Conference Calls
[As a followup to my previous post, I'm posting a brief tutorial on Conference Call etiquette. This essay was published in mangled and shortened form in the Indian Express a couple of weeks ago.]
Effective Conference Calls
Most software companies in India are service companies with offshore clients. This means that, when one joins the IT industry and is allotted to a project, sooner or later one will be communicating with a US or Europe based customer. Besides E-Mail and Instant Messenger, he will be periodically co-ordinating with the client over the telephone. These are commonly called Conference Calls, because several people from both sides usually join in and resolve all pending matters.
New employees often make mistakes while participating in these Conference Calls. This may have serious consequences. Since the clients usually haven’t met the project members face to face, these calls are the only means they have of judging them. Creating a good impression is a must. Besides this, since the calls are international calls across Time Zones, time needs to be used effectively.
Here is a guide to getting the best results from Conference Calls.
Setting up the call.
1. It is always best to send out an email listing the details of the call well in advance, to prevent misunderstandings. The mail should contain:
- What is the appropriate time and date for the call? Remember that your client is in a different Time Zone. If US-Based, he/she is 9 to 13 hours behind. If Japan or Australia based, he is some hours ahead. Not all the client-side participants need be in the same time zone – they may belong to different offices. So make sure that the timings are convenient to all. When sending out notification for the call, ensure that the local time for each participating office is mentioned explicitly. In the case of the US, remember to take Daylight Savings Time into account.
- Who are the people participating in the call? Make sure that the names of all participating people, from India and all other offices, are mentioned. Also ensure that the email goes to each one of these people.
- What is the number to be called? Different offices have different ways of setting up call numbers. Verify that the correct number is sent to everyone. What is the country/area codes for the numbers? Are any passwords required to connect? Mention these details.
- Agenda for the call. It helps if all participants know the topics to be discussed. They can keep any related data ready if required. It also gives everyone a rough idea of the duration of the call, and whether or not they are really needed for the call.
Keep a printout of the mail handy, to use as a reference during the call.
2. What is the place from where the call will be made? Usually a conference room or a specific cubicle is used. Ensure in advance that the space and the phone instrument will be available.
3. For all agenda items, you can work out in advance the information the client is likely to ask for, and keep it ready.
Making the call
1. Be available online (IM or email) 10 minutes before the call. The client may want to reschedule the call if an emergency comes up.
2. As far as possible, see that all required Indian team members are present in the conference room before the call starts.
3. Designate one person to take the lead in the call. He will
* Make the actual call,
* Introduce himself, and attending team mates.
* When client is ready, start discussion on the points listed in the agenda. The concerned team members can then take over for their own items on the agenda.
4. At any time, if you do not understand what the client is saying, do not interrupt him; wait till he pauses. Then say specifically what it was that you didn’t understand. Request him to repeat the unclear portion.
5. Some new topics, which were not in the agenda, may come up during the call. If not sure about the details of these, do not jump to a hasty decision. Offer to send the details and analysis over email after the call.
6. It is fine for the local team to discuss points that the client has raised, while the call is ongoing. But do not speak in Hindi, Marathi or other languages during the call, even if the listener is Indian. This is very irritating to other participants if they are not familiar with the language. Stick to English. Do not use slang.
7. Designate one person to note down the minutes of the meeting. In particular, action items for team mates as well as clients should be noted, along with the expected time of completion.
8. At the end of the call, read out again the action points, the person responsible for each and the timeframe for them.
Following up
1. Send out the minutes of the meeting by email, to all attending parties as well as any managers who are interested. Most importantly, the minutes should list any decisions taken and all the action item details, as above.
2. When reporting the completion of the action items decided during the call, make a reference to the call itself. Thus in the mail, mention: “As per our discussion in the call of date so-and-so...”
3. Keep the minutes of older calls available on a local web site or newsgroup. This will help new members when they join the project.
