Conference calls are an important communication tool in today’s competitive world of business. Companies that are able to communicate better are able to accomplish their goals more effectively and more efficiently. Conference calls make group communication easy, but if a few simple rules are not followed, background noise in a conference call can make you feel like beating your head against the wall until the bad sounds go away. Background noises can come from a variety of sources, and are capable of disrupting an entire conference. Have you ever had to cancel a call because people couldn’t hear each other over background noise?
The good part about background noise issues is that they are generally easy to avoid or resolve. Providing the following tips to the attendees prior to your next conference call should help ensure excellent audio quality for everyone involved:
1. If you aren’t in a very quiet environment, mute your phone when you aren’t speaking.
a. If your audio call is with TelSpan, you may toggle the mute function on your conference line by pressing *1.
b. Most phones also have a mute button or option (it is normally the button that says "mute" or has a phone or a speaker with a line through it).
2. If you are not clear on what I mean by ‘a very quiet environment’, you aren’t in ‘a very quiet environment’:
a. If you are driving in your car and on a cell phone, you are not in a quiet environment. Road noise from cell phones is one of the surest ways to ruin a conference for everyone.
b. If you are typing a long e-mail and your keyboard is next to your phone, you are creating noise in the conference.
c. If you are in a conference room with multiple people chatting, you could easily be creating background noise in the audio portion of the conference.
d. If you are using a jackhammer to breakup your driveway, you might be creating background noise in your conference call.
3. If you need to step away from your phone, do not put it on hold. As wonderful as your company hold music may be, placing your phone on hold while on a conference call will subject everyone in the call to said wonderful music. Rest assured that your conference participants will be complaining about the music, but you won’t need to worry about it because your line will be on hold and you won’t be able to hear them. If you absolutely must place your phone on hold, be sure to mute your line in the conference first. This will block the hold music from playing into the call. Be sure to unmute yourself when you return to the conference.
4. Last but certainly not least – If there is background noise or hold music in your conference and you are utilizing TelSpan, press *0 to speak with an Operator. TelSpan’s Operators will answer your request within seconds and will be happy to resolve any issue that may be occurring in your conference.
Be sure to give this information to everyone that will be attending your conference. It only takes a single person to ruin the party for everyone else.
Thanks for reading and good conferencing!
