Posts Tagged ‘Leaves’

Design your own Conference Call

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Why settle with the way things are with your conference call?  Maybe you really don’t like the fact that there is a tone that plays every time someone joins or leaves your conference call.  Or maybe you don’t want the participants to be able to join the call unless the Moderator is present.  With most conference call service companies  you don’t really have a choice.  You get your conference call the way they are giving it to you and you either like it or you don’t.  Most conference call service companies set the features on the conference call one way and that is the way that all of their customer’s call are configured.  Well, that is not the way it has to be or should be.  With Zip Conferencing you can log into your own account and design the conference call the way you want it.

There are a number of features that can be set on a conference call.  Here is a run down of all of the conference call options that you can control with Zip Conferencing.

  • Entry/Exit tones – You have three options for tones when a participant joins the conference call.  You can have silence, a tone or their name announced.  Each of these options can be enabled for entry, exit or both.  So you can have a tone when they enter but silence when they leave and so forth.
  • Music on Hold – You can have participants listen to music until the Moderator joins the conference call.
  • Prompt Moderator for ID/code – The Moderator is prompted for their Client ID and pass code.  This is an additional layer of security on the conference call.
  • Prompt Moderator for Billing Code – This will enable you to track by billing code the activity of each Moderator.
  • Prompt participants for PIN – This is an additional code for entry into the conference call for additional security.
  • Abort Conference if no Moderaotr Joins – The conference call will be disconnected if the Moderaotr does not join the conference call.
  • End Conference when Moderator Exits – The conference call will be disconnected when the Moderator leaves the conference call.
  • Record Participants Name for Roll-Call – When a participant joins the conference call they will be prompted to record their name and then the names will be played for the Moderator as a Roll-Call.
  • Post Conference Report – At the end of each conference call an email with the usage detail from the conference call will be delivered.
  • Client Matter number – The system will record a Client Matter number to help with charge back billing clients at the end of the month.

As you can see, there are a variety of features that you can control with Zip Conferencing conference calls to enable you to design and customize your conference call the way that you like it.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Options – Keep it Simple

Friday, September 18th, 2009

With Zip Conferencing, like many conference call service providers today, you can add a lot of options to your conference calls.  But, like most things, it may be best to just keep it simple.

Let’s take the way the conference call is set to start.  With Zip Conferencing, the default setting says that participants can speak to each other before the Moderator or Host of the conference call joins the conference call.  For most meetings this is preferable and participants are not left wondering where everyone is while they wait for the Host to join the conference call.  The other way to run the start of a conference call is to have the participants listen to music until the Host joins the conference call.  If the Host does not join the conference call the participants are left wondering what is happening.  So, for smaller meetings I would suggest you go with the open meeting approach which mirrors a regular in person meeting. 

Now that you have the participants on the call most people like to know who is on the conference call and at least know when someone joins the conference call.  This can be accomplished a couple of different ways.  The easiest is to allow a tone to play when a participants joins or leaves the conference call.  The tone is short and unobtrusive if there are not too many participants and if the participants are generally on time.  Another way to handle this is to have the participants name play in the conference call when they join or leave the conference.  But depending on how their name recording goes, this method can be a little disruptive during a conference call in my opinion. 

Another setting that can be troublesome if you are not careful is when a conference call is set to disconnect all participants when the Host leaves the conference call.  I think that many Hosts will tell you that the idea of this is good, but in practice the participants may want to carry on the conversation at the end of the meeting after the Host has disconnected.  If the Host enables this feature the participants are left to try to contact each other another way if the Host leaves the call.

I find that the use of too many of these bells and whistles only complicate things and can actually make what should be a simple thing, holding a conference call, complex and annoying.  So, my suggestion, like many things in life, keep it simple and you will probably be better served.

www.zipconferencing.com

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