Delegating International Conference Call Tasks

Planning an international conference call does not need to be a one-person job. Determine which tasks you can delegate to others and then seek help from your team.

Holding international conference calls on a regular basis can bring your global team together and improve collaboration.

However, coordinating international conference calls requires a great deal of work. Delegating some of this work can free up some of your time as well as improve participation. Use the tips below to improve your global team teleconferences.

1. Identify what tasks need to be done. Though task lists vary, some tasks are fairly common to all conference calls such as creating an agenda, scheduling the call, inviting participant’s and distributing the call’s details, recording the call and later sharing the recorded file, and keeping track of time and agenda items during the call.

Once you’ve identified each task, figure out which tasks can be automated, which ones you absolutely must handle yourself, and which tasks could be assigned to someone else.

2. Ask for volunteers. A few weeks before your next international conference call, ask for volunteers to help you coordinate it. Briefly explain what you need help with and what’s involved. For example, if you need a time keeper, explain that the time keeper will use a stopwatch to time each agenda item and will provide notice when the speaker has three minutes left to wrap up the discussion.

3. Assign a different “host” team each month. An alternative to asking for volunteers is to rotate responsibilities amongst different “host” teams each month. For example, you could put your Italian team in charge of scheduling and coordinating your team conference call in January and then have your Brazilian team do the same the following month.

By rotating responsibilities, each team could bring its own unique talents to the call and experience the various challenges involved in scheduling global teleconferences. With each team experiencing some of these challenges firsthand, you may find that teams become more accommodating and more invested in making the teleconference a success.

4. Ask for feedback. Efficient global teleconferences don’t happen by accident. They’re the result of careful planning and continuous improvement. Ask your delegates what they thought of the planning process. Ask them what they might do differently and why.

Planning an international conference call does not need to be a one-person job. Determine which tasks you can delegate to others and then seek help from your team. Doing so provides others with the opportunity to contribute to your team-building efforts and can improve participation.

It may also improve their own team communications and collaboration skills. Your team members may suggest some creative ideas that you can incorporate into your future calls as well.

Managing Time During an International Conference Call

Meetings, whether they take place in person or are held remotely, are notorious amongst participants for taking up too much time. Whether you’ve rented a conference room or are holding an international conference call, each participant likely has time constraints.

With an international conference call, each minute of your meeting impacts the meeting’s total cost as well. Plus, many participants will be calling in outside of their normal work hours, making the call an infringement on their own personal time.

Managing an international conference call’s time is respectful of your participants’ time as well as economically smart. Use the tips below to keep your next international conference call on track.

Hold shorter, more focused conference calls more frequently rather than “catch-all” conference calls at longer intervals. A tightly focused conference call often requires fewer participants and will have fewer agenda items. Thus, the meeting will be more relevant to those who attend, and it will take much less time than a more generalized international conference call. In addition, participants will appreciate short international conference calls that only take a few minutes each time instead of long, involved calls that require several hours of their time.

Limit the number of participants. The more participants on any given international conference call, the more difficult it becomes to manage both conversations and time. Consider inviting just a handful of leaders to each international conference call and then distributing a MP3 recording of the call to others who need to know the information that was presented.

Create a timed agenda. Holding short, tightly focused international conference calls requires staying on track. A timed agenda is a great way to ensure that your call doesn’t last longer than scheduled. If you’ve allotted 15 minutes to the call, then your agenda needs to reflect that. Write down each agenda item and assign a realistic time limit to each one. During the call, keep track of the time as you move through the agenda.

Share your agenda in advance. Each participant should know what to expect before the conference call so that they too can prepare. Email each participant a copy of the agenda and let everyone know what’s expected of them. For example, if you need input about a recent change, let them know that’s what you’re looking for so that they can gather their thoughts and ask their teams if they have any suggestions or feedback.

Start and end your international conference call on time. If you have a 15-minute teleconference scheduled and you wait five minutes for a latecomer to call in, your meeting just became a 20-minute meeting. Five minutes may not seem like much, but it is multiplied by the number of participants left waiting. Waiting for latecomers also sends a signal to those who were on time that the latecomers’ presence is valued more than theirs. Let the latecomers pay the consequence for their tardiness, not those who arrived on time. Again, you can record the call and let those who missed out catch up later.

Become comfortable with your international conference call service before you use it. You may want to hold a few practice calls with a co-worker before holding your first live international conference call. This can help you avoid any time-consuming mistakes.

Because conference calls are usually billed per minute and per participant, managing time can also keep your meeting within its budget. Keeping your meeting focused, following a timed agenda, being selective about who you invite, recording the call, and starting and ending your meeting on time are but a few easy steps you can take to improve your next global conference call.

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Audio International Conference Calls vs Web-based Conferencing

Today’s web-based conferencing tools may be newer and visually compelling, but they don’t always deliver on their promise.

