Top Questions to Ask When Shopping for Conference Call Services

Their ability to get everyone on the same page and keep them there has much to do with this expanding popularity. Of course, that doesn't mean that all teleconferencing services are good enough for your firm. Even if you're just now jumping on the bandwagon, it's critical that you look at prospective conference call products with a discriminating eye. Always remember to ask these top questions before selecting a particular calling package for your next big meeting.

Is It Really A Reliable Conference Call?

Capacity is important. If your service guarantees that it will be able to connect a certain number of callers, it can't fall short at random.
The whole reason you're paying for the conference call service is so that you can get as many people as you want to in on the conversation at the same time. Make sure that the capacity figures you're given are accurate before you schedule a mission-critical meeting around them.

Will You Be Able to Rely on Support?

If you can't get assurances that your conference call package will always be backed up by tech support staff, try a different service. Tech support may not seem so important when things are going well, but when your CEO can't connect to the call on their smart phone, you're going to want expert help right away and you should be able to get it.

Will You Be Able to Control and Moderate Calls

Moderation is key to any large discourse. When there are scores of people trying to talk at once, you need to be able to mute some and turn up the volume on others. This isn't so that you can cut people out or show favor; conference call moderation control tools are simply the best means of ensuring that you have a productive conversation instead of an unintelligible shouting match.

Will the Conference Call Service Integrate with Your Standard Practices?

Features are more important than you think. For instance, to some, the ability to automatically record their conference calls to mp3 formats or include participants from web chat lines seem like bells and whistles. To others who use digital media files as their standard corporate records, these features are absolutely essential to proper business.
It's critical that you can find a conference call service that already meshes with your corporate procedures. Although there are many that will enable you to hack together some kind of jury-rigged solution, these are not productive. Good teleconferencing services provide you with the abilities you need from the outset.

Price Point Considerations

Finally, consider the fact that many conference call services come with hidden fees. This is by no means an industry-wide problem, but it's common enough that you ought to ask about full fee structures beforehand. Although there are certain valid FCC taxes and other fees that will popup on your bill as laws change, it's important to find a teleconferencing service that discloses their payment structure openly if you want to avoid spurious charges.