Running a smooth conference call can ensure that your attendees won’t disengage and your talking points will be addressed quickly and effectively. While this may seem simple, sometimes it can be difficult to achieve when there are several people in a call at once. That’s why we’ve put together some tricks and tips to help you run a smooth conference call for maximum results.
Plan Ahead
All great meetings start with some measure of planning. This means gathering all of your materials beforehand, sending out invites and your agenda a few days prior to the meeting time, and solidifying the time of the meeting for everyone’s schedule.
Poor planning can quickly cause a conference call to derail, becoming a chaotic jumble of competing voices and lower productivity. It’s important to ensure you’ve planned for any unforeseen circumstances, and that everyone understands what the purpose of your meeting is.
Planning ahead is also a professional courtesy to the other callers. It’s very difficult to plan for a call with only a few hours’ notice, so give your attendees at least a few days to prepare any materials or talking points of their own.
You’ll also want to be sure that everyone knows how to access the call. Digital calling services often include a dial-in number as well as an internet link, so no matter how everyone is connected, they should be able to access your call with no issues.
Don’t forget to let everyone know when you’ve finalized the date and time as well. Google Calendar is a great tool for this sort of thing, allowing you to invite participants and save the event on their own calendars.
Use an Agenda
Without an agenda to work from, your call will become chaotic and unfocused rather quickly. An agenda acts as an anchor, keeping everyone focused on the talking points you’ve included in the document, and giving you a fallback point should the topics of discussion begin to stray.
A well-organized agenda can make your meetings more efficient and productive, getting everyone back to work as quickly as possible and reaching your goals. Be sure to include goals or objectives in your agenda so the team knows exactly what the purpose of the conference call is. Go here for agenda templates for conference calls.
Don’t forget to email or deliver your agenda to the call’s participants ahead of time and ask for feedback or suggestions on talking points. You may find that your team members come up with some excellent points that you never would have considered.
Invite the Right Participants
Nothing is more distracting or counterproductive in a conference call or meeting that a person that doesn’t belong there. Choosing the right callers for your meeting can mean the difference between a derailed call and one that remains focused throughout.
Choosing the right attendees will depend largely on the topic of discussion. Be sure to think about the people you want to invite. Ask yourself if they are relevant to the discussion, or have any skills or qualifications that would assist your team in reaching a solution.
When you avoided extra attendees, you avoid distraction from disengagement. When someone doesn’t belong at a meeting, they can quickly become bored and engage in distracting behavior; quickly causing a lack of focus in the other attendees as well.
Use a Reliable Service
For the best results from your call, you’ll want to utilize a reliable service that will provide your team with high-quality audio and a stable connection. This applies to both digital conference services and landline phone services equally.
An unstable connection can leave everyone frustrated if the call keeps dropping, and a low-quality audio connection can cause confusion or misinformation. Choosing a high-quality service is easy when you look up their reviews. No one understands better the quality of the calling service than the customers who use it.
Ask for Help
If you’re concerned about your ability to run a smooth conference call, don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone with experience in the area. There is bound to be someone on your team or in the office who’s run successful calls in the past and can lend a hand in making your call productive.
Ask for Feedback
The best way to improve your conference calls is to ask the employees for feedback. Your callers are your greatest resource when it comes to improving your calls. Ask what they liked and disliked about the call, whether or not they felt satisfied afterward, and what suggestions they may have to improve future calls.
With this valuable insight, you can better tailor your calls and agendas to be more efficient and productive, narrowing down issues with the subject matter, call service or even your style of planning. It’s important to not take the criticism too close to heart; your team is only trying to help!
Conclusion
An effective conference call starts with good planning and an agenda and ends with positive feedback from its attendees. Running a smooth call is dependent on more than a few factors, including your service, planning, and guest list.
By focusing on improving your calls, you’ll find that your team achieves more and better meets the desired goals or creative outcomes during your call. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and feedback, and be sure to use a reliable service to host your calls to avoid and technical troubles.