International conference calls have been the communications method of choice for businesses for decades.

Today’s web-based conferencing tools may be newer and visually compelling, but they don’t always deliver on their promise.

When it comes to communicating with an international team, an audio international conference call remains a winning choice.

Here’s why:

You don’t need fancy equipment to participate in an international conference call.

In fact, all everyone needs is a telephone. Participants can call in on landlines, mobile phones, and VoIP without any issues. In contrast, web-based conferences require Internet access, a compatible device, a web camera, and a microphone; some even require the installation of software. Every participant must ensure that they are adequately equipped to participate.

International conference calls are easy to access and use.

In addition to bypassing all of the setup steps outlined above, international conference calls are simple. There’s no learning curve whatsoever. Participants simply dial the access number, enter the PIN number, and begin interacting with one another.

Participants do not need to appear on camera with an international conference call.

While web cameras make it possible to see others, not everyone is comfortable appearing on camera. In the case of an international conference, time differences mean that many participants must participate after normal business hours. With an international conference call, those who participate in the middle of the night can do so in their pajamas if desired – and no one will ever know. On the other hand, if they had to appear on camera, they’d need to change into professional attire.

It’s easier to connect participants to an international conference call.

A feature unique to audio conference calls is the “auto dial out” feature. You can preprogram each participant’s phone number into the auto dialer and let the international conference calling system automatically call all participants at the appointed time. This takes forgetfulness and tardiness out of the equation and can maximize participation.

In addition to the advantages listed above, international conference calls share many of the advantages that their web-based counterparts have. For example:

You can schedule international conference calls in advance. Not only do international conference calling plans include scheduling tools, you can use your existing meeting scheduling tools to invite and remind participants of an upcoming global teleconference.
You can record your international conference calls. MP3 recordings are usually a simply matter for the moderator of the call. Once recorded, the international conference call can be listened to by others at their convenience. You can use call recordings in any number of ways including historical documentation, training, or as a backup for those who were unable to attend the call at the time.
Anytime, anywhere access to the conference. Audio teleconferences may even have the edge here as Internet access is not required. Both technologies allow participants to participate in the conference from their homes, offices, or other locations (assuming that they have the appropriate equipment and access, that is).

Finally, audio international conference calls using well-established, high quality telephone networks deliver crystal clear sound quality. When every word counts, it’s important to choose a proven delivery method. Next time, choose the tried and true: an international conference call.

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7 Tips for International Conference Call Newbies

With an audio call, you don’t have the benefit of visual cues, so listen carefully and patiently.

Have you been invited to an international conference call for the first time?

An international conference call is similar to a domestic one in that the conference takes place over the telephone.

However, with participants located around the globe, international conference calls tend to have a few more challenges. Here’s what you need to know before participating in your first global teleconference.

What time is the international conference call in local time? Though most international conference call hosts clearly list the time of the call, it’s not always obvious when the call starts in your specific time zone.

For international conference calls with a large number of participants, it’s impractical for the host to break down the call’s start time in each country. In this case, the host will likely express the call’s time using Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). From there, it will be your responsibility to figure out the call’s actual start time in your time zone. Use an online time and date converter if needed.

What language will be spoken? It’s easy to assume your native language will be spoken, but that’s not necessarily the case with international teleconferences. For example, what language might be used between a Japanese electronics company and its operators in Mexico, USA, and Brazil? With four possible languages, it’s important to find out for sure. If you do not speak the language, find out if there will be another call in your language or if a translation will be made available after the call. If you must participate in a call where language is a barrier, it may be smart to have a translator join you.

What will your role be? Will you be expected to actively contribute to the conversation or is the call more informational in nature? If the call will take place at an inconvenient time, is not urgent, and you are not expected to actively contribute, it may be possible to listen to an MP3 recording of the international conference call after the fact.

Who else will be participating in the call? Because of the international nature of a global teleconference, it’s also helpful to know which other countries will be involved so that you can be sensitive to any cultural differences.

Prepare to be patient. It’s often difficult to communicate with people from other countries. Not only is there the issue of language, heavy accents can interfere even when everyone speaks the same language. With an audio call, you don’t have the benefit of visual cues, so listen carefully and patiently. When it’s your turn to speak, speak clearly and slowly and avoid using slang which can cause confusion.

Ask for an MP3 recording or transcript of the call. Many international conference call hosts record their calls and distribute recordings afterward. Others will transcribe the call as well. If you had difficulty understanding portions of the call due to language barriers, a recording or transcript could be beneficial.

As with any conference call, you’ll want to mute your phone line any time you are not speaking. This ensures that any background noise at your location does not interfere with the international conference call.

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Set up International Conference Calls with Participants in EU, North America, and Asia

Use the 5 tips below to help you plan a successful international conference call.

