After the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020 and going into 2022 now, more small businesses offer their employees the opportunity to work from home. While this has been accepted as the new “norm,” some changes and adjustments have had to be made by the business owners.
One such adjustment is in the realm of conference calling. Now, for many businesses, conference calls, or a daily or multiple-times-per-day event.
If your small business is trying to navigate this new realm of conference calling, keep reading for a few tips to help you.
Take Time to Prepare
To ensure you hit all the important points on your agenda and to keep participants engaged, you must create an outline or agenda. This should include all the topics you plan to discuss.
Try to prepare as much of the material needed ahead of time, too. This can help you avoid wasting time on irrelevant topics during the conference calls.
Arrive on Time
It doesn’t matter when your conference call is scheduled, or if you are planning an instant conference call, don’t be late. Just like any other type of business meeting, being on time – or early – is essential.
If you wait until the last minute to join the call, you could deal with technical issues, making you late. By getting ready for the call a few minutes early, you don’t have to worry about this.
Take Notes and Encourage Others to Do the Same
It doesn’t matter if you are leading the call or attending; taking notes can help you stay focused on what is going on. Also, you can retain the notes as a point of reference if you have questions later.
You don’t have to take extensive notes (you can, of course), as just writing down a few ideas can help. Be sure you have something to write on and write with nearby, long before the meeting begins. This will ensure you aren’t scrambling when you need to write something down.
Summarize Everything before Ending the Call
Conference calls tend to wander, which means you may wander off-topic from time to time. While this is true, you can take steps to ensure everyone remembers the main idea of the call.
To do this, summarize everything you want participants to remember at the end of the meeting. Also, note any action items discussed. This is going to reduce the likelihood of questions or confusion after the group phone or video meeting.
Conference Calling Tips That Maximize Meeting Results
As you can see from the information here, you can use more than a few tips to make the most of your conference calling activities. Be sure your employees and attendees are on the same page to ensure things run smoothly during the conference calls.
Are you looking for more tips and information about how to improve your small business communications and making things run more smoothly? If so, be sure to check out some of our other blog posts on conference calling and company communication.