How to Choose a Conference Calling Service

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Conference calling services are pretty abundant in today’s world; with many online services dominating the landscape with extra tools like video conferencing. If you’re looking for an online meeting solution, or simply a better way to connect with your team and clients alike, a conference calling may be just what you need. Here’s how to choose a conference calling service that can best meet your business’s needs.

1. Decide Which Services You Need

The first thing you need to do when deciding on a conference calling service is to decide which additional features, if any, you want. Many conference calling services offer extras like video conferencing, operator-assisted calls, and more. These extras can be included with your conference services, or offered as extras for additional cost.

It’s important to understand what your business actually needs and what you can’t afford. Extra services are nice, but if your budget doesn’t support extra expenses, you’ll want to skip them and just go with the base conference service. This will allow you to host conference calls with plenty of open slots to meet any sized business needs.

Knowing what you want can help you narrow down brands by which services they offer and which they don’t. This can make the browsing/shopping experience more streamlined and quicker for you. After all, who wants to spend hours shopping online for a service?

2. Compare Pricing Packages

Once you’ve narrowed down your needs and chose a few providers to compare, it’s time to take a look at pricing options. Be sure to approach this process with a particular budget in mind for your business. You won’t want to just throw around numbers without being aware of how these costs will affect your business’s finances long-term. You may even find that conference calling services don’t currently fit into your budget at all!

Pricing for conference calling services will vary between providers and which features you opt into. Conferencecalling.com offers a competitive package for beginners at $11.99/month per user for up to ten participants. You’ll also be able to choose from other options for up to 250 participants, and the site offers enterprise options for larger corporations.

3. Don’t Forget Customer Reviews

Anytime you choose to do business with another company, it’s important to check that company’s reviews to see what kind of product and customer service experience you can expect from them. A business may have the exact package you’re looking for, but when you check the customer reviews, their customer service is below average.

This can be an essential deciding factor in whether or not you accept the services the company offers. Customers that have used the products and interacted with the company’s customer service team have a deep understanding of the level of quality they’re getting; and can help serve as warnings to potential customers like yourself.

Compare customer reviews as you would pricing options, as both are equally important. You don’t want to spend money on a service that has no customer support behind it, or on software that doesn’t work half the time.

4. Tech Support is a Must

When you pay for software or an online service of any kind, it’s important that the company providing said service or software also provides technical support to its users. Software can run into issues, causing it to malfunction or stop working altogether, and when this happens in the middle of a conference call, it can be quite frustrating.

Technical support will help you to troubleshoot any issues you run into, getting you back on your call as quickly as possible. Not to mention, a company that provides technical support is saying, “we stand behind our products”. Would you trust a company that didn’t stand behind the products or services they were offering?

When you choose your next conference call service, be sure to have the technical support number readily available. If there is no technical support line to call, it’s probably best to just avoid that company altogether and find one that cares about its products and customers.

5. Leave Feedback

Once you’ve purchased and used your conference calling software, it’s up to you to join the ranks of the thousands of customers before you that have left reviews. Remember how helpful the customer reviews were when you were looking for new conference software? You too can help future customers better understand the products and services they’re paying for, and what they should expect from the customer service the brand offers.

You can leave either positive or negative feedback, but try to be as detailed as possible when you do. If you’re leaving negative feedback, don’t use statements like “this product is awful”, as it doesn’t really tell the reader what the issue was. Describe your issue(s), what the company did to fix it, and why you feel it was impactful enough to warrant a bad review. The more detail you provide, the more trustworthy and legitimate your review will be.

Conclusion

As with any other business expense, a conference calling service will require some research before you choose the brand that fits your business’s needs. Be sure to factor the cost of the service into your monthly budget, and plan for any extra features you may want. Remember that customer reviews are just as important as price comparisons, and don’t forget to do your part by leaving a review of your own.