Conference Calls Don’t Work & How To Fix Them

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Conference calls don’t work.

Let’s face it. They just don’t.

People do other things.

Most people are engaged in everything but engaging those on the call.

Hopefully, they at least “mute” their line.

But amazingly, you often hear typing, background noise, pets, toilets flushing (really!), and more.

Do these things happen on your conference calls?

Dysfunctional Calls

Let’s face it. Most conference calls are efforts in futility. People show up for roll call and then check out for the rest of the call.

Why bother?

People blatantly do other things during in person meetings. What do you think they are doing on your conference call?

Here are some of my favorite conference call stories:

Another Call – On a very large conference call with >30 attendees, we could hear one of the members blatantly talking on another call. This continued for over 15 minutes, but no one could identify who it was. They were so oblivious that they did not even stop when the leader stopped the call to try and call them out.
The Mute Button – I used to have a boss that would say, “The day the mute button is broken is the day I get fired.” He would constantly say rude and obnoxious comments while on mute. Then he would calmly get back into character before speaking with the client.
On Hold – One of my favorites is when a participant actually puts the conference call on “hold” not realizing that they are blasting the entire conference call with hold music. Fun times!
Are You There? – How about when you call on someone and they take 10+ seconds to respond. They always start with something like, “Oh… I couldn’t get off mute.” Right! You mean… you weren’t paying attention.
Calling It In… From Down the Hall – How about this one, local meeting participants that call into the conference… from down the hall! Even though they are in the building, they call into the meeting…. so they can keep working. Ha!
Um, I Can See You… – This one is a bit ironic. I recently had a video conference call with a VP from a client company. About halfway though the meeting, he turned around started having a conversation with his assistant. It was not a quick direction, it was a full blown conversation. After about 30 seconds, I stopped presenting. He finally looked back at the camera and said, “Oh, you could see that. I’m sorry.”

How to Fix Your Conference Calls

Most companies conference calls are not working today. With some small steps you can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your conference calls.

Here are just a few tips to tune up your calls:

Start Them on Time – Just as with physical meetings, it is important to be disciplined about starting on time. Do not wait for participants. If you system allows, “close the call” to new participants after a short time.
Keep Them Short – Very short. Meeting duration is even more important with calls than in person meetings. Schedule them to the shortest duration possible. Don’t let people ramble and keep them on topic at all cost.
Keep Them Small – Phone calls can get out of control real quick with too many people on the line. Minimize the number of people invited to the key players only.
Make People Participate – Some people don’t like to call on people. However, I am big believer that if people are going to be on a call, they need to be active. Don’t hesitate to call on people if their opinion is needed.
Get Rid of the Extras – If someone is going to put themselves on mute and the only time they say anything is when they roger up at the beginning and say goodbye at the end, then they didn’t need to be on the call. (See Tip #3 above.)
Leverage New Technology – One word: video. If I could have all my conference calls via video, I would. Keeps them on target and to the point. With iPhones, FaceTime, Skype, and others… this is much closer to reality.