6 Ways to Improve Your Team’s Conference Calls
Any virtual meeting can turn into a veritable pit of unproductivity if it isn’t run properly.
There are a few things that can help you overcome common collaboration challenges, but conference calls or virtual meetings are particularly annoying, especially if specific issues aren’t addressed.
Here are six ways to make sure that you have a perfect conference call every time and make it a great experience for everyone who attends.
#1: Make sure everyone can dial in
You wouldn’t host an in-person meeting without making sure everyone knew the time and place, and your virtual meeting deserves the same clarity.
In addition to a meeting invite, remind everyone to use the correct dial-in information. If you don’t have a program like izi to send a pre-meeting notification to participants, make sure everyone gets the meeting info some other way, like using a slackbot from one of the conferencing services. Use the conference program itself, a quick email, a text message, a carrier pigeon… whatever it takes to remind participants so they don’t waste time trying to get on the call.
If you’re hosting, dial in early so your team members can call in a minute or two before the meeting start time.
#2 Become familiar with your conferencing service
If you’re presenting or hosting an important meeting, make sure you’re familiar with the conferencing service. If you haven’t used it before, ask someone to run a “mock meeting” with you beforehand to practice.
Familiarize yourself with all the settings. Know how to mute yourself and others, turn attendee announcements off, disable chat notifications — everything you can do to prevent distractions and protect the conversation from being disrupted. If there are members of your team who haven’t used the program before, have them sign in early so they have a chance to solve any technical difficulties without wasting everyone else’s time.
#3 When it matters, insist that attendees use a phone and find a quiet place
These days most people join calls from their computers, but that can result in bad sound quality, because all internet connections aren’t made the same. For important calls, always encourage participants to dial in from a phone to ensure that audio quality does become a drag on the meeting.
#4 Foster good communication
Good communication is the key to any good meeting, but it is especially hard to maintain over a conference call. Without body language, it is hard to tell when someone has an idea or a comment they’d like to interject, so keep your statements short and ask for frequent feedback.
Make sure you vocalize what would normally be non-verbal communication. A nod of agreement or diligent note-taking turns into dead silence over a conference call, so communicate in another way. Say out loud if you agree, and explain you are being quiet because you are taking notes (or ideally use a personal assistant like izi who takes notes for you, leaving you free to participate).
Use people’s names as often as is necessary for clarity. “I like her idea from earlier” isn’t helpful when there are several women on the call, so be clear and say “I like Carla’s idea.”
#5 Limit background noise
Another common issue with audio in virtual meetings is background noise.
Today people work in shared spaces and that means, you get to hear not just the participant’s voice, but all the chit chat that’s going on in the office. Just because a meeting is online and you can log in from anywhere, doesn’t mean that you should.
To make sure that everyone can hear you clearly, try to call in from a noise-free venue. Use a headset to minimize background noise. So, exit that coffee shop or noisy shared space and find a nice, quiet conference room or closed office for your chat.
To limit unavoidable background noise, mute yourself when not speaking and encourage others to do the same, especially if they are in a noisy environment like a car or an airport.
#6 Help everyone focus
Keeping people’s attention is hard in any meeting, but it’s especially hard in a conference call or virtual meeting. One study found that 91% of professionals admit to daydreaming during virtual meetings, and 73% confessed to multitasking on other projects. Keep your meetings short, your questions frequent, and your voice enthusiastic to keep people’s attention.
Often people are on their computers with the intent of taking notes but end up getting distracted once they join a virtual meeting. Designate a note taker and let everyone know that notes are being taken and will be shared after the meeting.
Try using a personal assistant for meetings like izi to help, so everyone on your team is free to focus on the meeting.
Some final thoughts:
Running a conference call isn’t rocket science, but it does need attention and effort to be done well.
To help you run a good meeting and to keep your team focused, consider adding a personal assistant for meetings like izi to your meetings, so everyone can focus on the task at hand.
izi is an intelligent assistant that joins your meetings and automatically takes notes for you, so you’re always in the know and never miss an action item. izi helps you focus on making the most of every meeting, whether they are conference calls, video conferences, one-on-one phone calls, or even in-person conversations.
Get more information at izi.ai or sign up for our beta today. Let izi help you conquer meetings, one meeting at a time.
