Posts Tagged ‘Emergencies’

Audio Conferencing can Save a Road Trip

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Audio Conferencing is one of those things that I wonder what we did without it.  And not just because I am in the business.  Conference calls are so wide spread that I just can’t imagine life without them.  Especially if you are a road warrior or even just someone who finds themselves out of the office on a regular basis.  After all let’s face it there is a lot of down time when you are on the road and there is no reason you can’t remain productive.  Because audio conferencing can really save a road trip.  There are any number of ways that conferencing can save the day on the road.

  • Attend Regular Meetings – When you are out of the office there is no need to miss the regular meetings that keep you in touch.  Simply get an audio conference set up and hold the meeting from the road.
  • Impromptu Meetings – You get the email and need to pull a group together but you are hundreds of miles away.  No problem, just use audio conferencing to pull together the people you need to discuss whatever situation is thrown at you.
  • Handle Emergencies – Every business gets hit with an emergency from time to time and customers know that as well.  It is how you handle the emergencies that will distinguish you.  Pulling together the people necessary to deal with the emergency and making sure everyone is on the same page will do a lot to contain any issues the emergency will uncover.  Audio conferencing allows you to pull together the emergency team in a moments notice no matter where you are at the time.
  • Personal Use – Yes, personal use.  I bet you have not used a conference call for your personal use before but for all the same reasons it can really help.  If there is a personal emergency or even if you just want to congratulate a son or daughter on a big accomplishment why not get everyone on the phone at the same time?

So the next time you are getting ready to go on the road and you are packing make sure you bring along audio conferencing.  You never know when you might need it and it can really save your road trip.

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Conference Calls for Emergencies

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

First of all, let me offer my most sincere condolences to all in Haiti who have lost loved ones in this terrible earthquake.  I know that the US and the rest of the world is working as fast as they can speed help to that country and I wish them all the best in this difficult time.  Certainly in a disaster like this many resources have to be pulled together to muster the kind of support necessary to attack the problem.  And a great deal of coordination needs to happen to have all of the resources work effectively together to speed the recovery process.  Conference calls are an excellent way to pull together the various people and agencies to coordinate their efforts.

A major disaster like the one in Haiti does not happen every day, thankfully, but it is easy to see how communication is important to help provide the kind of coordination necessary between the various agencies.  Conference calls allow people to connect without the need to be in person and in this case across the world.  Since conference calls are accessible from around the world there is no limit to the where the people are located on the conference calls.  Participants from various countries can even get together to help coordinate their efforts.

As a small business owner the ability to coordinate global efforts using conference calls probably won’t apply to you.  But having a conference call service ready in case of a disaster for your company is a really good idea.  Emergencies in your business could happen at any time and being able to communicate with the rest of your staff and do it quickly can sometimes mean the difference between a small inconvenience and a total disaster. 

Take for example the case of the wrong price being put into a flyer for your business.  You just figured out that the price that is about to be distributed says $9.99 when it should be $99.99.  Pulling together the Marketing department, the printer and distributor on a conference call may give you an opportunity to head off the distribution before it goes out and determine a good course of action to rectify the situation.  If you had to make separate phone calls instead of pulling together all the parties on a conference call you will lose valuable time.  And in that time you might miss the window of opportunity to head off the distribution of the ad.  This is but one example of an issue that could be dealt with more easily with a conference call.

Whatever business you are in you may at one point experience an emergency that you need to deal with.  Being prepared for that emergency is key because time is short and dealing with the emergency expeditiously can mean the difference between a small issue and a huge emergency.  It costs nothing to get a set of conference call information and keep it at hand for just such an emergency.  Because when time is critical, a conference call can help reduce the time it takes to respond in an emergency situation.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Today’s Busy World

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

I sat down to write about how conference calls help manage your way around the crazy busy world we live in and guess what?  I got interrupted, had to handle multiple emergencies and yes, attend several conference calls.  So, it is certainly not a cure for the crazy busy lifestyle I am so familiar with but it certainly helps.  Conference calls simply provide a way to get more done in the same amount of time.  If I couldn’t attend those conference calls, I would have had to get in my car and drive, along with all the other participants to the office and find an open conference room, and have our discussion there.  That is bad enough that I have to spend the time commuting and the expense to get there, but then I would be in a location where I am limited in what I can do.  In my case I would have encountered the other emergency that happened to come up and I would have had to get back in my car and travel back to my home office again.  Again wasting time travelling, etc.

So, instead opf taking up all this time traveling I was able to jump on a conference call from wherever I am at the time, thanks to cell phones, take part in a productive meeting, simply hang up my phone and immediately return to the task I was on before the meeting, deal with the emergency, etc.  And I think that while we take many of these modern day marvels fro granted, the conference call is as important to helping us manage our busy lives as many of the other conveniences we now take for granted.  Cell phones are great but you can’t meet with ten people at the same time without the conference call.  The ability to carry around your email box on a handheld device is super, but after you get an email saying that you need to meet on a particular topic it would do you no good if you had to drop everything and come back to the office to meet instead of just jumping on a conference call. 

Maybe you appreciate the conveniences that help you manage your busy world, maybe you feel like you can’t escape from them, but one thing is for certain, conference calls help us manage today’s busy world.  www.zipconferencing.com

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