Planning an international conference call can be challenging when participants are scattered across North America, Europe, and Asia due to the different time zones and languages involved.

When planning an international conference call with multiple countries and large time differences, you will need to make some important decisions.

Determine Who Really Needs to Attend the International Conference Call

The first step is to identify all of the key people who need to attend the conference call. At this point, don’t include those whose attendance would be helpful but is not mandatory. By focusing on the key attendees, you will have a better idea of the main countries involved.

For example, you may find that most of your key attendees aren’t as scattered as expected which could simplify the rest of your planning. On the other hand, if you find that your key people are located across Europe, North America, and Asia, this confirms that you will need to plan your international conference call’s time in such a manner that makes the most sense for the majority of key participants.

Decide on the Most Appropriate Language

An international conference call with participants from Europe, North American, and Asia will likely involve speakers of multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, German, and more. Which language will be spoken during the call? Will you provide translators? Does it make sense to hold several different calls to accommodate the different languages of the participants? Is there a single language common to all?

After deciding on the language, make sure to communicate the international conference call’s language requirement to all participants along with any alternatives (such as post-call translations, MP3 recordings, or transcripts) that you may have decided on. You may also want to suggest the use of translators to those who are not fluent in the designated language.

Consider Pre-Conference Call Strategies

In order to minimize disruptions and maximize the time you have on your international conference call, think about what you can do before the call. For example, is it possible to record a pre-conference announcement?

Using your international conference calling plan’s MP3 recording tool, you could record a conversation between a few key participants and distribute that recording to your participants to listen to before the scheduled international conference call.

This would provide participants with background information that they could listen to at their leisure as well as allow for either a shorter live call or time for more in-depth discussions.

Distribute Country-Specific International Conference Call Access Numbers

Another challenge involves dialing international phone numbers and sky-high international calling costs. You can circumvent this problem by using an international conference calling service that issues country-specific access numbers and has low international long distance rates. You can also use toll free international conference call numbers.

Either way, each caller in each country would dial a country-specific access number to connect to the international conference call. Callers in Spain would dial a Spanish phone number while those in the United States would dial one specific to the USA.

Because these phone numbers conform to their country’s calling conventions, there’s no need for operator assistance and no unfounded fears associated with calling someone in another country. By issuing toll-free international conference call numbers, you’ll eliminate cost concerns completely.

Communicate Call Details as Clearly as Possible

If you have just a few participants in Europe, USA, and Asia, it’s not overly difficult to calculate the call’s start time and date in local time for each participant. However, the more participants and the more countries involved, the more difficult this task becomes. Make sure to communicate the call’s time and date in UTC time and provide participants with a link to a UTC time converter so that they can find out the call’s actual time in local time.

Planning an international conference call with participants in Europe, North America, and Asia – and beyond – is challenging. That said, it’s far easier and much less expensive to hold a global teleconference than it is for everyone involved to travel to an international meeting. Use international conference calls and stay connected without excessive costs.

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Practice Makes Perfect: The More You Use International Conference Calls, the Better they Become

Not only can holding a dress rehearsal allow you to practice your presentation, it can alert you to technical issues that need to be corrected before the call.

As with anything, the more you use international conference calls, the better you become at hosting them. After all, practice makes perfect.

When you first sign up for an international conference call service, your first few teleconferences may feel awkward. You might stumble around at first or forget to take advantage of the options available to you such as noisy line muting, or operator assistance.

However, as you continue to use your international conference calling plan, it’ll become more natural. You’ll discover new tricks, you’ll start to experience the benefits, and soon, you’ll realize that you can use global teleconference calls for all kinds of purposes beyond your original need.

While practice makes perfect, a little coaching can get you even better results, faster. With that in mind, use the following tips to get even more out of your international conference calling plan:

Hold a Dress Rehearsal Conference Call

Just as professional theatrical productions hold dress rehearsals, so too can you. Gather a few assistants and do a trial run of your international conference call a day or two the scheduled event. Have each assistant dial in from remote locations so that you are not in the same room. This simulates the environment and forces you to use your online dashboard tools to manage the call or see who’s currently connected.

Ask each assistant to take notes about the call while you practice your part. Don’t overly instruct them, just let them record their thoughts. These insights could range from audio levels and sound quality to comments about areas of the discussion that were unclear or could benefit from additional details.

Not only can holding a dress rehearsal allow you to practice your presentation, it can alert you to technical issues that need to be corrected before the call. In addition, you’ll become more familiar with the various tasks you’ll be responsible for as the moderator of the call.

Take a Team Approach

Holding an international conference call requires work on your part, but it’s not necessarily work you have to do all by yourself. Enlist the help of an assistant before and during the call.

