International Teleconference Service
If you want to service existing customers in other countries or expand into countries abroad, then it is important to utilize a high grade international teleconference service.
What is meant by ‘high grade’ ?
If you ever been faced with choosing an international conference call provider, you have probably done searches on Google and elsewhere. You may have decided that a good search strategy would be to seek out the lowest priced service. As any veteran Google searcher knows, if you look hard and long enough on the Web, you are sure to find a cheaper service everyday you do a search. There is simply no end to it.
The problem with ‘international conference calls’ is that there is so much more than ‘price’ to be concerned with. For example:
1. Line or sound quality. On the low end of the pricing matrix, you will find international conferencing providers that use a VoIP conferencing bridge and connect your calls using VoIP. What’s the main issue with VoIP? Line quality, dependability, reliability, and connection issues for your participants. Plus garbled sound, cutoffs, dropped calls, etc.
2. No operator assistance. Some companies may ‘say’ they provide 24/7 operator assistance, but it’s not really there. Why do you need operator assistance? What will you do if one of your participants sends you an email or text and says he/she is trying to connect but is having difficulty? With no operator assistance available, you are on your own. That could have been an ‘important’ conference call.
3. No Toll Free access. Do you want your participants to pay for their own access to your international conference call?
Many low cost conference call services offer very cheap rates or maybe even free, but do you have a situation where it’s acceptable for your participant to bear the cost of accessing your conference call?
For example, if an international conference call company says to you that they have a ‘local’ access number for your Italy participant and that the number is in Rome Italy, but your Italy participant is located in Piedmont Italy, they would need to make a long distance call from Piedmont to Rome. So to access your conference call the attendee would have to pay for access out of their own pocket.
4. Sketchy to no customer support. In addition to not proving 24 hour ‘operator’ assistance, they may not even provide ‘basic customer service’. Or it may be so poor as to be non-existent.
Can you get a very cheap or free conference calls? Yes but it may work as well as two cans and a string.
If it’s for a casual international conference call that’s not important to any of the parties involved, use the cheapest one you find.
If it’s an important call, use a business class conference call company. One that uses PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and not a VoIP connection.
Look for an international conference calling provider that will allow your business to communicate with multiple attendees located in difference parts of the world at the same time, Toll Free and with 24/7 operator assistance.
There are many teleconferencing service providers in the market who offer different packages to their customers. If you are a big player and do your business globally, your first priority should be checking that package includes Toll Free international teleconferencing services and international dial-out capability in case there is no Toll Free number in the country of one of your participants.
So, if you are looking to set up an international teleconference service in your company then remember the above mentioned tips and avoid a wasted attempt to connect.
