Business Conference Calls

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Should you hold conference calls or a video calls?

A lot of us often wonder about whether to choose conference calls or video calls. There are big benefits on both sides, and some shared across the two. After all, there’s no doubt that advancements in call technology have paved the way for new communication methods at work. They allow us to host keynote presentations from across the world, offering inclusivity to those with accessibility needs. Any type of group phone call also provides a sense of connection when teammates are working apart – something particularly valuable through COVID-related lockdowns and social distancing.

But while jumping on a video call has become a knee-jerk reaction for many, it’s not without its drawbacks. Video brings some complications that traditional conference calls simply don’t have. If you’re wondering whether to organise a conference call or video call, don’t forget that sometimes just picking up the phone is the better option.

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AdminShould you hold conference calls or a video calls?
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How to encourage conference call participation

With telecommuting become part and parcel of daily life, the need to encourage conference call participation is on all our radars. Whether you are a developer, manager, director or client, you will probably understand the challenges that conference call participation can pose. Meeting dynamics often solidify rather quickly, as extraverted participants take centre stage and readily express their opinions. Bolder characters may be excellent for producing new ideas. Unfortunately, though, it can cause participants who are more reserved to fade into the background. If you want to enhance your team’s productivity and unity, implementing some of the following solutions can work wonders. After all, we all want to learn how to have more effective conference calls.

Both the call’s leader and its participants can make a huge difference in encouraging conference call participation. Read on to discover some tips and tactics to improve your team’s conference call participation.

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AdminHow to encourage conference call participation
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How to improve unspoken communication on a conference call

Verbal signals are an important part of all communication. But conference call communication depends on verbal and non-verbal signalling. In the age of teleconferencing (and seemingly its glory year!), they’re vital signs into how successful an interaction is. You may be pitching to a prospective client, it may be your weekly team catch up, or you may be a director presenting to an entire department. No matter the purpose of the call, if you are trying to deliver an engaging conference call, getting clued up on non-verbal and verbal signals is crucial. They can indicate that somebody is losing interest. Picking up on these feelings gives you the chance to try and improve things.

Read through our guide about some of the ways to improve communication on a conference call, by reading signals that call participants aren’t invested. We’ll also advise on what to do to turn things around.

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AdminHow to improve unspoken communication on a conference call
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10 ways to be more effective on conference calls

Since last year, people are increasingly keen to learn how to hold effective conference calls. For those who lead team meetings, reflection is commonplace when it comes to making sure the valuable time spent together is as productive as possible. You might try different meeting structures or various frequencies of conference calls – you may even ask yourself ‘are conference calls effective at all?’. Balancing productivity with team engagement is the real challenge for meeting leaders. To find out how to achieve effective conference calls, read on to discover our top ten tips.

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Admin10 ways to be more effective on conference calls
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The importance of audio quality on your conference call

Maximising the quality of your conference call is a top priority for many. After all, the importance of audio conferencing cannot be understated. Being one of the most popular means of business communication, teleconferencing and high quality conference calls ensure that a business meeting is more productive at virtually no loss to the company. It’s a solution to previous practices that have now proven unsustainable. For example, the prohibitive travel costs of a business meeting meant that a chunk of your company’s money was spent on logistics alone.

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AdminThe importance of audio quality on your conference call
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Conference call interview tips for success

Preparing for a conference call interview is an increasingly important skill. Of course, this is truer than ever in the post-coronavirus job market. And with so many people now seeking work, many of us are looking for guidance and the best ways to stand out and make a good impression during telephone job interviews.

But even before the pandemic, many employers have come around to the idea of holding telephone interviews. There are so many benefits, from saving them time to cutting back on our cumulative carbon footprint. It can also make the whole ordeal less stressful for everybody, from the person being interviewed to the interviewer. Particularly for the first round, the conference call interview is becoming a really popular practice. Even many recruitment agencies themselves are turning to conference calls for job interviews.

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AdminConference call interview tips for success
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The best free conference call services – for UK participants

Do free conference calls mean scrimping with tin cans and pieces of string? Or are there high quality, reliable options (that are genuinely free to use)?

This post examines the best free conference call services for UK participants.

Truly free conference calls

Over the last few years, many supposedly free conference call services have appeared in the UK. They can market themselves as ‘free’ because they offer a simple call-in service where no payment details are taken from the conference organiser, and participants only pay for the cost of their phone call.

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AdminThe best free conference call services – for UK participants
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Could your business save £100k a year on conference calls?

Saving money can never really be a bad idea, can it? Particularly when you can save without compromising on quality or functionality. And that’s exactly what many happy users have found with WHYPAY?. If your business teleconferences frequently, you too could make savings of £100,000 or more in the next year by switching to WHYPAY?. That would leave you with a very nice sum to put towards crucial components of your business budget.

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AdminCould your business save £100k a year on conference calls?
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Internet issues during the coronavirus outbreak? Conference call instead

Many are facing Internet issues during the coronavirus outbreak. Just today, news has broken that Virgin Media is experiencing network outages. And that’s by no means the only network experiencing issues. Some users have even reported their broadband capacity halving. This isn’t surprising with the swelling demand as more and more people switch to remote work in a move toward social-distancing or self-isolation. Even Whatsapp and Facebook have been affected, with their servers being described as having gone into ‘melt down’, and Zuckerberg forced to increase their capacity.

The stickiness of the situation becomes clearer when you think of the UK’s Internet infrastructure. While countries like Korea and China have heavily invested in fibre and 5G networks, much of the UK depends on local networks of copper wires. These are far less reliable. In fact, according to the Financial Times, more than 80% of Korea and Japan’s fixed line connections are high-speed fibre. In Britain, only 10% of fixed line connections qualify. That makes us one of the lowest in the OECD.

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AdminInternet issues during the coronavirus outbreak? Conference call instead
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COVID-19: we’re waiving subscription charges

Update 24 March 2020: Unfortunately, due to network capacity dimensioning we are no longer able to offer 3 months free on the Pro plan. A tenfold increase in demand for the custom 03 numbers offered on the Pro plan has outstripped our ability to supply these. The new discount codes PLUSMONTHLY2JULY and PLUSANNUAL2JULY are still valid and offer the Plus plan completely free until July.


As the government encourages people to work from home to contain the spread of Coronavirus we’ve seen a significant uplift in conference calls here at WHYPAY?. We think people have enough to worry about right now, so we’re waiving paid subscription charges for the next three months! We know our service and its advanced features like call recording, moderator controls and custom branding can offer real value to disrupted teams, so we’re doing our little bit to help.

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AdminCOVID-19: we’re waiving subscription charges