With the cost of travel constantly on the rise, many companies have turned to speakerphone conferences to take the place of face-to-face business meetings. A phone conference can be a bit different than a personal meeting because of the limitations of speakerphone, and the fact that everyone cannot see each other for body language cues and eye contact when speaking.
Speaker Limitations
Speaker phones today offer a high-quality connection between two meeting facilities, but they have some limitations. True two-way speaker phones allow each side of the conversation to speak simultaneously without cutting each other off, but they are very expensive, so most companies have standard one-way speaker phones. This means that people using speaker phones for conference calls must be used to allowing others to speak in order for everything to be heard. Many companies adopt speaker phone etiquette rules that allow people to speak only when they are given the floor by the local meeting moderator, or in some cases the side that is listening will hit the mute button to not disturb what the other side is saying.
If there is more than one speaker phone in a room, or if there are cellular phones also dialed in to the call, then the speakers will start to feed back and give a loud howl. This can also happen if there is only one speaker phone in the room and it is turned up too loud. Try to put speaker phones in rooms that have as little ambient noise as possible to allow people to be able to have more efficient conversations. A quiet room will not only allow you to hear what the other side of the conversation is saying, but they will also be better able to understand what you are saying as well.
Eliminate Meeting Noises
There are usually small noises that occur during a meeting that most people do not pay attention to. However, even the smallest noise can affect a speaker phone conference call. For example, if someone is speaking and a pen clicks loudly in the background, then for that single second, the call will drop out. Make sure that all laptops, pens, papers, notebooks, and anything else that can make noise is left away from the speaker phone. It is best to have a pen ready and notebook open before the meeting starts in order to take notes. If you need to move papers around, then do so quietly.
Add Images
There are services available on the Internet that will allow you to tie in computer images with your speaker phone conference call. You can display documents, have a presentation for people to follow along with, or display the meeting agenda over an internet provider service that will make the speaker phone meeting go much smoother.
