Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Conference Call Etiquette

One of the most powerful way to generate tons of leads for your business is by web or audio conference calls. Most savvy marketers are using this method of lead generation to bring in tons of attention to their product or services.

To get the maximum out of your listeners, there are some etiquette you must adhere to.

1. Moderators should be on time.

A moderator should arrive a few minutes early to greet each of the participants, and let them know when everyone is present and ready to start the call.

2. Always introduce yourself when speaking for the first time.

It is important to introduce yourself when first speaking as other participants may not recognize your voice.

3. Avoid putting your phone on HOLD.

Putting your local phone on hold could introduce music into the conference, so when considering the hold function please use #6 instead. Otherwise your hold music will play into the conference call, and make it impossible for the other participants to continue the meeting in your absence! (Remember to un-mute yourself when you come back.)

4. Create an agenda and keep to your schedule.

Remain consistent with the time line and agenda as prescribed in order to respect the time of the other participants.

5. Clearly state when calls end.

If participants linger after you have hung up on the call you will get billed! Ensuring that all participants understand when a call has ended will avoid any possible confusion so stay on the line and make sure everyone has left the call.

Conference Calling Goes Global

Globalization has wrought many changes in our daily lives. It has changed our ways of living. It has allowed us to avail of products and services that might otherwise have been unavailable. It has opened our minds to what the rest of the world can offer. At the same time, it has also changed the way in which we do business. Gone are the days when file cabinets and piles of paper dominated our offices. These days, a single computer holds all the information we need. Any data that we may want to find will only be a few mouse clicks away.

In a way, that defines the need of business today. Convenience and speed have become necessities. Could that be a reason why many organizations are gradually choosing conference calls over the traditional business meetings? To begin with, business meetings usually do involve a degree of delay. Even if the meeting starts on time, some amount of time will inevitably be wasted in traveling to the conference. That time could have been utilized more productively. Moreover, a good deal of time goes into preparing the conference room, inviting and assisting the delegates, and generally making sure that the meeting goes off smoothly.

In addition to the waste of time, there are a number of costs associated with the traditional business meeting. Often enough, delegates have to be flown in from different places. This is more so these days, when the workforce is scattered across the world. Air fares and accommodation costs can put a major dent into the company's budget.

Thus, more and more business organizations are turning the conference call way to carry out important discussions. This is especially important when the matter to be discussed is one of crucial importance and which cannot wait till a regular meeting can be held. The "con call" as it is popularly referred to, provides a convenient and speedy way to carry out discussions on a given matter. Moreover, the organization concerned ends up paying only for the conference call service, thus saving on larger costs like travel and hotel bills.

Also, conference calls need not be limited to the domestic arena. International conference call services are easily available. Thus, one can simultaneously talk to someone from the same office building and someone who is in some far-off country. These days, we have access to a variety of conference call service providers. Their sheer numbers ensure that clients can avail of competitive rates.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Business Conference Calling Is Changing Business

Business conference calling has become a very competitive business these days. You see the commercials on TV everyday with everyone jockeying for your business. This article will look at business conference calling to see what all the hype is about.

Communicate Any Where at Any Time

Business has changed radically over the past ten years or so. It used to be that you were only doing business with people you could afford to travel too and often that meant very big expense just to touch bases with a long distance call. However, all that has changed and now you can connect with people all over the world.

The Internet Has Change the Face of Communication

A few years ago the world changed with the berth of the internet. Now it is possible to send a message to someone in Tokyo, Australia or any where else in the world in a matter of minutes, and then get a response back from them just as quickly with email messages.

Business Conference Calling Is In Demand

Although email is a great communication tool it still is not as good as using your voice to communicate certain messages. Since we are able to expand our businesses all over the world it has become even more important to communicate with business conference calling.

Business conference calling services are getting very competitive for your business. You can find rates as low as 3.9 cents per minute, and you may also find better rates if you do high volume calls.

One way to save with business conference calling would be to use a fixed rate service. The rates will be cheaper in the long run, but only if you are making several calls per month.

It pays to chop around for the right business conference calling service for your needs. You will find that the rates are very competitive. Make sure that you are getting the services that you need, but do not fall for all the bells and whistles if they simply do not apply to your business communication needs.

How to Set Up a Conferencing Call

Conference calling is changing the way business is getting done today. Business has always been accomplished through networking. Nothing can replace meeting face-to-face. Whether you are selling to a customer, providing service for client, forging agreements with a partner or training your employees, it's hard to beat the effectiveness of being able to see facial expressions, judge body language or provide product demonstrations. Unfortunately, the high cost and increasing security concerns of business travel in today's global marketplace is making meeting in person more difficult to accomplish.

Fortunately, technology is providing a solution. Conference calling services restore the personal touch of human contact without the need for physically changing your location. The audio conference call has been around for quite a while, but the capabilities, reliability and quality have taken a huge leap forward. Video conferencing has improved because new technology has eliminated the need for specialized equipment. Web conferencing utilizes the power of the Internet and provides a whole new range of capabilities.

There's no question that conference calling can improve your business relationships at a relatively low cost. But if you haven't tried conference calling yet, the whole idea may seem to complicated, difficult and maybe even a little scary. In reality, setting up a conference call has never been easier. New web-based conference calling services make setting up a conferencing call a simple, painless procedure.

One of the easiest ways to set up a conferencing call is to work with an online, reservation-less conference call provider. The first step is to visit their website and sign up for a new account. Setting up a new account can usually be accomplished in just a few minutes. You'll need to enter some basic information about yourself and your business, and you'll have provide and verify your e-mail address. You also need to set up a way to pay the bill for your conference calling services. The easiest way to handle billing is to provide credit card information. As long as you make sure you are dealing with a reputable company, there should be no worries about the security of your information.

