Here are three key things to remember for your next conference call:
- Be on time! Okay, so if you are a few minutes late, no problem, but do not “say your name” when the prompt asks, instead wait for a moment after you “join” to say you’ve joined. That way the rest of the folks on the call don’t hear a random “Good morning, Parimal Patel is here” while someone else is mid-sentence in a dialogue.
- If you are not speaking, go on mute… this is hard for many, but just try to remember all those times when someone else irritated you because they weren’t on mute (with the Starbucks background music or heavy breathing into the phone – we’ve all been there). You don’t want to be that person on the call!
- Be in a place where you have good cell phone reception (this is not always possible, but you should at least make an effort to do this). The only thing worse than hearing someone breathing into the phone the whole time is hearing: “H_, this is P__mal he__ and ____ related _____ …. ____ concern. Does anyone ____ any questions?”
For some comic relief, here is a YouTube video of a conference call in real life that everyone has either already seen or should watch! Enjoy.