For example, if you will be presenting during the bulk of the conference call, having an assistant on hand is important should any of your callers have difficulty connecting to the global teleconference or hearing you. Instead of having to stop your presentation in order to help the caller, you can continue presenting while your assistant helps the caller. Many international conference calling service providers include free operator assistance, making your job even easier.

Create a Lessons Learned Document

After each international conference call, take some time to reflect on it – and write down your thoughts in a lessons learned document. This can help you to improve your next international conference call by anticipating and preventing similar problems from occurring.

Consider your lessons learned document a living, evolving document and visit it often. Don’t just write your lessons learned and ignore them. Re-read them before each conference call and add to them afterwards.

After about five international conference calls, revisit your lessons learned document and summarize the key points. Post these prominently on your desk before your next conference call as a reminder.

Remember, your lessons learned will be different than anyone else’s. It doesn’t matter what they are; the important thing is to be aware of them and keep improving. For example, if you’ve determined that you are hard to understand because you talk too fast, one of your lessons learned may be summarized as “speak slowly.” Awareness plus a concentrated effort to talk more slowly will invariably lead to better conference calls in the future.

Listen to an International Conference Call Recording

Record your teleconferences and then go back and listen to them. Hearing yourself speak is a great exercise, and you may be surprised at how well you did. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you stumbled on a few words or forgot to mention a key point. Give yourself constructive criticism, just as you would give to a colleague, and choose one or two points to work on improving for next time.

Use End-of-Call Surveys

Use surveys after each international conference call to get feedback from participants. Participants will have a different perspective and may have valuable insights that wouldn’t occur to you otherwise. There are a variety of third party survey tools you could use to get instant feedback after the call.

Because feedback is so important, make it easy for participants to provide it. Online surveys are generally easier than surveys that must be printed out, filled out, scanned, and emailed. Keep your surveys short, too, and let participants know about how long it will take to complete your survey.

Keep Hosting International Conference Calls

The more you hold them, the easier they become. Practice really does make perfect!

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Dealing with Language Barriers During an International Conference Call

If you intend to hold two or more versions of the international conference call in different languages, make sure to include the details for those calls in the invitation.

It’s common for language barriers to arise during an international conference call. The nature of a global teleconference virtually guarantees that participants come from different backgrounds and speak different languages.

While it’s impossible to completely erase language barriers amongst a geographically diverse audience, you can do your part to be an effective communicator. Below are a few tips to help overcome potential language problems.

Include language details in your international conference call’s invitation. By stating clearly in the invitation which language will be spoken, your audience will be better able to decide if attending the international conference call makes sense. If you intend to hold two or more versions of the call in different languages, make sure to include the details for those calls in the invitation. For example, you could say something like, “This call will be conducted in English. A Portuguese version will take place on (date/time) followed by a Spanish conference call on (date/time).”

Request that we give you voice prompts in another language. Currently, we offer multi language system prompts in the following languages: French/English dual prompt, English/German dual prompts, Spanish/Portuguese dual prompts, English/Japanese dual prompts, Mandarin Chinese/English bi-lingual dual prompt. Visit our Expanded Global Conferencing service here.

Speak slowly. Non-native speakers will appreciate the slower pace which helps them to process what’s been said.

Avoid slang, cliches, and colloquialisms. They simply do not translate well. In fact, they probably won’t make sense whatsoever. For example, if you intend to start a project right away, saying “let’s get this ball rolling” could confuse non-native speakers and have them wondering what a ball has to do with anything. Instead, be clear and say “I want to start this project immediately.”

Send out a detailed agenda. The more you can fill in the blanks in advance, the better. By having a detailed agenda in place, each participant can quickly determine the general topic of discussion which provides extra context to the conversation.

Consider using an interpreter. Interpreters may be necessary in some situations. Due to the nature of an international conference call, you can use a “virtual” interpreter located in any country. Just as regular participants dial into the teleconference from their phones, the same is true of an interpreter.

Consider allowing personal interpreters. Some participants may want to use their own personal interpreters or even a trusted family member to help them understand what has just been said. If the content of the call is not proprietary or confidential, this can be helpful to individuals. If you’re concerned about confidentiality, it may be necessary to require a non-disclosure agreement. If personal interpreters will be used by participants, make sure to instruct those individuals how to mute their lines so the interpretation remains private.

Record the international conference call and make the recording available to participants after the fact. Some participants may appreciate being able to go back and listen to the teleconference afterwards to ensure that they didn’t miss anything.

Have the recording transcribed. Sending a transcription of the international conference call is another way to help non-native speakers get more out of the call. In addition to sending a word-for-word transcription, or as an alternative, you could also send a synopsis that summarizes the key points.

Have the recording or transcription translated. Another option is to translate the recording or transcription. For example, if the primary languages of participants are English and Portuguese, you could conduct the call in English, record it, and then have it translated into Portuguese.

