Posts Tagged ‘Lot’
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
I have spent a lot of time talking about how to host an effective conference call. But what should you do if you are a participant? In order to have a godd conference call it takes a well prepared host and it also takes participants who know how to behave on a conference call. Here are a few tips if you are a participant on a conference call that will help you get the most out of the conference call.
- Be On Time - The first thing you can do as a participant is show up for the conference call on time. When you don’t show up on time you are showing a lack of consideration for the Host and the other participants alike. Because even if the Host starts the conference call on time wihtout you or not you are causing a delay and/or an interruption to the meeting. And you have to assume you were invited to the conference call because you are recognized as a valuable contributor to the conference call. Given that assumption you need to be on time to the meeting and ready to participate.
- Be Prepared - Hopefully the Host sent out an agenda for the conference call ahead of time. At the very least you should have an idea of what the conference call is meant to address and you have a responsibility to be prepared for the meeting. That could mean reviewing related documents or actually being prepared to present during the conference call.
- Mute Your Phone - This is not always necessary, but all participants should be aware that even if you are being quiet the other people on the conference call can hear you. Our conference call service equipment produces a very clear audio connection so even just the typing on your computer is easily picked up by the microphone on your phone and is transmitted across the conference call to all participants. It is always the best idea to simply mute your phone unless you are speaking. Most phones these days have a mute button and if not the conference call service should have a way to enter a command through the phone to mute your line.
- Identify Yourself - On a conference call there is no way for the Host or other participants to identify you unless you do it. The best practice is to state your name when you are going to speak so people know who is spoeaking.
- Participate - It is easy to get distracted on a conference cll because you are usually at your desk and still have access to computers, papers, etc. But you were invited to the meeting because your participation was deemed important and if you were in a face to face meeting you would not even consider answering emails while in the meeting. So on a conference call participate just like you would in a face to face meeting.
If you treat your participation on a conference call just like you would an in person meeting then your conference call participation will be a success.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Address, Agenda, Ahead, Assumption, Conference Call Service, Contributor, Interruption, Lot, Microphone, Mute Button, Participant, Participants, People, Typing
Posted in Conference Call | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Being in the conference call industry for over 14 years I have seen a lot of issues with conference calls. And many of them are directly related to the conference call service company. The technology to make a conference call is sophisticated and involves many components that can fail. So naturally, no matter what measures a conference call company takes to prevent a conference call issue, they can still happen. Luckily, over the years the technology has gotten better, and the other components have also gotten better. Today, the conference calls are clearer and more reliable than ever. So why do people still have problems on conference calls. Some of the issues that occur on a conference call will never go away, because the issue is caused by the people on the conference call and that will never change. Here are some of the common issues you will find on a conference call.
- Echo - Echo on a conference call can be caused by many things, including issues with the telephone carrier. But these days the issues that used to occur on a long distance call have largely been reduced to the point where it is unlikely that the long distance telecommunications carrier was the culprit. Usually echo on a conference call is caused by one of the participants having more than one connection on the conference call up in close proximity to another connection. Sometimes someone in a conference room with a speaker phone will also have another phone connected to the conference call. To eliminate the echo you simply need to mute the offending connection and it will go away.
- Noise on the call - It is not impossible for the telecommunications carrier or conference call service provider to have an issue, but these days the biggest introduction of noise onto a conference call is one of the participants. Usually it is someone on a cellular phone and they are either in a moving vehicle or in a high noise situation like an airport. The best way to eliminate the noise is for that participant to mute their line until they need to speak on the conference call and then they can just unmute themselves.
- Hold Music on the call - Many people do not realize what their phone system sounds like to a caller when they place that caller on hold. So, usually what happens is a participant will step away for a minute and place their phone on hold while they are in the conference call. This will introduce whatever is on their phone system onto the entire conference call. The way to eliminate this issue is to use the mute function in the conference call instead of placing your phone on hold.
- Too little or too much volume - Sometimes a connection will have a low or high volume when connected to the conference call. This can happen for many reasons. Conference call service equipment adjusts connections automatically to compensate for different levels but you can also adjust the volume of individual participants from within the conference call.
