA, there are only 4 major time zones you should really be concerned with – PST, MST, CST, and EST. Before you make a call, you can correlate the area code with a time zone by consulting these resources:

Using one or more of these tools to assure that you contact people at a reasonable time will go a long way towards ensuring that you build an enduring relationship with your customers.

Kevin Wirth is the owner of KEVS-KORNER ezine, a FREE online newsletter offering articles, tips, resources, and a growing community where you can work with others to create and market products online. To join or investigate, go to www.kevs-korner.com, where you'll receive a valuable free gift just for visiting and more for subscribing to KEVS-KORNER.

You may freely reprint and distribute this article as long as you retain all the text and links.

To help you call your customers at the best time, please refer to my Time Zone article series.

I pay a bounty for any mistakes found in my articles. Just send me an email with the URL and describe what you found. I will send you to a link with a free gift valued at between $19 - $50, possibly more

QUICK - What Time Zone Is Your Customer In?

Time Zone Map

Time Zone Table