by Bruce Howard (Guest Blogger)

10 Helpful Tips for a Successful Conference Call

In today’s business world, collaborating with a team can be difficult. No longer do we have the one office where everyone is meeting across a conference room table, flying in from different states. Even preliminary interviews are conducted via Skype or other conference call programs. Given traffic congestion and the work at home model that many businesses have adopted, conference calling to connect teams together and bring the mission forward is here to stay. Maybe you have participated in a conference call or maybe you have not. Here is a summary with tips and tricks for a successful phone conference so your team can meet together – and achieve more.

1) Prepare an agenda. 

Just like every captain of an airplane plans their route in advance of the trip, their riders expect the destination to be understood. Nothing worst that boarding a plane to New York and ending up in Orlando, unless of course you want to visit Mickey! An agenda is important as it helps to do two important things. It assures team and meeting focus; and it sends a clear road map of the meetings progress and direction. Preparing the agenda and disseminating it to your team prior to the meeting helps the team understand the focus and purpose of the meeting. It ensures discussion flow in a timely fashion. And it helps Chatterbox Charlie (we all have one in the office) keep on topic. While we all want to know what we did with the family the other day, that might be better left for Facebook. Additionally, other speakers who have items they wish to reference, should timely submit those items to the person preparing the agenda in advance, so they can be properly added, as well as their resource materials timely given to the participants. Remember, you cannot hand out things to people in a room – since everyone is attached by the proverbial phone cord. 

2) Review the agenda.

Meeting attendees should review the agenda prior to the meeting. This seems logical, but we are doing more telephone conferences because we are – let’s face it – busy! The review of the materials is akin to taking an open book test. It allows you the listener to not need a page by page review of everything, but an overview, and a discussion where appropriate, covering key areas. Imagine going to school and the teacher reading the book to you but school was at the college level. Attendees must take responsibility to making sure they are properly prepared to listen and engage when appropriate. 

3) Designate a leader.

A functional army is only as good as the leader. Someone needs to be assigned as the leader of any conference call. In most cases it is not the speaker. The moderator helps to steer the meeting, keep it on topic. I like to call it the traffic cop who is directing traffic at a busy intersection. Depending on the size of the team who is meeting, one might need to establish open times for questions after a speaker is presenting on their topic. 

4) Utilize the mute button.

This should be my number one through 10 or rather an article all by itself. Being a father of four children, conference calling when they were younger was a bit of a challenge. But the use of a button on a phone can help for those occasional occurrences. Some people treat the mute button like others treat a turn signal on a car. The basic rule of mute is mute when you are not speaking. The second rule is stay on mute until you are speaking and lastly. When you finish speaking put your phone on mute. We all don’t need to know you are eating, chewing, sighing, yawning, or chewing gum, during a meeting. Just because we are not face to face, our ears are next to your lips. We recommend that you test out that mute button to assure it is working before the team is connected to you. If you are using a cell phone, they inadvertently put in additional noises such as cell tower switching and static as you are going into the fringes of cell reception. It is strongly recommended to park sit and listen. We all know it is difficult to take notes, talk on the phone and drive at the same time. If for some reason your call gets dropped, call back in promptly and mute your call. There is no reason to interrupt the call to tell everyone that your phone call dropped and loose the flow of the meeting. 

5) Rethink the hold button.

The hold button is not really hold. On many corporate phone systems, the hold button allows everyone to listen to your music on hold. This would effectively shut down the meeting. Call waiting and hold are taboos to conference calls. Remember you would not, I hope, take a phone call in the middle of a board meeting while the speaker is talking. So you should not be taking other calls during the meeting. So hold the hold button and don’t do it! 

6) Pay attention.

This goes hand in hand with the use of the mute button. If we were all sitting in front of one another, we would be avid note takers and we would also be attentively looking at the speaker. You must resist the urge when on a conference call to engage others in conversation within your office. Offer to step away for a brief moment. This defeats the purpose for the meeting of convenience via the telephone. It also causes teams to lose cohesiveness when Office Nancy isn’t listening and she becomes the one person who is NOT going with the new flow that is decided during the meeting. So it is suggested to treat conference calls like all other meetings. Hang a sign on your door that says ‘conference call in progress’. Let other staff know of this so they can hold all calls. 

7) State your name.

We mentioned earlier to mute your call. But all rules have exceptions. At the beginning of the meeting, most teams take a roll call to account for who is present. This is a great time to state your name and position if that is appropriate for your conference call setting. When the meeting is underway, there will be times when you need to interject, or respond. This is best done in a face to face meeting by raising your hand or by signaling the meeting moderator. But in a conference call setting, this is done by stating your name and waiting to be recognized. Depending on the type of call, your company or location or your position might be also needed. For example, “Harry from XYZ Business Group.” This lets the moderator or presenter know that you have something to share. This also allows for more organized interactions and avoids persons speaking over one another. Also, if you are part of an association or for legal purposes the meeting is being drawn in minutes, it allows for the proper documentation of what is being shared. 

8) Respond to questions.

During meetings when face to face, it is easy to catch que from the non-verbal or facial expressions of others. When you are over the phone, all that is lost. At times, a question might be asked around the room. To facilitate this, wait until your name is called, then respond yes, no or whatever would be appropriate. If you need further discussion or have more comments about the question. It is appropriate after giving your answer to say, “I have some further comments on this” and allow the rest of the group to be polled on the question before you share your more expansive answer. More importantly, you must know your equipment to deactivate your mute button. Conference calls are difficult enough in that one will not be interacting with a group face to face, nothing worse than asking for audience feedback to a question and the rudeness that is felt when your name is called and you don’t answer. Remember, mute after responding. 

9) Avoid arriving late. 

This should be avoided at all cost. It devalues the meeting. Often the person arriving late causes the meeting to get off schedule with the chatter with the other 50 people wanting to say hello to the new arrival. Often times, that person is the one who will later object to company directions that were agreed upon – unknowingly due to their tardiness. It is important to attend the entire meeting on time which assure you have an effective team. If the unforeseen happens, it is courteous to let the meeting moderator know via email or other direct means of your possible late arrival. When you do arrive, please note, everyone will know you have just arrived due to the “ding” or “beep” that is caused due to your late arrival. This is not the time to say hello to everyone and interrupt a meeting. Let’s treat this like church or school. You sort of sit to the back and keep quiet. The moderator will at the appropriate time ask who just joined. Since the meeting is underway, it is important to say your name and go back on mute. 

10) Avoid leaving early.

This is the other inevitable, leaving early. This is much different than at the office party where you hug everyone on the way out. If for some reason, you must leave early, you should let the meeting moderator know in advance. This assures they are aware of your scheduling conflict in accordance with your organizations rules. When you already know that you’re leaving early, you can let the team know at the beginning of the call when you check in. Remember, when you hang up, a “ding” will occur. It would be wise to do this at a break in agenda items to avoid the rude perception that you hung up when someone is talking. For some groups saying, “This is Mary, I am leaving the call” is acceptable. Depending on what the moderator has advised you might just simply hang up. There is no need for the meeting to stop and a new discussion pursue about your leaving. This throws the meeting off track and it shows, even if unintentionally, that you find something else more important. Since you should have received a meeting agenda in advance and have an idea of the time range for the meeting, you should avoid this pitfall that hurts the use of the phone conference call which is a great time saver. Imagine if you had to drive to the meeting? You automatically save time over the phone. 

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Bruce Howard is President and CEO of Kaundre Judicial Services, one of the area's leading process serving companies providing dedicated services in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. to the region’s top law firms, corporations, and organizations, as well as small businesses and pro se litigants.