Encourage questions. Another option is to recognize potential language barriers from the beginning and encourage participants to “raise their hands” or interrupt you if something doesn’t quite make sense. By alerting you to sections that don’t make sense, you have the opportunity to rephrase your statements or clarify. This can also help you improve your presentation as you learn more about what trips up your audience. For example, you may realize that you use cliches far too often. With this realization, you can then pay more attention to your own speak patterns and habits.

Issue a post-teleconference survey. Have participants fill out an anonymous survey after the global teleconference. This can alert you to communications issues that participants may have been hesitant to raise during the call. One of the questions you might include on the survey is this: Describe anything that you feel was unclear during the call? From there, use this feedback to write up a short letter clarifying any key points that may have been misunderstood.

International conference calls bring with them the potential for communications problems due to language differences.

It’s not easy, but it is possible to communicate despite language barriers.

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11 Reasons to use International Conference Calls

You can even record the international conference call to refer to later or for training purposes.

International conference calling is a fast, cost-efficient, and easy-to-use method of communicating with a group of people from around the world.

Commonly used to conduct business, an international conference call can be used for any number of purposes and from virtually any phone in the world. How will you use your next teleconference? Below are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Sales

Need to build relationships with clients from around the world? An international conference call is a great way to stay in touch with new, prospective, and existing clients. Whether you want to introduce the client to a local account representative or the company’s CEO, a group phone call is a good choice for introducing various representatives to clients and helping clients get their questions answered. You can also use a global teleconference to introduce a new product or service.

2. Negotiations

Preliminary negotiations can be handled over the phone using an international conference call. Once connected, all parties can state their objectives, discuss the contract’s finer points, ask questions, and present counteroffers. You can even record the international conference call to refer to later or for training purposes.

3. Investigations

Need to gather information from witnesses located around the world. Depending on the nature of the investigation, you may be able to do much of the groundwork over the phone using a global conference call.

4. Recruiting

Recruiting talent from around the globe can quickly become cost prohibitive, especially if you must fly candidates in from other countries for job interviews. Using international conference calls in the early, prescreening process can drastically cut your costs while simultaneously allowing human resources and regional managers the opportunity to speak with job candidates in a group phone call. Again, the international conference call can be recorded for later reference or for sharing with others involved in the final hiring decision. As you narrow the field of candidates down, you can conduct secondary interviews using a international conference call and then fly in only your top choices.

5. Team building

Managing a geographically diverse team is challenging as each team member may feel isolated from the group. Holding frequent international conference calls with the entire team provides a greater sense of community and it allows everyone the opportunity to get to know each other. Being able to speak with one another, brainstorm, solve problems, share ideas, and even talk about the weather can improve morale as well as accomplish other goals you have set for the conference call.

6. Training

From customer service and sales to sexual harassment prevention and time management training, many types of training courses can be effectively delivered using audio only. With an international conference call, the trainer can deliver the training to trainees located around the world in real-time. Not only that, you can record the conference call and use the MP3 file for future trainees. With a recorded international conference call, you can also ensure that all trainees, both current and future ones, receive the exact same instruction.

7. Family celebrations and reunions

Global teleconferences aren’t just for business. In fact, if you have family members located around the world, you can use an international conference call to bring the entire family together to share news or plan the next family reunion.

8. Event planning

Whether you need to coordinate a corporate retreat, charity fundraiser, or small wedding, if various partners are located outside of your country, holding an international conference call is an excellent option. By using a low-cost international conference calling service, each partner can dial into the teleconference and participate in the planning. Make sure everyone is on the same page by using group conference calls to plan the event.

9. Coaching

Many consultants and coaches use international conference calls to share their messages with a global audience. A global teleconference can be conducted in real-time, allowing participants to call in, listen to the lecture, and then ask questions. In addition, the teleconference can be recorded and sold as an informational coaching product or distributed as a free gift.

10. Tutoring

Many tutors conduct “virtual” tutoring sessions using teleconferences. This can be particularly helpful to international students who need extra help in a country where live tutors are scarce. You could use an international conference call for one-on-one or group tutoring.

11. Expert witnesses

Many lawyers use international conference calls to interview expert witnesses located around the world. With a global conference call, the lawyer, a court reporter, a paralegal, and the expert witness can all be located in different countries, yet the conversation can efficiently take place. You can use an international conference call to gather information, conduct a disposition, or get a better sense of how the expert witness responds under pressure.

These are but a few of the many different ways you can use an international conference call to connect with other people from around the world. How will you use your next global teleconference?

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13 Ways to Improve Communications During an International Conference Call

If you’re the moderator of the international conference call, you can help your participants by referring to other speakers by name.

Holding an international conference call with a diverse group of people from around the globe can be a communications challenge. After all, you’ve got multiple time zones and multiple people who may or may not speak the same language.

