Establishing relationships with businesses all over the world is one of the greatest opportunities of being a freelance professional or agency but it can have some unexpected impacts on your business.
Communicating with clients in different time zones is more than a logistical issue; you also need to consider how to communicate effectively, the effects of cultural differences, and how to ensure the best possible results.
In this article, we’ll look at time zones and some of the actions you and your team can take to keep clients happy with streamlined communication, consistent productivity, and effective collaboration.
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Understand time zone differences
A time zone is a defined area where the same standard time is used for business, legal, and social purposes. There are 24 official time zones that divide the global map into segments that zigzag around political and geographic boundaries, taking factors such as cultural and social considerations, economic regions, population density, historical agreements, and Daylight Saving Time (DST) into account.
Practically speaking, by creating relatively standardized reference points, time zones give context to the ebb and flow of the day in a location you aren’t familiar with. That makes a lot of sense until you’re in Ubud, Indonesia, trying to schedule an appointment with a client in Austin, TX, U.S.—a 13-hour time difference.
The reality is that working across time zones can impact how you do business in ways that can take compromise and flexibility to sort out. These can include:
- Scheduling conflicts. Finding times that overlap during standard working hours so you and your clients can connect in real time can be a day-to-day challenge.
- Offset interactions. You need tools to help you and your clients stay connected and up-to-date between real-time meetings, and to allow for decisions and time-sensitive situations that will inevitably come up.
- Cultural differences. Face-to-face interaction and non-verbal cues can help diffuse otherwise innocent conflicts that can arise from differing communication styles and expectations that are normal in different cultural experiences. There can also be regional differences in public holidays and working customs that can impact when people in other time zones are available.
- Work-life flexibility. From shifting your schedule to responding to incoming requests at odd hours, you may find it helpful to work outside your normal hours from time to time. Doing so may impact your other commitments and challenge the work-life boundaries you’ve set.
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Pro tip: Find tools that work for your business
Many people use the standard clock app on their phone or computer for a quick time check. Here are a few other favorites that make it easy to see how different time zones overlap:
- World Time Buddy, available online or as an app
- Miranda (iOS)
- World Clock (Android)
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Set expectations for clear communication
While you’re in control of how and when you work on client projects, effective and timely communication is important. To develop strong client relationships, it can be helpful to set boundaries and expectations around your availability and response times.
Share your typical schedule
Start by painting a picture of your typical workday for your clients. For example, if you’re based in Belgium, you might say to a client in Boston, MA, U.S.: “I work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central European Time, which is 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. Eastern Time. I don’t check work emails after 6 p.m. or on weekends but will respond to any requests the next business day.”
Explaining your typical schedule doesn’t just set boundaries and define your normal work hours, it also makes it easier for your client to see when your schedules might overlap.
Set expectations for response times
Tell your clients how quickly they can expect to hear back from you. For example, you could explain: “I typically respond to emails within 24 hours. For urgent matters, I’ll get back to you within 4-6 hours.” This way, clients won’t be left wondering when they’ll get a response to their emails, messages, or calls.
Give a timeline for feedback
Feedback can be the lifeblood of a project and things can grind to a halt when you don’t get the input you need when you need it. When requesting a response, specify when you need it—and ask your clients to do the same. For example, avoid delays by asking: “Please provide feedback by end-of-day Thursday so I can start the next phase of the project on Friday.” Some people even add the deadline to the subject line by adding a note such as: “Respond by 4 p.m.: etc.”
Pro tip: Be consistent with your references to time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) serves as a global time standard and is considered the “zero” point for the world’s time zones, with other time zones offset by a specific number of hours either ahead of or behind GMT.
You can also note times using the client’s time zone, or include both time zones for reference. Whatever you do, you can help avoid confusion by using the same reference consistently.
For example, here’s a selection of cities with their time zones written as GMT offsets:
Image Credit: Upwork.
Agree on preferred communication channels
Any sort of remote work means getting familiar with synchronous versus asynchronous communication and understanding when each type of communication works best:
- Synchronous communication. Interactions that happen live and in real-time—whether they’re online or in person—are considered synchronous (or “occurring at the same time”).
- Asynchronous communication. Interactions that don’t take place at the same time are considered asynchronous. Since messages can be sent and received at each person’s convenience, they’re particularly great for any type of scheduling conflict.
Discuss which type of communication works best in different situations and agree to common tools. For example, you might decide to use:
- Email for non-urgent matters and situational awareness
- Instant messaging apps for quick questions and time-sensitive requests
- Video calls for detailed discussions and decision making
- Recorded meetings to accommodate contributors who have a scheduling conflict, different work hours, or other high priority tasks to focus on in the moment
Leaning into tools that simplify asynchronous communication isn’t just helpful for distributed teams. As part of a remote-first mindset to doing business, practices designed with remote work and virtual collaboration in mind help provide equal opportunities regardless of location, time zone, or schedule.