Effective Conference Calls
Most software companies in India are service companies with offshore clients. This means that, when one joins the IT industry and is allotted to a project, sooner or later one will be communicating with a US or Europe based customer. Besides E-Mail and Instant Messenger, he will be periodically co-ordinating with the client over the telephone. These are commonly called Conference Calls, because several people from both sides usually join in and resolve all pending matters.
New employees often make mistakes while participating in these Conference Calls. This may have serious consequences. Since the clients usually haven’t met the project members face to face, these calls are the only means they have of judging them. Creating a good impression is a must. Besides this, since the calls are international calls across Time Zones, time needs to be used effectively.
Here is a guide to getting the best results from Conference Calls.
Setting up the call.
1. It is always best to send out an email listing the details of the call well in advance, to prevent misunderstandings. The mail should contain:
- What is the appropriate time and date for the call? Remember that your client is in a different Time Zone. If US-Based, he/she is 9 to 13 hours behind. If Japan or Australia based, he is some hours ahead. Not all the client-side participants need be in the same time zone – they may belong to different offices. So make sure that the timings are convenient to all. When sending out notification for the call, ensure that the local time for each participating office is mentioned explicitly. In the case of the US, remember to take Daylight Savings Time into account.
- Who are the people participating in the call? Make sure that the names of all participating people, from India and all other offices, are mentioned. Also ensure that the email goes to each one of these people.
- What is the number to be called? Different offices have different ways of setting up call numbers. Verify that the correct number is sent to everyone. What is the country/area codes for the numbers? Are any passwords required to connect? Mention these details.
- Agenda for the call. It helps if all participants know the topics to be discussed. They can keep any related data ready if required. It also gives everyone a rough idea of the duration of the call, and whether or not they are really needed for the call.
Keep a printout of the mail handy, to use as a reference during the call.
2. What is the place from where the call will be made? Usually a conference room or a specific cubicle is used. Ensure in advance that the space and the phone instrument will be available.
3. For all agenda items, you can work out in advance the information the client is likely to ask for, and keep it ready.
Making the call
1. Be available online (IM or email) 10 minutes before the call. The client may want to reschedule the call if an emergency comes up.
2. As far as possible, see that all required Indian team members are present in the conference room before the call starts.
3. Designate one person to take the lead in the call. He will
* Make the actual call,
* Introduce himself, and attending team mates.
* When client is ready, start discussion on the points listed in the agenda. The concerned team members can then take over for their own items on the agenda.
4. At any time, if you do not understand what the client is saying, do not interrupt him; wait till he pauses. Then say specifically what it was that you didn’t understand. Request him to repeat the unclear portion.
5. Some new topics, which were not in the agenda, may come up during the call. If not sure about the details of these, do not jump to a hasty decision. Offer to send the details and analysis over email after the call.
6. It is fine for the local team to discuss points that the client has raised, while the call is ongoing. But do not speak in Hindi, Marathi or other languages during the call, even if the listener is Indian. This is very irritating to other participants if they are not familiar with the language. Stick to English. Do not use slang.
7. Designate one person to note down the minutes of the meeting. In particular, action items for team mates as well as clients should be noted, along with the expected time of completion.
8. At the end of the call, read out again the action points, the person responsible for each and the timeframe for them.
Following up
1. Send out the minutes of the meeting by email, to all attending parties as well as any managers who are interested. Most importantly, the minutes should list any decisions taken and all the action item details, as above.
2. When reporting the completion of the action items decided during the call, make a reference to the call itself. Thus in the mail, mention: “As per our discussion in the call of date so-and-so...”
3. Keep the minutes of older calls available on a local web site or newsgroup. This will help new members when they join the project.
posted by Sudarshan | 2:24 AM
2 Comments:
Good hard work Sud. Keep it up. These bunch of posts could nicely be used as guidelines by any services company.
from personal experience, I see a lot of merit in these guidelines. In hindsight they all seem obvious. However, you have "gone the extra mile" (to borrow a corporate phrase) by stepping back and taking objective note of the goings-on.
Post a Comment
<< Home