Conference calls are the most cost-effective way of communication in businesses these days, given the fact that their expansion is inevitable. The businesses expanding in the form of workers and other executives handling branches and offices in different locations need a space-independent way of reaching to each other. A conference call, thus, fits the bill perfectly in such business environment. These calls have brought higher authorities and subordinates closer. But, these calls become effective when the callers follow certain practices. Here is an overview of such practices.
Handling disturbances like a pro
- Conference calls involve too many people on line at the same time. Thus, these calls can become noise-proof if you make certain changes in the lines of the phone used by the participants. The simplest of these procedures is turning the ‘mute’ on. This feature eliminated the background noise and other statics that can ruin the call. All participating lines can be muted together; the individual lines can be muted separately, too, as per the host’s discretion. When a participant needs to speak, he can simply unmute the line by using *1 on the phone keypad, or by pressing ‘unmute’, if available.
- Considering and reviewing the connection is also helpful in avoiding disturbances. Since phones are involved in conference calls, their success is largely dependent on the strength of signals and availability of cellular networks. Such features diminish the call quality further when the participants are stationed at some noisy places. This shortcoming can be solved by using a high quality headset that is equipped with noise cancellation facility.
- Avoiding the use of ‘Hold’: You should never ever put your phone on ‘hold’ when the conference call is on. It is because the others would be disturbed all the time hearing to the hold music coming out from your line. Thus, if you need to take a break, just mute the line but don’t keep it on hold.
Keeping the participants engaged
Once you have learnt the ways to make yourself heard loud and clear, it is time to understand how conference calls can be made more productive. Since no one is able to see each other, the voice has to provide the cues of the body language that were available to you in a face-to-face meeting. So, modulate your voice tones according to the words you are speaking and by using correct tones, make your gestures clear to other people in conversation.
Also, you must encourage people to speak but only after you have finished what you wanted to convey. Take the names of the participants and make them answer questions, such as, “Are you with me, William? What do you want to add to it?” or “Please explain to others what is discussed, Ben.” Such pieces of conversations can surely add to the quality of the call and its purpose will definitely be served.
So, conference calls are easy, but these surely need lots of preparations. So, choose the right conference call service for your needs and make sure it has a good support that can help manage technical aspects of it satisfactorily. This will save your time, which is the main motive of audio conferencing.
About the Author:
Rupesh Singh is freelance writer and founder of Moneyoutline.com. You can follow him on Google+ or Facebook.
