There are many potential uses for group audio calls across the United States and Canada. Conference calls are particularly well suited for informing a large number of people at once.
By holding a conference call, you can bring everyone together via phone — even if they’re located in different parts of the country.
The call could be anything from a 10-minute update to an in-depth discussion or training session. Regardless of length, holding a conference call is one of the most cost-effective communications choices you can make.
For example, if your company is rolling out a new product, service, or initiative and you’d like the CEO to explain its benefits to employees beforehand, a conference call is an efficient and affordable way to do so. Let’s dig into this example a little deeper to give you a better idea of how a conference call like this might work.
Let’s say the company is based in Toronto and has branch offices in Calgary, Alberta, and Vancouver as well as two offices in the United States in Chicago and Miami. Let’s also say that each office has 10 employees.
The CEO has several options as far as communicating the message goes including:
- Traveling to each office (expensive and time consuming)
- Sending an email (may be difficult to capture attention, convey the value, or generate excitement)
- Appearing in a video announcement (one-sided, potentially impersonal, no real-time feedback)
- Holding a conference call (personal, affordable, easy, and opportunity for real-time feedback
Having reviewed the various communications options, the CEO in Canada decides that a conference call is a good choice. So, what happens next? With our pay-as-you-go Canada conferencing service, the CEO can quickly schedule and plan the conference call:
- Schedule the call or hold it on demand — no reservations required
- Invite attendees from across Canada and USA
- Issue regional or toll free access numbers for employees in Toronto, Calgary, Alberta, Vancouver, Chicago, and Miami to use to join the call
- Use our free Connect app or Live Conference Viewer app to manage the conference call in progress
- Record the conference call so that absentee invitees can later listen to it
- Start the Canada conference call in “lecture” mode whereby only the chairperson of the call speaks
- Switch out of “lecture” mode so that participants may speak freely and ask questions
- Break the conference call into sub-groups if desired
Meanwhile, employees across Canada and USA can participate in the conference call simply by dialing a local or toll free phone number and entering a PIN. With time zone differences, some may not be at their offices when the call is scheduled. This isn’t a problem because they can call in using their home phones or mobile phones. There’s no special software to install or equipment to use. Virtually any phone will work with our Canada conferencing service.
As convenient as it is to host a Canada conference call with employees across Canada and USA, how much would this communications method cost in this example? With our pay-as-you-go Canada conferencing service, this example conference call would cost:
- 2.9¢ cents per minute for callers in Canada dialing local access numbers (local access numbers available for Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Québec, Ottawa, Alberta, Calgary, and Halifax)
- 3.9¢ cents per minute for callers dialing toll free in Canada
- 2.9¢ cents per minute for callers in USA using toll free access numbers
- 1.7¢ cents per minute for callers in USA using local access numbers
Thus, for our offices across Canada and USA, the break down as follows:
- 10 employees plus one CEO in Toronto dialing a local access number
- 10 employees in Calgary dialing a local access number
- 10 employees in Alberta dialing a local access number
- 10 employees in Vancouver dialing a toll free access number
- 10 employees in Chicago dialing a local access number
- 10 employees in Miami dialing a toll free access number
Better yet, our Canada conference calling plans are pay-as-you-go with no monthly fees with advanced features, exceptional audio quality, no contracts. Plus, how you use your conference calls is completely up to you. The possibilities are endless.