Whether you hold weekly sales meetings, meet with clients, customers and suppliers around the corner or around the world … or need to include anyone, in any meeting, at any time when they can’t be there in person … conference calling helps you be more productive, more responsive, and stay more connected.
The focus of this article is on audio teleconferencing, which is defined as a telephone call between 3 or more locations (or participants) using your own phone, plus toll free or toll dial-in numbers for meet-me conferencing or for operator assisted conferencing. There are 2 other types of conferencing services – web and video – which may be offered as an adjunct to audio teleconferencing services but are outside the scope of this article.
Why Use a Teleconference?
Teleconferencing saves time and reduces costs (travel, meals, lodging). It increases productivity and results in more efficient use of limited resources and time. Teleconferencing is a more personal medium than e-mail for interacting with customers, sales reps and suppliers when face-to-face meetings are not practical or are too costly. It is an attractive alternative to travel which can easily add days or weeks of non-productive time each year. With teleconferencing, your customer can be in New York and experts can be on hand in California, Europe or Asia. A crisis that might have taken on major proportions if you were out-of-town can be handled quickly and efficiently because you can immediately coordinate with multiple, diverse resources.
Teleconferencing is a cost-effective solution when you need to share or exchange information with several people or groups in different locations for purposes of:
- Sales rep and customer meetings
- Management and team meetings
- Project updates
- Brainstorming sessions
- Board and committee meetings
- Customer seminars & new product roll-outs
- Crisis management
Which Conference Calling Service Is Best For You?
When your conference call just involves 3 people, you can usually use your cellular phone or office desk phone to add the third person.
Consider a network-based conference calling service when:
- You want your important clients, customers and/or suppliers to easily join … but not have to pay for a call
- You need to bring together a number of people in various locations, quickly and easily
- You are traveling or away from the office and need to host a call … with anyone, anywhere and anytime
- Or, you just want the ultimate convenience and hospitality of a toll-free hosted conference call
There are three main categories of conference calls to consider.
Reservationless conference calls are available at any time of day or night and need no advance set-up. These are the most widely used. (Most calls average 5-10 participants per call.) Many reservationless services are designed with all the features needed for a high quality conference call. Look for services that include:
- Dedicated toll-free and international toll dial-in numbers
- Moderator (host) and participant passcodes
- Sufficient bridge capacity (capable of handling up to 125 participants)
- Simple meeting controls, using the touch-tone pad on your phone
- Technical support available 24 x 7
- An easy-to-use reference guide, such as a wallet card, containing your phone numbers, passcodes and list of meeting controls
- Options to tailor calls to your needs
- Dial out access (so you can add on an additional participant during the call)
- Music on hold
- Conference recording (so those not present can be easily briefed)
- Personal greetings
- Sub-conferencing,
- Additional security
Reserved conferencing is a meet-me type conferencing service where you pre-schedule the conference with your service provider. This type of call might be used for one-time events. Users are provided a dial-in number and passcode; and join the call without the assistance of an operator.
Operator-assisted conferencing is generally used for high profile calls (board and investor relation calls), and for large interactive audiences (company announcements and other times when you need to deliver a message to a large number of people, e.g. up to 2,000+). As the name implies, these services provide you an operator to schedule, launch and greet and/or facilitate the call, and are feature-rich with options such as moderator-assisted Q&A, participant screening, participant lists, voting and polling.
Not all conference calling providers … or the services they offer … are created equal. They range from large, corporate service providers charging a premium (16¢ per minute or more) to stripped-down, low budget operators. In sorting through the differences and contract terms, key questions are:
- Beyond the advertised price (usually quoted as a per minute rate), is there a different price for toll dial-in and toll free calling?
- Do you need to renew the service regularly?
- Are there monthly fees? Monthly calling minimums? Any up-front or call set-up costs?
- Are all the features you want included (see feature list above)?
- What are the security protocols?
- What is the technical support (when there is a problem during a call) and customer service support?
The answers to those questions may be more or less important depending on how you intend to use teleconferencing (e.g. strictly for internal use or for external use with customers and clients, the sensitivity and proprietary nature of the information being discussed, etc.).
For businesses and professionals, where image is important, you should look for a service provider that provides you the quality, reliability and convenience you expect, and good value for your money.
How to Host a Successful Conference Call
Regardless of which type of conference calling you choose, here are some tips for getting the most out of conferencing:
Before the call
Provide participants the date, time and expected duration of the call. If you are using a dial-in service, include the toll-free dial-in number and participant passcode. If overseas participants are included, also provide the international toll or toll-free dial-in number.
Advise participants of the agenda and that the call will begin promptly.
Forward any written documents or presentation copies that participants may need ahead of time.
Position speakerphone (if used) near key participants. Use the best speakerphone equipment available to maximize quality of the sound.
The moderator (either you or a designate), should dial-in 5 minutes prior to call as a courtesy. In many services, participants will hear music on hold until the moderator joins the call, a security feature that prevents unauthorized use of your bridge.
During the call
Begin with a roll call to confirm attendance and inform all participants who is on the call.
Review the agenda and any meeting ground rules.
Advise participants to mute phones when not speaking and to avoid creating background noise such as rustling papers or side conversations. Be aware that cellular phones may be disruptive to other participants. It’s especially important to mute these phones when not speaking. (Also, be aware that cellular and cordless phones should not be used around microwaves.)
Ask participants to please
- Identify themselves when speaking
- Address people by name when asking questions
- Avoid placing phones on hold…any music on hold will disrupt the call
Divert side issues not on the main agenda to a sub-conference or schedule a follow-up call.
Before closing the conference call, agree to date and time of next call.
After the call
Send a follow-up e-mail or note with minutes of the call and any action items.
For conference calls that have been recorded, provide this information to anyone you want to hear the recording. If available, and when needed, order CD(s) of the recorded call.
When used properly, you will find teleconferencing a useful and essential business tool in today’s time-constrained work environment.
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About the author:
Tom Ireland has 25 years in the telecommunications industry, primarily with AT&T, and is a co-founder and the managing partner of Best Conferencing. His company offers the full range of conference calling including reservationless (always available, on-demand), reserved and operator-assisted conference calls. Tom can be reached at 973.543.0973 or tomireland@bestconferencing.com. For more information on Best Conferencing’s conference calling services, please visit their website – http://bestconferencing.com.
a separate, smaller conference or sub-group that takes place within a larger conference call (e.g., to handle a side issue)
Technology 