So, as you can see most of the issues on a conference call these days are caused by the participants themselves. And fixing these issues is usually not a big problem. To assist with the correction of conference call issues, Zip Conferencing has operators available 24/7 from within the conference call to help identify and eliminate these problems. You can reach an operator anytime by pressing *0 on your telephone from within the conference call.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Cellular Phone, Close Proximity, Conference Call Service, Conference Call Service Provider, Culprit, Echo Echo, Long Distance Call, Long Distance Telecommunications, Lot, Many Things, Noise Situation, Participants, Speaker Phone, Telecommunications Carrier, Telecommunications Service, Why Do People
Posted in Conference Call | No Comments »
Monday, October 19th, 2009
There have been many predictions ofValue the conference calls’ demise over the years. First, the video conference was going to be on everyone’s desktop and people wouldn’t bother with regular conference calls anymore. Then services came along that purported to provide free conference calls. Then everyone was going to be speaking into their PCs and wouldn’t use a phone anymore. And on, and on. The fact that conference calls done over the telephone are not only still here but doing so well is the basic fact that there is no better value if you want to have a high quality connection and be able to speak to a group of people at a distance.
Video conferencing has been around for a long time. So why aren’t we all looking at each other during our calls already. There are probably many reasons. But first and foremost it is not as easy as a conference call and not necessarily available to everyone. I mean these days it is hard to buy a PC without a webcam attached, but many people don’t use them or know how to use them. And the quality of the connection still has a lot to be desired. If anything, the call can be more distracting than anything. And then you have the whole social aspect. The fact that most people don’t feel comfortable having their image in front of themselves and broadcast to many people. It will be quite a while before video conferencing is as easy to use as a telephone.
I’ve addressed the concept of the free conference call in other posts, but in short nothing is really free. You simply can’t get a high quality conference call with toll free access for nothing. And toll free access for your participants is simply the right thing to do. And if you want to make sure the call is there when you need it to be and want a good sound would you trust it to a free service?
And we are also still a long way away from having an integrated device on our desktop that does all of our phone tasks as well. Can you do it today? Of course, but the complexities of getting it done is worse than getting the video camera to work and if you still have to connect to people using a telephone you still have to connect to the telephone network to do a conference call so you really aren’t gaining anything unless you eliminate that aspect.
One of the big drivers for new technology is saving money. Today, the costs of conference calls have come down to the point where it is difficult to justify putting up with any inconvenience to try to save a little money. Let’s face it, everyone has a telephone and that is really all you need to have and know how to use in order to join a conference call. And you will get a clear, high quality connection without any issues.
So, given all the choices that are out there, conference calls continue to grow because they still deliver the best value for the money.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Buy A Pc, Demise, Fact That Most People, Free Access, Free Calls, Free Conference Call, Group Of People, High Quality, Integrated Device, Long Time, Lot, Many People, Participants, Quality Conference, Quality Connection, Social Aspect, Video Conference, Video Conferencing, Webcam
Posted in Conference Calls | 1 Comment »
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
Tags: Call Options, Conference Call Service, Conferencing, Different Ways, Hosts, Leaves, Lot, Music, Participants, People, Service Providers
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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
In the past 15 years I have watched the average cost of a conference call service go from over 20 cents per minute to less than 10 cents per minute. In that time one of the fundamental costs of the conference call service business, the cost of telecommunications, has dropped a lot so conference call service companies have been able to get more aggressive in their pursuit of new business by dropping rates as well. As prices continue to fall and conference call service companies continue to think up new ways to package pricing to make the rates more attractive I thought it would be good to examine if a conference call service is a commodity.
In the eyes of the consumer on the surface it is difficult to see any difference certainly in a conference call service, especially if you are not too familiar with conference call features and so forth. But, behind the curtain there are many things that distinguish differences in conference call services. Some are plain to see, like the type of access the conference call service company offers. A local access number is less cost to the conference call service company so they can charge less, but you will incur hidden cost by having to call a long distance number to connect to the conference call. Another obvious difference can be the number of participants allowed on a conference call. The more participants you can get on a call raises the cost of available equipment to the conference call service company. And support is another cost that cannot be hidden. If the conference call service company offers 24/7 support, which you would want, they will need to pass that cost on as well.
Some of the costs that you may not see, but you should look for in a conference call service company are the quality of its network, a redundant network to avoid catastrophic failure and the personal support you need to help you when you need it. Zip Conferencing has taken all of the possible precautions to make sure that your conference calls are available when you need them and the support you need to make sure you get the most out of the service. And all of the things that make for a high quality experience with a conference call service company have a cost to them. So, even though they may all look the same on the outside, conference call service companies are not all the same. And because of all the differences you can and cannot see, a conference call service is not a commodity.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Access Number, Available Equipment, Catastrophic Failure, Commodity, Conference Call Service, Conference Call Services, Curtain, Fundamental Costs, Long Distance, Lot, Many Things, New Business, New Ways, Participants, Personal Support, Redundant Network, Service Business, Telecommunications, Time One
Posted in Conference Call Service | No Comments »
