Posts Tagged ‘Reason’

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 Call Features are Fabulous

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

For anyone who has done a conference call you probably just think that there is nothing much to it. You dial an access number to get tot he conference call and then put in a passcode and you are in the meeting. Don’t get me wrong, a conference call doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, the reason conference calls are so popular is the fact that they are affordable and easy to use. But that doesn’t mean that having conference call features needs to be complicated or cumbersome either. Once you try some of the conference call features out there you may not know how you lived without them.  Here is a list of just some of the conference call features available with Zip Conferencing.

  • Mute/UnMute Lines – If you are the moderator of the conference call you can mute all of the participants in the meeting.  This is especially helpful if you are having a large conference call.  If you have 50 people in the conference call there would be too much noise if all their lines were open.  You and your participants can also mute and unmute their own line which helps if you are on a cell phone in your car for instance and you would impart noise into the conference call.
  • Volume Control – You and you participants can control the volume of the conference call coming into your phone and also the volume of your line into the conference call.  So if you find yourself in a situation where participants are having a hard time hearing you then you can turn up the volume of your line.
  • Roll Call – You can have participants record their name when they enter the conference call and then if you are the moderator you can play back a roll call when you join the conference call and hear everyone who is on the call.  That way you know exactly who is on the conference call without having to take a live conference call after you join the meeting.
  • SubConferencing - If you have something you want to discuss with some of the people on the conference call but not all then you can have a subconference with those participants and then rejoin the conference call.  This is used extensively by the legal community when they need to have a discussion with a client during a conference call between both sides of a case.
  • Conference Call Introduction – You can personalize your conference call by recording an introduction.  That way participants will hear your personal greeting when they join the conference call.
  • Post Conference Call Report – Would you like to know how many people were on your conference call?  When did they join the call?  How many minutes did the conference call generate?  You can receive an email containing all of the essential information of the conference call when it has ended.

All of these conference call features are free and part of the service at Zip Conferencing.  So why just have a conference call when you can have a fabulous conference call?

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Toll Free Conference Calling is Still Better for Everyone

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Toll free conference calling has been around for a long time and hands down the most popular method of conference calling. The reason has always been pretty simple. No one hosting a conference call wants to subject their participants to having to pay to get on to their conference call. Toll free conference calling means there are no charges to dial into the conference call from your long distance provider. The only person that incurs any cost is the host of the conference call. So, the participants can dial into the conference call from anywhere and not worry about how much it costs. Who wants to think about where people are dialing in from? Here are the alternatives to toll free conference calling and their disadvantages explained.

  • Free Conference Calls – Free conference calls are not really free like toll free conference calling to the participants.  If you do a free conference call you will be given an access number somewhere in the country where you have to dial a long distance number to get to it.  That is you and your participants.  Depending on your calling plan the free conference call could easily end up costing you more than toll free conference calling.  The reason that companies can offer you a free conference call is because they get paid by the local phone company to terminate your long distance call in their facility.  And that is because you and your participants are paying someone for the ability to make that long distance phone call to connect to the conference call.  With toll free conference calling you are paying the conference call service provider to transport you and your participants to the conference call.  There is no mystery to who is paying for the call and the charges are not hidden somewhere.
  • Toll Conference Calls - Toll conference calls are similar to free conference calls only on top of paying to get to the conference call you are also paying the conference call service company.  If you are going to pay for the conference call why not pay for toll free conference calling?  A toll conference call means you are going to get a phone number somewhere in the country to dial into to access the conference call and you will have to pay long distance charges to get to the call and for the duration of the call.  Toll free conference calling means no one pays any long distance charges to participate in your conference call.  And you might think that since some people use a cell phone to dial into the conference call that they are not paying for long distance anyway.  But they are paying for long distance.  It is figured in their monthly plan which also has a certain number of minutes included.  Do you want your participants to have to use up their airtime minutes on your conference call?  With toll free conference calling the participants can dial in from a land line and not worry about long distance charges.

Toll free conference calling is still better for everyone because there are no hidden charges for people.  I am sure you would not want your participants to have to pay to get on your conference call and since toll free conference calling is so inexpensive why not give them an easy, toll free way to access the call?

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Conference Calls for Small Businesses

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

According to a lot of the pundits out there, including President Obama, there is a surge in the number of new businesses that are getting started.  This is because people have been laid off from their existing jobs and are starting out on their own instead of trying to find a job which is difficult at best right now.  And with the start of all these businesses a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to promote their businesses and stretch their precious capital.  This is just another reason why conference calls continue to grow, because they are a great way to reduce expenses but still get the job done.

New small businesses need to get their ideas to new customers, investors and prospects without breaking the bank.  One of the ways to do this is with a conference call instead of the expense of traveling.  It has been well documented in this blog how companies are saving thousands of dollars by choosing to conduct a conference call or a web conference instead of travelling to an in-person meeting.  Nowhere is it more important to save money than in a new small business.  Most small businesses just don’t have the money to be travelling around the country.  But with a conference call and a web conference a small business owner can present their product or service to potential customers around the country without leaving their office.  And the cost of doing a conference call or web conference these days is very affordable to even the small business owner.  In fact, with the advent of the Internet which has allowed small businesses to sell their products and services globally, the need to present to customers in remote locations has increased even more.  The ability to present to people from great distances using conference calls has expanded the marketplace for small businesses.  No longer are their goods and services limited to a local area.  The technology now available has literally helped some small businesses survive where they otherwise would not.  A conference call and web conferencing can also make a small business look bigger in the eyes of the customer by allowing them to present to anyone, anywhere.  And their office is simply a PC and a telephone.

If you have a small business and you are not taking advantage of conference calls and web conferencing in your business I urge you to examine your processes and try using the technology available to help expand your business and reduce your costs.  It may just make the difference in the life or death of your business.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Services with No Contracts

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

I have been in this business for a long time and in a service business like this I feel it is important to build a conference call service that customers will appreciate so that they will continue to use the conference call service for a long time.  And this philosophy has paid off over the years as customers have referred other customers to my conference call service company and thus the business has grown.  What surprises me, in this day and age with all the competition available, that some conference call service companies can make you sign a long term contract in order to buy their service.

Now don’t get me wrong, as a business person I certainly understand the value of a contract with a customer, but in the end a customer will get out of a contract if they want to.  So, what is the value of having someone sign a contract for your conference call service if they are simply going to leave you when the contract expires because they don’t like your service.  It seems to me that you really are only as good as your last conference call and as a conference call service provider you should be confident enough in the level of your service that you don’t need to strap people down in order to be confident that they are not going to leave you.

Another reason I feel conference call service companies should be flexible with customers is sometimes customers don’t need to run a conference call every month or sometimes their business needs change and as a service provider I feel a conference call service provider should be aware of that.

Anyway, as a customer I would certainly be wary of any service that I am going to subscribe to that makes me sign a contract right away.  With Zip Conferencing there are no contracts and no long term commitments for our conference call services and I think that is the way it should be.

www.zipconferencing.com

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