Once you’ve overcome the logistics of scheduling the international conference call, one of the biggest challenges involves communicating your message in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. Use the tips below to improve your communications during a global teleconference.

1. Always go for exceptional sound quality. When it comes to using a international conference calling service, you have a myriad of options including free conference calling, VoIP conference calling, and traditional teleconferencing services. While price is certainly a consideration, sound quality is of utmost important. All participants, regardless of their location, should be able to hear one another without having to suffer through sound delays, static, echoes, and dropouts. The better the sound quality, the better able your participants will be to hear and understand your message.

2. Always identify yourself before speaking, and encourage all participants to do the same. By stating your name, company, and title before you speak, you give participants an important frame of reference. If you’re the moderator of the international conference call, you can help your participants by referring to other speakers by name.

3. Conduct your international conference call from a quiet location. Remember, you can call from virtually anywhere. So, if your office is particularly loud due to a construction project taking place next door, consider calling in from a quieter setting such as your home office or a soundproof conference room.

4. Use your international conference calling plan’s moderation features. Most international conference calling plans have features for muting and unmuting individual phone lines as well as for turning off chimes used to announce new participants.

5. Never put your phone on hold during a conference call. This applies to moderators and participants alike. Doing so often triggers your company’s music on hold system which then takes over the call. Not only is the music distracting, it will prevent others from conversing. If you must step away, use the mute feature to mute your phone line.

6. Turn off potentially noisy interruptions. This includes your cell phone’s ringer, your computer’s email notification chime, pager, and interoffice intercom. In general, anything that beeps, rings, chirps, or makes unexpected noises should be turned off during the international conference call.

7. Start the international conference call with a brief summary of what the call will be about. This can be as simple as saying something along the lines of, “We’ll spend the first 20 minutes discussing A, B, and C and then we’ll open up the call for 15 minutes of questions and answers.” This lets everyone know what’s coming up and what to expect.

8. Speak slowly and clearly, using plain language. With international participants, the language used to communicate during the call may not be their first language. This is not the time to rush through your comments or use slang words that are likely to cause confusion.

9. Paraphrase the comments of others. For example, during a question and answer session, after someone asks a question, paraphrase the question before giving the answer. This helps to ensure that everyone hears and understand the question, even if the person who asked it had a heavy accent or soft voice. Paraphrasing also helps to clarify that you’ve interrupted the question correctly before moving on to the answer.

10. Proactively manage the conversation. It’s not unusual for discussions to wander off track. If a discussion becomes irrelevant to the purpose of the international conference call, table the matter for another time and direct the conversation back to the scheduled topic. Not only does your active moderation keep the conversation focused, it can prevent an international conference call from going over its allotted time limit.

11. Engage all participants. Some participants will naturally be more vocal than others. Some will prefer to sit back and listen. However, their voices should be heard, too. Use your moderator’s dashboard to keep an eye on who’s on the call, who’s speaking, and who has not had a chance to contribute. From there, actively engage those who have been quiet. For example, you could say, “Barbara Jones, we haven’t heard from you yet. What do you think?” This isn’t to put her on the spot, but rather to give everyone the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. This can also prevent naturally talkative participants from becoming overly involved in the call.

12. Do a quick recap. At the end of the call, do a quick recap, summarizing what was discussed along with the next steps.

13. Consider sending an MP3 recording of the international conference call to all participants after the fact so that they can review the call as needed. You could also have the recording transcribed and then send a PDF transcript to participants.

Focusing on sound quality, speaker identification, clear speaking, active listening and paraphrasing, conversation management, and engagement can lead to more communicative international conference calls.

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Using International Conferencing for Overseas Vendor Collaboration and Status

With vendors located all over the globe, international conferencing becomes a vital tool in your supply chain management process. While numerous communications methods exist, being able to speak with multiple parties at once can ensure that nothing is overlooked or left to chance. At the same time, being able to hear each other’s tone of voice can prevent misunderstandings and lead to more personal relationships.

Why Use International Conferencing for Vendor Collaboration and Status?

If you only need to speak with one vendor located in another country, using a traditional phone will do the job. However, when other parties such as other vendors, trade consultants, freight forwarders, brokers, and regional team members need to join the call, a traditional phone system may not be the best choice. For starters, your phone system may not be able to support more than a handful of callers at once. In addition, your vendors may face hurdles or restrictions in dialing an international phone number.

An international conference call can overcome these problems. With an international conferencing plan, you can host low-cost global conference calls with as many participants as you would like.

