Conference Call Tips

Before the meeting

- Send out a schedule showing the time and date of your meetings, including time zones

- Write the month as a word to avoid confusion

- Send any documents needed for the meeting early enough for the recipients to review them

- Notify participants of the telephone number, security code and the conference commands

- Send an agenda - and stick to it

At the Start of the Conference Call

- Write down the names of people as they join so that you can remember who is on the call

- If the conferencing equipment you are using allows it, play back the names of the participants so that everyone knows who is on the call

- If any participants have not met, make introductions

- Request participants to mute their lines if they are not speaking

- Explain the purpose of the meeting and how long it will take

During the Meeting

Participants should:

- Join the conference call from somewhere quiet

- Say their name before speaking and address each other by name

- Resist side conversations

- Mute their lines when not speaking, this has a huge impact on overall sound quality

- Try not to put the conference on hold, it will put music into the conference

- Face the microphone when using a speakerphone and not put anything in front of the microphone

Speaker Phones

- Avoid tapping on the table or shuffling papers near speakerphones

- Always mute the speakerphone before moving it

- Some speakerphones will cause feedback when the volume is set too high

- If the sound coming out of your speakerphone seems intermittent or quite and you have already turned the volume up, try muting it