Dealing with time differences is always a challenge when doing business internationally. While the time gap with countries like Australia or others in Asia isn’t too severe, it becomes much more difficult with clients in Europe or North America, where day and night are completely reversed. This makes communication tricky.
Since the COVID pandemic, web meetings have become much easier to arrange, which is a positive development, but it hasn’t solved the issue of time zones. In fact, it sometimes feels like the downsides have actually increased.
But time differences aren’t just about hours on the clock.
For example, weekends and public holidays can also create “time gaps.” If a client in Europe sends an email on Friday afternoon, it may already be Friday night in Japan. That creates a two-day delay in opening the message. If the other country then happens to have a holiday on Monday, a single exchange can take several days.
Of course, Japan’s famously large number of holidays is likely a headache for partners in other countries as well. And in some countries, Friday is a regular day off, or people are reluctant to take on new work after Friday noon, causing further delays.
Then there are cultural holidays like the Lunar New Year, summer vacation, or Christmas, all of which vary widely between countries and can result in delays of one to two weeks without much warning. In other words, time differences don’t just come from time zones. They’re also caused by national holidays and business customs.
Unlike domestic communication, it’s rare for a request sent today to be answered in the same day when working with international partners.
That’s why, when doing international business, it’s essential to keep in mind that there are significant “”time gaps”” in various forms. Planning ahead with plenty of buffer time is an absolute must.
