Top 5 Conference Call Do's June 30, 2009 @ 05:00 AM | By Nicole Scheel

Last week we posted The InterCall UniversityTop 5 List of Conferencing Don'ts. Now, we’re back with a few ideas on things you can do to make your conference a success.

1. Do announce yourself when speaking

During a question and answer session or discussion time, say your name before you start speaking. It allows presenters to refer to you in a more personable way and they’ll be able to reference you or your question later on, if needed.

2. Do check the placement of your headset

One of the most common pet peeves in meetings is hearing the ‘heavy breather’ for the duration of the call. Make sure your headset microphone is at an appropriate distance from your mouth or nose.

3. Do send a meeting request rather than an email

In that first meeting request, do your best to include all information including a dial-in phone number, conference code and a link to the web meeting. It can be annoying to get five updates with time changes, added web conferencing information or new numbers, not to mention that it gets confusing and potentially makes it difficult for people to join your meeting.

4. Do pay attention

When you’re not in a face-to-face meeting, it’s very easy to get distracted. Limit your multi-tasking while on conference calls. One of the most embarrassing situations that can happen is to be called on and either not respond or not have a clue what is being asked of you. Act as if your conference call is a face-to-face meeting (hopefully you wouldn’t be checking your email or sending an IM if people were sitting across the table from you) and you won’t get caught in this sticky situation!

5. Do learn the mute function

This was by far the most popular response from my team! We all know that there are a variety of things that can happen in the “background” of a conference call: dogs barking, keyboards being typed on, sneezing, children running around, loud speaker announcements at the airport, etc. So, it’s important to learn how to mute your phone. On the flip side of that, make sure you know how to un-mute it, too. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Sorry, I was talking but my line was muted…” I’d be rich! 

Are there other things that you wish people would do on your conference calls? Tell me about them in the comments section!

  

Nicole Scheel is the Director of Training, and the “Tips & Training Blogger”. Nicole has been in training with InterCall for nine years and currently manages our internal and customer training departments, also known as InterCall University. When she's not training someone, you can find Nicole volunteering in her community or finishing her Masters in Training & Development at Roosevelt University.