Clearly you understand the benefits of audio conferencing or else you wouldn’t have found this website. If you need some good ideas look through the archives under the technology and conferencing categories. I have discussed some of the features some of the major conference call providers offer you. You need to first evaluate your business or as an individual, your purpose. Review the points and facts for using conferencing then fully evaluate the features of each provider you may be considering. The problem is, in order to compete for your business, each provider is trying to introduce bigger and badder features which may not always be necessary and may actually hamper your cause.

One such feature is a conferencing reminder function. If one uses this feature, you have the ability to set up predetermined times to “remind” the participants when the audio conferencing call will begin. It is your responsibility to get the participants number and approval to contact them but once they approve, the providers system should be able to coordinate something that only used to be possible by a team of customer service reps! Of course some conferencing providers may still use people to actually call your list and sometimes that may be better, as long as a system is in place and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg! If you decide to take adavantage of this feature be sure to check how the provider you choose handles it.

To be more clear about this feature, I’ll describe the process for you. The audio conference is scheduled at 3 pm. Your provider has all the conferencing participants information and usually at least a half hour before the conference, each participant will receive a phone call to remind them of the scheduled meeting. This has been tested and helps to improve attendance. Some providers even have more functions such as email alerts as well as fax broadcasts. The possibilities are becoming endless and with each introduction of new technology, you’ll find a conferencing provider that will keep up.

One disadvantage of this powerful feature is the possibility of turning off your participants. Too many reminders may make them not attend out of spite. This has been seen in some cases when promoting products. The business gets too aggressive and literally bombs the participants. This should remind you why you should always test your demographics determining what your employees and clients want . Marketing techniques like compelling copy would help improve your results but that is something better reserved for another article. Conferencing reminders could help improve the attendance of your audio calls, thus improving your business. One just needs to evaluate the results and determine if it is worth the extra cost. Hopefully, giving you the idea that this is even available should spark some ideas on how audio conferencing can be a great assest to your business.