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Phone conferencing, the ability to hold a "meeting" with participants who would otherwise have to travel to attend, has become, over the last decade or so, a common business tool not only for its inherent cost efficiencies, but for the unique communication advantages "group calling" allows for. Conference calls have been "discovered" by the healthcare industry, public relations companies, and most notably, corporations who routinely use phone conferencing for quarterly earnings reports to shareholders and analysts. A good part of the technology’s acceptance can be attributed to cost: services have come down to the point where state-of-the art conferencing can be had for pennies a minute. Add that to the savings in travel costs and teleconferencing begins to look less like a fancy phone call and more like a miracle solution for business communication.
Another reason for the broad scale adoption of teleconferencing is quality. Gone are the days when being on a phone conference sounded like you were talking to people on the moon. Sound clarity, today, is flawless. And voice lag is thing of the past. A phone conference today is as crisp any phone call you’d make to the guy across the hall in your office.
The two most popular conference call services are reservationless and operator-assisted.
- Reservationless Conferencing—for impromptu meetings. Invitees get a toll-free call-in number and an entry code to be connected to the call. They’re fully automated, inexpensive and offer tons of advanced features such as global dial out, record/playback, conference lock, group mute/unute, roll call capabilities and more
- Operator-Assisted Phone conferencing—is for more "formal" meetings requiring additional services and a professional polish. Operator-assisted phone conferences are usually associated with "event calls". They feature customized caller greetings, speaker introductions, operator-led Q&A, etc.
Since phone conferencing services rarely require contracts and commitments, you’re usually free to try out different companies on a per-conference basis—a good way to compare quality and services. Prices, these days have dropped considerably and are very competitive, which often eliminates price as the deciding factor in choosing a conference call provider. Even so, most providers will give further discounts to volume users, so be sure to ask. Flat-rate pricing has also recently entered the scene as a pricing alternative. Crunching the numbers will help you make sense which option is smartest.
Phone conferencing is also becoming a communications vehicle of choice for telecommuters, remote sales offices, freelancers and company vendors. Phone conferences have finally come into their own as a viable business tool. Expect to see a lot more of it in the years ahead. For more information about phone conference calls visit our website today.
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