A little embarrassingly, I’ve subjected hundreds of business people to casual conversations about conference calling over the last few years. Some, I’m sure, have kindly just grinned and borne it, but the majority have seemed more than willing to vent many years’ worth of conference calling annoyances and frustrations.Here’s how a typical conversation might start:
Me: “Bit of a random question, but do you do many conference calls and how do you find them?”
Business person (‘Bob’): “Yeah, I’m actually on them all the ****** time. I suppose they’re necessary, but I don’t know anyone who actually likes them. Perhaps I’m missing something…”
So, the norm is a neutral-to-negative response. Sometimes the responses are notably more negative; rarely are they more positive. Why is that? Why are only a tiny minority positive about a capability that one might expect most business professionals to really appreciate? After all, doesn’t conferencing help people get more done in a day, leave the office at a decent time, or offer the welcome flexibility of remote working? Doesn’t conferencing reduce the time spent in airport check-in lines and traffics jams? Surely people should like this stuff!
Well, they don’t; that much is clear. The reasons come thick and fast as the questions get more specific. Here’s how the conversation might proceed:
Me: “Sounds like you’re not a huge fan, and you’re definitely not alone. Lots of people I speak to seem to get frustrated by not knowing who’s on the call or who’s speaking… does that strike any chords with you?”
Bob: “Tell me about it. ‘Who just joined’ must be the three most frequently spoken words in the history of conference calling. I hold a regular weekly project conference call. There are only six of us on the call, but I rarely start the agenda proper until at least 10 minutes after the hour. Bigger conference calls are even worse. I was on our weekly team call just last week, and there was somebody who must have joined from a train station or something. The background noise was impossible; we had no idea who it was and couldn’t do anything about it. It was an absolute nightmare. And that’s just the audio part… don’t even get me started on the web conferencing part. Actually, thinking about it, I really do hate conference calls. I bet you wish you hadn’t asked now!”
Far from it, I was delighted that I’d asked, because this is exactly why LoopUp exists. Audio conferencing and web conferencing have been around now for 15 or so years and yet, still, people dislike it with a passion. Bob still doesn’t know who else is on his conference calls. He still can’t do anything about the person with all the background noise and he still just ‘emails out the slides’.
At LoopUp, we believe in making conferencing less terrible. The host is alerted as soon as their first guest joins the meeting. With one click they know who’s on the call and who’s speaking, and can take care of any background noise. With another click, they’re sharing a presentation with their guests. The result: conference calls that actually help aid collaboration, rather than being something people suffer through. Helping people to have more productive meetings that waste less time – now that’s something I imagine we can all appreciate, and that’s why LoopUp exists.