International conferencing overcomes international dialing problems by offering local and toll free numbers for hundreds of countries around the world. This means that your vendors will dial either a local or a toll free number (depending on how you set up the call) that is local to their countries. If you opt for toll free international conferencing, you will be charged per minute, per participant based on each participant’s countries’ calling rates. Alternately, you could set up the international conferencing system to automatically dial each participant’s phone number at the scheduled time. This option works well when calling costs are high as it usually results in a lower per minute rate.

Not only does international conferencing overcome many dialing issues, using a teleconference to collaborate with vendors allows for real-time discussions in an engaging, productive environment. For example, if you need to solve a problem within your supply chain, a teleconference is perfect for asking questions, getting answers, clarifying expectations, and providing guidance. It can also ensure that everyone is on the same page as well as prevent you from having to repeat yourself to multiple participants. You can also record your international conference calls to share with involved parties who might not have been able to participate in person.

Holding More Productive Vendor Meetings with International Conferencing

While international conferencing is easy to set up and use, your time, and the time of your vendors, is valuable. In addition to being respectful of time, holding more productive vendor teleconferences can reduce your international conferencing costs. Though international conferencing is a low-cost alternative to travel, you will incur costs with each conference call you host. Since you pay by the minute per participant, running an efficient teleconference can make a bigger difference than you may realize.

Start by determining the answers to the following questions:

▪ What is the purpose of the call? What is the desired outcome of the call?

▪ Who should attend? Will there be language barriers? Is a translator available?

▪ Will others need time to speak to the group? For example, an engineer may be better able to explain a component’s specs to a manufacturer than you would. If so, it makes sense to invite the engineer to address the vendors during the conference call.

▪ What questions do you need answered?

▪ Which tasks will be assigned and to whom?

▪ What supporting documents should be distributed prior to the call?

▪ How much time should the call last and is this sufficient for the call’s purpose?

▪ What countries are involved? What time zones? What time and date is the most practical for those involved?

▪ Would a recording of the teleconference be helpful to attendees after the fact?

The answers to these questions should guide you in designing an agenda for the call and scheduling it. By defining the purpose and expected outcome in advance, you can then create a focused agenda that moves the teleconference strategically from one key point to the next.

Once you’ve identified who should attend the teleconference, determine if their attendance is absolutely necessary. This can help you in scheduling the call around the most important participants’ schedules and time zones. For example, if you have several vendors in China who absolutely must attend and a warehouse supervisor in Long Beach whose attendance would be nice but not mandatory, you may want to coordinate timing with the vendors in China first to ensure a workable time period for the teleconference. For those secondary individuals who may not need to attend the call in person, consider sending them an MP3 recording of the call to listen to later.

Using international conferencing to communicate with vendors overseas

It is a great way to collaborate and build stronger working relationships. It is also an affordable choice that does not require any travel or specialized equipment. By spending some time planning your international conferencing agenda, you can guide the group through the meeting with focus and purpose.

In addition, a well-planned teleconference respects everyone’s time and keeps international conferencing costs within your desired budget. Make sure everyone is on the same page by using international conferencing regularly for overseas vendor collaboration and status.

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Tips for Better Communication during an International Conference Call

Conference Call Tips for the Moderator — Conference Call Tips

International collaboration using a conference call is a cost effective choice that allows you to accomplish many tasks without the high cost of travel. For example, you can negotiate deals, conduct training, conduct creative brainstorming sessions, get feedback, conduct research, and much more with an international conference call. Just about anything you can do face-to-face, you can do on a teleconference. However, with audio-only conference calls, you may miss non-verbal cues such as facial expressions. In addition, not all callers will recognize one another’s voices. Use these tips to enhance communications during an international conference call.

Ask each participant to announce their names and departments before speaking – While you may recognize Glen from accounting’s voice, other participants might not. Asking each participant to quickly say their name and department or job role before they speak helps give context to their comments.

Use active listening techniques – Some participants may be difficult to hear or understand for any number of reasons. As the moderator of the international conference call, part of your job is to ensure that everyone is heard and understood. If the sound is muffled or a person’s accent heavy, it’s helpful to repeat what you believe was said and ask the speaker to confirm. For example, you might say, “Barbara from our San Diego logistics office just said our freight contract expires in two weeks. Did I hear that correctly Barbara?”

Allow a few minutes for questions and answers at the end – At the end of the international conference call, open up the meeting for questions and answers. As you wrap up the call, thank participants. You might even leave the lines unmuted for a few minutes, allowing for a little friendly banter which builds a sense of camaraderie.

Many international conference calls suffer needlessly because of telephone system quality issues. Many communications problems can be avoided by choosing an international conference calling plan known for quality connections.

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Strategies to inspire attendance of International Conference Calls

International business people communicate via global conference calls — Inspire Global Conference Call Attendees

Strategies to inspire attendance of International Conference Calls

Hosting an international conference call involves more than signing up for a teleconferencing account, scheduling the conference, and inviting participants. It also means keeping conference call attendees engaged and interested. If you’ve ever attended a boring or useless conference call, you know the pitfalls of poor planning. Use these tips to plan an engaging international conference call.

