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Funny video from Dave Fleming highlighting a common experience in conference calls.
If your conference call is plagued by mystery callers joining your conference call then consider 2 features:
* Conference Lock.
You can lock your conference call and prevent any more attendees from arriving. It’s a great security feature. It’s also a great feature to insure prompt attendance by your group.
* Name Announcement.
You can require attendees to say their name prior to joining your conference call. Their name announcement will be played back either privately to you as the host, or publicly to the entire group. This too is a great security feature and a great feature to help insure prompt and full attendance.
From the recent weekly series on Conference Call Security, here are the 4 Tips to help insure your audience on your conference call is the audience you want to be there.
Conference Call Security Tip #1: Change Your Access Codes Regularly. Just like you do, right(?), with your computer passwords.
Conference Call Security Tip #2: Name Recording on Entry, with private or public announcement.
Conference Call Security Tip #3: Conference Lock. Lock unwanted callers out.
Conference Call Security Tip #4: Attendee Count.
At any time during your conference call you can request the Attendee Count. That feature request will tell you how many attendees or callers, including you as the host, are currently on your conference call. If you’re sure the invited guests have arrived and want to make sure no one else has joined the call directly, then count the number in attendance at that moment.
That feature also is standard with most of our audio conference call services. It’s enacted by the use of your telephone’s dialpad. Just ask your sales agent or Customer Service (877-227-0611, ext. 3 or customerservice@conferencecallsunlimited.com) for details on how to use it.
(Callers who have used the 3-way calling feature on their telephone to add participant will only count as one. The bridge counts the number of direct call connections.)
Lock Your Conference.
Once everyone’s arrived, shut the door and lock it. Lock your conference call against further arrivals. If
everyone’s there, then start without further interruptions.
And it’s also a great way to insure prompt attendance…
It’s a feature that’s standard on most of our conference call services. You lock your call using the dialpad on your telephone.
NOTE: Once a guest leaves a locked conference call…they can’t return.
NOTE #2: An operator can’t join your call, either, if there’s a problem caller.
It’s available then for most of you right now. Just ask your sales agent or Customer Service (877-227-0611, ext. 3 or customerservice@conferencecallsunlimited.com)
Name Recording On Entry. That’s the 2nd most important tip for maintaining security on a conference call. (The number one tip is Change Your Host and Guest Codes regularly.)
This feature prompts a caller to announce their name before joining the conference call. That helps insure 2 things: 1) only the invited attend; 2) you know who’s attending AND who’s leaving.
There are 2 options for Name Recording on Entry These options regard your callers and their experience of the feature.
Do you want them to hear the names announced as callers arrive?
OR
Do you want their arrival announced privately to you as the host?
If you want your guests to hear the announcement of each caller’s arrival and departure then you request Name Recording with Entry Announcement. Then the name of each arrival will be played to all the attendees upon their entry and their departure.
If you want your callers’ arrivals and departures to be private, played privately to only to you as the host then you request Name Recording with Private Playback.
Next week we’ll discuss the Number 3 Most Important Tip for Security: Conference Lock. You can lock the door of your conference room/call.
Change your access codes. Change the host and guest code. That’s the number one tip to increase your confidence that only invited callers attend your conference calls.
I’ve always been advised to change the passwords I use on my computer every month. I’m a month or two behind…
But the logic is still the same. Your computer is a critical resource for your success. So is your conference call. For that to be the most productive you need to have the confidence that it’s used only by the right parties.
I had a friend at another company I worked years ago. He’d sit silently on the conference bridge where the executives met to discuss confidential matters like…bonuses or acquisitions or layoffs. They never knew he was there. They never changed the conference codes nor their meeting times. He’d ask me if I wanted to know x. Honestly, I never did. I didn’t need that rattling around in my head. Do you know if someone is sitting silently on your confidential conference call?
When was the last time you used a conference call to help make tough changes in your organization, changes that might be met with unhappiness within the organization or discuss employee reviews or their departures or a corporate acquisition?
And since then how many employees, partners, vendors or contractors, customers or clients, attorneys or accountants have left your group?
Some of those departures have been happy right? Right? All of them? Can you say for certain they’ve all been departures with warm feelings?
When was the last time you changed your access codes?
Change your codes. Change them AT LEAST once a year. Twice a year is better. Your group will thank you for the added confidence their calls are kept confidential. If they grumble, just imagine the problems that could arise from unwelcome and unknown
guests attending your conference call.
We want your calls to be as productive and successful and confidential as they can be. This is the easiest step you can take to help us deliver on that promise for you.
