Today we're focusing on your telephone and fax numbers.
- Be sure to include your country code, preceded with a "+" sign, such as
+1.411.555.1212
This is especially important for professionals in the USA. Most people in countries outside the USA (such as Canada and Jamaica, which are also under the +1 country code) include their country code in their contact information. It's critical information, for example, that Morocco's country code is "+212" and Britain is "+44", etc. However, people in the USA omit "+1" all the time as if the world revolves around us and our country code!!! Imagine what we are communicating to others when we expect people to look up or "know" the country code for the country in which we (not they) live. Is that a message you want to send or an impression you want to give to others? If you use the country code designations, you'll be using standard information that anyone in any country can use around the world, regardless of the way that their phone provider asks them to access international lines.
- Do not include any digits in front of the country code that may be numbers used to access long distances lines/carriers from your country, such as 00, 001, and 011. This is an incredibly common error. These additional digits are access codes to access an international line -- and these digits very according to location, phone system, countries, etc. Leave them out.
- If your country uses "0" or other numbers in the digits that indicate and area or city as a way to distinguish dialing a number from inside your country, consider framing these with parentheses to indicate that these are optional, such as: +44.(0)2.411.555.1212. This is yet another good reason for only using "." as a divider for telephone numbers -- to allow in-country digits to be easily recognized.
- Spell out words or use common abbreviations such as "Telephone:" or "T:" or "Tlf:" for your main telephone number, "Mobile:" or "M:" for your mobile number and "Fax:" or "F:" for your fax number. These are standard international designations. "Cell phone" is mostly a USA designation and can confuse international contacts.
- If you are set up so that all your phone numbers can be fed into one line, consider doing this. Google Voice and Skype provide some free as well as low-cost services in this area. (I haven't had a landline since 1994 -- and haven't missed it.)
Here's how I do it:
T: +1.612.234.1814 | F: +1.866.433.6694
Good luck with that Global Tuneup™! Let me know if you have other suggestions!
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This post is part of the Manitou Heights Global TuneUp™ series. If you're not familiar with it, check out the Global TuneUp™ series introduction!
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