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The ultimate guide to effective note-taking on a conference call

Admin 10th December 2020

Conference calls are an excellent way to work and collaborate with others remotely, whether you are two businesses collaborating on opposite sides of the world or one fully remote team looking to stay connected. There’s no doubt conference calls are a must-have tool for many businesses today, but the key to any great conference call is effective note-taking.

Learn how to take notes during a phone call (or a video conference) with our guide.

Effective note-taking while on a call

The biggest challenge taking notes during any meeting, whether it be over the phone or even in person, is effectively taking notes while listening to what others on the call are saying. We’ve all been there, but with these top tips, you’ll be taking notes like a pro in no time.

Prepare beforehand

It might sound counterproductive, but making some notes beforehand can really help you with better note-taking during your call. Do you have a rough agenda or key areas of discussion that you’d like to focus on during the call? Make a note of them beforehand and add some space for further note-taking beneath them, this will help you significantly when you come back to read them after the call.

Assign a note taker

If you’re having a meeting with other employees, why not assign a note-taker amongst the group? The note taker will solely be responsible for writing things down, so everyone else on the call can engage as they normally would.

Use our conference call notes template to organise your note-taking effectively

We’ve put together a handy conference call notes template to help you with effective note-taking on your next call. Our template is designed to help you easily organise your note-taking, focusing on discussion points and key actions after the call. Give it a try, you can download it here for free.

Write in detail for the most effective note-taking

Although it might be tempting to put down just a few words at the time of writing, making your notes as detailed as possible will make your life a whole lot easier when you come back to them. It’s better to write down too much detail rather than not enough, but make sure you’re still listening to what’s being said.

Effective note-taking means you organise your notes immediately after the call

One of the biggest mistakes people make when note-taking during a conference call is not revisiting their notes until days after the call. Ideally, you should organise your notes as soon as possible after the call, while everything discussed during is still fresh in your mind, to organise them and carry out any actions required.

Make the most of our conference call recording feature

If you do forget to write any important notes down during your conference call, you can always revisit them thanks to our handy conference call recording feature. While our free conference call plan doesn’t include call recording, our affordable plus and premium plans do, so you can listen back to your call at any time. For more information about call recording, browse our conference call features page.

Just take a look at our conference call reviews to see what others are saying about the feature!

Here are some more useful resources you might like:

Photo by Lubomyr Myronyuk on Unsplash

Should you hold conference calls or a video calls?

Admin 12th March 2021

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.

Business Conference Calls, Remote Working

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How to encourage conference call participation

Admin 2nd March 2021

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.

Business Conference Calls, Business Tips and Advice, Conference Call Tips, Remote Working

How do you make a conference call more fun?

Admin 11th February 2021

It’s Tuesday afternoon and you’re already four conference calls into the week. Of course, conference calls are important for so many businesses. But making conference calls more fun should be a bigger priority. Otherwise, they can become tedious and repetitive, and morale and productivity will drop.

Whether you’re working from home and need to catch up with colleagues, or you’re calling clients, these tips will help to make your next conference call more fun.

Conference Call Tips, Remote Working