Determine what you want to accomplish before you schedule the call. By planning your topics beforehand, you’ll have a better idea of how much time you need. If you only need 20 minutes to accomplish the goal of the international conference call, schedule accordingly. Your participants would prefer a short, on-task meeting over an overly long one with no clear direction.

Create and distribute an agenda for the call in advance. Again, your attendees will appreciate knowing what to expect and how much time they’ll be required to invest in the teleconference. The agenda will also be helpful for potential attendees to determine if their attendance is necessary.

Adhere to the agenda’s topics and time limits. If you’ve designated 10 minutes for an individual to speak on a given topic, you may need to jump in if the speaker goes over the allotted time period. As the moderator of the call, it’s your job to moderate the pace of the call. If a speaker doesn’t use up the entire allotment, you can either use that time for questions and answers or wrap up the call a few minutes early. It’s helpful to have a list of alternate topics to discuss if time allows.

Use icebreakers at the beginning of the call. With an international conference call, you’ll have participants from around the globe. A quick icebreaker game or a short round of introductions can be fun and interesting to callers. For larger groups, individual introductions are time-prohibitive. In this case, a few shout outs, such as “We have callers from Hong Kong, Canada, London, and South Africa.” If you’re using the chat tool in conjunction with your international conference call, you could also prompt attendees to enter their names and locations in the chat box.

Offer an incentive to stay on the conference call. Staying on task and delivering relevant content are vital to your teleconference’s success. However, people often sneak out toward the end of the call for any number of reasons. One way to keep them tuned in is to offer an incentive at the end. It could be as simple as randomly awarding a $10 Starbucks card or offering a special offer on a product of interest to your attendees.

With advance planning and a solid agenda, your next international conference call can be a resounding success!

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Tips to Lower the Cost of your International Conference Call

Tips to Lower the Cost of Your Next International Conference Call

To frame this post correctly, these are tips about reducing costs on professional, high quality, business class, full service, excellent line clarity, toll-free international conference calling. Versus a conference call service which provides an experience similar to when you were a kid and created your own walkie-talkie system made out of two cans and a string 🙂

Being able to say “That went well” after your overseas conference call. Isn’t that the goal?

Instead of: “people were cut off and we couldn’t hear some participants, and some couldn’t dial-in, the call sounded muffled, voices were fragmented. My boss was not happy“.

No joke, this is what we hear from customers that have tried many international conferencing alternatives but always come back to wanting their call experience to be great for everyone on the call as opposed to having numerous quality issues too lengthy to go into here. Most of the problematic conferencing services claim to be free.

Hosting an international conference call is a cost-effective choice for communicating with colleagues, employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, and even loved ones from around the world. Not only can the entire group discuss important matters using a low-cost international conference call, several options are available to further reduce the cost of your next call. Use these tips to plan and execute your next global teleconference.

Identify the countries with the most expensive international conference calling rates – International conference calling Toll-Free access rates vary dramatically by country. For example, you’ll pay about 10 times more per minute for a caller in the Philippines than you will for callers in Canada. If your international conference call is just a few minutes long, this may not be a big factor; however, if your call lasts an hour, you’ll pay nearly $50 for each caller from the Philippines and about $3 for each caller from Canada for that 60 minute call.

Use moderator dial-out for callers with expensive calling rates – Moderator dial-out is a feature that you can use to take advantage of lower per minute rates. With this option, the chairperson dials callers in expensive countries rather than requiring them to dial into the international conference call. Participants are still able to participate in the global teleconference, but your costs will be significantly lower. For example, you could slash your per minute rate for callers from the Philippines by about 70 percent.

Dial-out works for any country. Country rates are usually lower than toll-free number access using dial-out. The host has no constraints as to what country the participant is located in. Only the participant’s overseas phone number is needed for the chairperson to dial-out to the attendee and place him/her into the call. Dial-out rates depend on the country. You should compare dial-out rates to toll-free access rates.

Encourage mobile participation – While your current international conference calling plan most likely works on mobile phones, VoIP phones, and landlines alike, callers using mobile phones to dial into your international conference call may be subject to excessively high mobile calling rates. If you are hosting the call and offering toll free access to participants, encourage participants to dial from landline phones if at all possible. Use your best judgment on this one as you may not want to impose on VIPs and potential customers. That said, if you have employees sitting at a desk with both a landline and a mobile phone, it makes sense to ask them to use the landline.

In order to slash the cost of your next international conference call, focus on the participants that are most likely to incur the highest costs. Use Leader dial-out to reduce your per minute rates for participants from expensive countries.

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Important considerations while choosing international teleconference service

Choosing International Conference Call service

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.