How On-Demand Conferencing is Boosting Small Business Profits
Experts agree that getting everyone on the same page is an integral part of a successful small business operation and that every business needs to have quick access to a professional low-cost phone conference bridge service at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, many conference users wait until the last minute or when emergencies occur to order their conference service, rather than getting set up ahead of time.
While 3-way calling is easy and is included with most desktop and mobile phone systems, there are times when businesses and organizations need to get 5, 10, 15 people or more on a phone conference at the same time.
Here are the top 5 things you should know:
1) Setting up a conferencing account that can accommodate up to 100 people is free and can be done in less than 2 minutes. As soon as you sign up, you’ll get an immediate email that gives you the toll-free phone number everyone in your group can call at the time you assign, along with two passcodes — a host passcode for you, and a guest passcode for your participants to use. You can sign up here.
2) You will be charged after your conference call for the time you use. For example, 10 people conferencing for 20 minutes = $9.80. If you don’t use the service, there is no cost.
3) After your call, your account remains open and you can use the same passcodes at anytime in the future. There is no need to make reservations. The service is provided “on-demand” and you can have your conference calls whenever you want, 24/7. There are no monthly minimum or cancellation fees, so you can use the service just once or thousands of times.
4) In the event your office may have more than one conference going on at the same time, or you want to assign different departments their own conference lines, you can easily order multiple sets of passcodes that will enable you to monitor everyone’s usage.
5) A set of passcodes consists of the host passcode and the guest passcode. Everyone dials the same call-in number and is prompted to enter their respective passcode. The host(s) enter the host passcode and the guests enter the guest passcode, all followed by the # sign. As the soon as the host enters his/her passcode, the conference begins. As soon as the host hangs up, the conference is concluded and everyone is disconnected.
Professional Operators are Available to Dial-Out to Your Conference Guests
Many small businesses and professional offices are looking for a conference service that provides operator managed calls — that’s when operators dial-out to each of your guests and place each person into the conference call. This is the highest level of service available and is primarily used for very important conferences when the convenience of the participants is paramount. When you use this service, your conference guests don’t have to remember passcodes or when to call in. They just answer the phone. You can learn more about the operator managed service here.
Owners and managers know how important it is to be able to have a phone conference with associates, customers and prospects when the need arises.