Once your new account is set up and activated, you're ready to schedule your first conference call. Some conference calling services require reservations in advance. However, if you set up your account that an automatic, reservation-less company, then they will provide you with a telephone number for participants to call and a pass code that is exclusive to you.

The next step to set up your conference call is to invite the guests or participants that you want on the call. Contact everyone via email and provide the telephone number, the pass code and the time at which they should call.

At the appointed time, everyone will call in. The conference call doesn't actually start until you -- the host -- call in. Before you dial in, guests will be connected to the call, but will likely be listening to music until the call begins. In most cases, guests will not be able to talk to each other until you are connected to the call. This is primarily a security feature. Once you dial into the call, everyone will be connected and the call will begin. Guests who called in after this point will join the conference call in progress.

While the conference call is in progress, there may be a variety of services you can access as the host. By dialing certain combinations you can request operator assistance, take polls, change the call volume, stop and start recording, or even set up sub-conferences.

As the host, you have the power to end the conference call at any time. Once the conference call is complete, you can listen to the recording (if there was one). You may be able to download an immediate invoice for accounting purposes. Other options may be available as well depending on the conference call services you have chosen.

Conference calling truly allows the participants to be in two places at one time. Considering the speed at which today's business is conducted, this capability is sure to give your company an edge in the marketplace.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Toll Free Conference Calls

Conference calls are a convenient method of communicating with a lot of people all at once. Technologies today allow many different types of conference calling.

For a small business, simple 3-way calling may suffice. This feature is available through your telephone company and whatever long-distance rates you have on the phone that originates the call will apply.

When several people located in many different places need to access conference calls, a conference call company can provide this service.

A basic conference call service offers audio conference calls (also called teleconferencing) over the telephone. Usually, you have the option of toll-free calls or flat-rate calls.

“Toll-free” is sort of a misnomer because “toll-free” does not mean it’s entirely a free call because the person or business that hires the conference call company pays for the service.

Toll-free conference calls are free for the participants. With toll-free packages, participants use a toll-free number to dial into the call via the conference call company.

The charges for the calls are usually by the minute for the length of the call. In many cases, the more minutes used, the less money per minute it costs. For instance, one package may offer 1,000 toll-free minutes for $70 or 7 cents a minute. If you go over 1,000 minutes, each additional minute would cost 7 cents. Another package may offer 10,000 minutes for $400 or 4 cents a minute and 4 cents for each minute over 10,000 minutes. You can see the cost goes down with the larger packages.

A flat-rate conference call package requires the participants to pay their own long-distance charges. They dial a regular phone number to access the call via the conference call company. The company who hires the conference call company also pays a flat fee to set up the service.

The conference call companies always offer features that augment their basic service. For example, you can have the conference call company record your conference calls and then provide a playback. The playbacks can even be on-demand so people can hear them at any time 24/7.

As you might imagine, conducting a live conference call with dozens of people on the line at once could get a bit out of hand with everyone talking at once and noise in the background as well. Technology comes to the rescue with mute buttons that allow the moderator and/or operator to control what is broadcast on the call.

The operators at the teleconferencing companies can assist you in many ways. In addition to connecting participants as they call in to access your conference, operators can even call participants and then connect them to your call. Operators can attend the entire conference call, providing opening announcements, introductions for host and speakers, moderating question and answer sessions and making closing comments at the end of the call.

Audio conference calls are not the only options available to you. Web conferencing is another type of conference call that utilizes access through participants’ computers. Participants are able to view PowerPoint and whiteboard presentations and to share documents. Communication among participants can be audio or via chat formats. Upgrades of web conferencing services include application and desktop sharing, remote control and video conferencing.

As you can see, there are many ways that businesses today can communicate effectively via conference calling. There are lots of conference-calling companies to choose from and the competition among them drives good bargains for business owners who will take the time to do a little research to find the best bargains

Retreat Conference Centers

Retreat conferences are religious meetings held in peaceful places away from the daily distractions, where groups can meet, plan, pray, and enjoy peaceful, quiet natural surroundings. A lot of conference centers provide all facilities ideal for retreats and renewal, conference meetings, seminars and trainings, workshops and planning sessions. Conference centers used for retreat purposes are usually situated in calm localities under pleasant climatic conditions suitable for all participants and easily accessible also.

Most of the retreat based service agencies are aimed at providing services to enhance its mission of helping the provider and seeker of the religious retreat share their experience and enjoy to the fullest. These retreat conference centers usually have a directory of spiritual retreat houses or centers and conferences that could be used by large religious groups and churches. In addition to the conference center directory, the agencies provide a service to assist religious groups find religious retreat or conference facilities that meet their requirements.

The retreat conference centers are open to all religions and provide all facilities required by the group of people who conduct the retreat and participate. Retreat centers are available in different sizes to suit the type of retreat and the number of participants. Some retreat conference centers are large enough to accommodate many hundreds of people and they have more than a hundred rooms for comfortable stay. A directory of such conference centers is maintained and is providing services to assist religious groups in their search for meeting and retreat facilities.

Most of the centers include retreat and conference centers, hotels, camps and spiritual conference centers, universities and resorts. Irrespective of religions and spiritual groups, these retreat conference centers are a great place to meet and retreat. Conference centers can be reserved or booked online with the registrations forms that provide all necessary details pertaining to the facilities of the center. The retreat providers and participants enjoy the goodness of the place and have fulfilling retreat sessions

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