Image Credit: PeopleImages/istockphoto.
Set regular check-ins
Setting a regular cadence for meetings means creating a rhythm that keeps projects on track and ensures clear communication. But how do you find the perfect beat? That probably depends on your project.
Schedule regular check-ins around:
- Milestones. Plan meetings around deliverables or deadlines.
- The calendar. Scheduling check-ins on a weekly or bi-weekly basis gives you and your client an opportunity to provide updates on progress and discuss challenges or concerns that have come up.
- Project phases or sprints. If your project is following an Agile approach, stand-ups and sprint planning are an important part of the development process.
- Your own “office hours.” Some independent professionals have “theme days” or batch their time as a productivity strategy, making specific chunks of time—like every Tuesday afternoon—available for ad hoc meeting requests.
For any meeting cadence, give yourself and your clients the flexibility to cancel if the meeting isn’t necessary and consider sharing an agenda ahead of time to help keep everyone on the same page.
Pro tip: Create new events in your client’s time zone
Apps like Google Calendar and Apple’s Calendar make it easy to select a different time zone when creating a new event; when you add the event using the time in your client’s time zone, you can be confident that it will show up correctly in your calendar. This can be particularly important with DST adjustments, which don’t necessarily take place on the same day in different parts of the world.
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Choose the right collaborative tools
Good collaboration tools are the unsung heroes of remote work. Finding the right tools for your projects and processes can bring clarity, efficiency, and a touch of human connection to your digital relationships. They can also help you to deliver your best work while keeping clients confident about and engaged in the process.
Collaboration and communication tools work hand-in-hand, using asynchronous and synchronous communication to enable you to share ideas and work together seamlessly while keeping everyone informed and engaged.
Pro tip: Keep looking for ways to work smarter
Whether you have a solo business or a team to support your clients, there are always new ways to work—from strategies to improve remote team communication that you can incorporate to exploring how AI can help your business scale and be more efficient.
Here’s a look at how some of the most popular collaboration tools can support your work:
Image Credit: Upwork.
Plan ahead for urgent issues
Emergencies don’t care about time zones or working hours and having a plan to deal with urgent issues isn’t just helpful—it’s essential when a problem inevitably comes up. Having a plan in place can help prevent potential issues from escalating.
A clear definition of an “urgent” or “emergency” situation
The criteria to identify such a situation can vary but often includes:
- Impact on business operations
- Financial implications
- Customer experience
- Security and data protection
- Risk to reputation
- Urgency or time sensitivity
- Scope and scale of the issue
Identify the most effective communication channels
Whether a client should contact you directly or go through someone else on your team, provide a phone line, email address, or even a dedicated messaging app that can cut through typical protocols to get a response as quickly as possible.
Define your response protocol
In a time-sensitive situation, it can be helpful to have a process to follow. This might include:
- Acknowledging the communication from the client
- Quickly assessing the scope and impact of the situation
- Taking immediate steps to mitigate the issue
- Providing frequent updates to the client so they’re kept in the loop on your response
Have a backup plan, especially if you’re unavailable
In an agency, there may be multiple leaders who can step in to manage an emergency situation. If you’re an independent professional, however, you may want to partner with someone else in your field or to engage a virtual assistant and establish a process for escalating incoming requests.
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Practice patience and flexibility
Working across time zones isn’t only about getting the logistics right; it’s also an opportunity to learn about diverse perspectives, cultural differences, and assorted working styles. Understanding and appreciating these differences can help you build deeper connections and stronger relationships.
At the end of the day—regardless of time zone—remember that you’re all working toward the same goal. When things don’t go according to schedule, patience and respect can go a long way toward bridging the distance.
Flexibility is particularly important for meeting in the middle. As a service provider, that might mean taking the occasional conversation outside of your typical business hours; for clients, it means understanding if there are delays in getting a response.
Communicating with clients in different time zones isn’t about always making yourself available, it’s about setting expectations and being willing to adapt.
Pro tip: Check the impact of time zones before you travel
If you are a digital nomad or plan to get some work done during upcoming travel, consider your work schedule before you book so you’ll know what to expect. The four-hour time difference between São Paulo, Brazil, and your San Francisco-based clients is pretty easy to navigate; the 19-hour time difference between Auckland, NZ, and San Francisco may take more consideration.
This article originally appeared on Upwork.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
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