Emails. Memos. Carrier pigeons. Is your corporate communications strategy still mired in old-school channels? It’s true that emails, memos, and, okay, maybe not the carrier pigeons, still have their place in the way management shares information with staff, but we have the technology to broadcast messages in new and engaging ways. In fact, the company town hall webcast is fast becoming an important way to share messages, whether the broadcast is local or global. Here are three powerful tools webcasting offers for company-wide town halls:

The Equipment

Webcasting is an ideal way to broadcast the town hall. But don’t let concerns about investing in pricey equipment stop you. Webcasting services provide the technology platform to get the job done without overhauling your network infrastructure or breaking your budget.

What’s more, some webcasting platforms do more than simply broadcast. Advanced systems offer a host of features, from interactive question and answer tools to chat features.

The right webcasting software will also offer easy-to-use interfaces, which means your staff won’t need advanced IT degrees to communicate smoothly and effectively.

The Feedback

Maybe it took every ounce of your persuasive power to convince your CEO of the value of webcasting a company-wide town hall. Perhaps your communications staff invested weekend and evening hours to make sure the message hit just the right tone. With all the time and resources you’ve put into the town hall, you need to make sure the message is understood.

A comprehensive webcasting platform will give you the tools needed to accurately assess whether the message was on target. Did it achieve the professional quality of one of Apple’s legendary presentations? Or was it the largest snoozefest in company history? Feedback reporting gives you the info you need to ensure future broadcasts are a success.

The Playback

For all the benefits of live webcasts, it’s smart communications strategy to make those town halls available on demand, especially if the audience spans several time zones. After all, the idea is to get stakeholders on board with your message—not have them grumbling about their 9:00 p.m. start time. A full-service webcasting platform allows you to archive messages so they can be viewed anytime.

When it’s time to leverage the power of live webcasting for your town hall event, contact the RollCall team of experts.

Perhaps the CEO’s email to the staff just didn’t convey the urgency that a certain situation warranted. Maybe your employees just couldn’t decipher the training manual for the new customer care initiative. How much money does your firm lose every year to miscommunication? While it can be tough to come up with a definitive number, you can be sure that communication fails are slowly chipping away at potential profit.

But you don’t have to throw up your hands in despair. Webcasting is a smart and reliable way to reduce those miscommunication mishaps that chip away at the bottom line you work so hard to build. Here are three ways to webcast your way to crystal-clear communication:

• Training new hires – If you’ve got 100 retail locations, you may have as many as 100 different people training new team members on anything from answering customer calls to assembling store shelves. Getting each trainer to provide the same instruction the same way to every single new staff member is about as easy as getting a dozen toddlers to sit still for a group photo. Cut down on miscommunication and create a consistent message by providing training via webcasting.

• Conveying compliance – Training isn’t just for staff newbies. Whether you operate a string of East Coast warehouses or a multimillion-dollar medical practice, compliance is part of your daily vocabulary. Not only does compliance training ensure safety or privacy for employees and clients, it also saves money in fines and penalties. Webcasting delivers and reinforces the messages that help you maintain compliance, no matter which alphabet soup organization you answer to—from OSHA to HIPAA.

• Crisis communication – A string of hotels affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill. A retail chain plagued by layoff rumors. Nowhere is miscommunication more damaging than during difficult times. In fact, there are times when the ability to deliver the right message to the right people can impact everything from employee morale to stock prices. Webcasting allows you to tailor crisis communications to any type and size of audience, whether it’s the Saratoga sales staff or entire European operations.

Stop losing money to miscommunication. Contact the team at RollCall to learn how their best-in-class webcasting technology and excellent customer service can help you prevent the miscommunication that’s dinging your bottom line.

From million-dollar sales pitches to part-time customer service rep training, webinars are fast becoming a must-have component of communications systems for companies large and small. In addition, a Forrester report notes that these online presentations are increasingly an important part of many B2B marketing programs. The good news is that you don’t need a degree in theater to put on a presentation that produces sales or increase efficiencies. Check out these 4 simple tips:

Customer first

The golden rule of webinars is the same as the one you learned in Marketing 101 – the customer needs to how the product will solve his or her problems. So while the souped-up graphics and fancy presentations are nice, they won’t produce a single sale if you can’t convince the audience that you offer solutions, whether it’s training customer service on the new computer system or selling widgets to a client.

Know your audience

This core tenet of good salesmanship is equally important for presenting effective webinars. For example, don’t break out the three-piece suit and leather portfolio for a session designed to train part-time retail clerks. Likewise, ditch casual day attire when it’s time to record an earnings announcement for your investors.

Knowing your audience is about more than presentation, it’s about information, too. Tailor the language to your audience, and avoid alphabet-soup-speak and jargon unless you’re confident they’re going to understand it.

Short is sweet

You wouldn’t want to sit through a 2-hour long presentation—neither does your client or potential customer. When you’re planning webinars, try to keep it less than 60 minutes, especially if you’re hosting a live event. Got more than 60 minutes worth of stuff? Consider breaking it down into a series of webinars and release them at regular intervals.

Make an entrance

As noted in an article on Entrepreneur.com, too many webinars get off to a sleepy start. Don’t meander in front of the webcam and break out a monotone, “Okay, uh, I guess it’s time to begin.” While it’s not necessary to create a Broadway production, start your webinar with your most interesting, attention-grabbing info.

There’s no magic involved in presenting action-producing webinars. Follow the same simple rules you’d follow for a face-to-face meeting or presentation, and you’ll soon find yourself giving webinars that produce leads and boost sales. Contact RollCall today to find out.

Surprising ways virtual meetings can make the office more efficient

Think virtual meetings are just for those long distance relationships?  Think again. It’s true that companies big and small have started recognizing the value of web conferencing when it comes to slashing travel costs, but virtual meetings can also be used to bolster your own office’s efficiency.

In fact, according to an Entrepreneur.com article, some information systems experts argue that virtual meetings are better than the face-to-face variety, an idea that flies in the face of conventional corporate thinking. The reason?  Face to face can be intimidating for some people, and their creativity works best when they are not watching their look at her watch or furrow his eyebrows.  Virtual meetings can be organized so everyone participates, making it an ideal way to hold brainstorming sessions or discuss contentious situations.  And, who knows? You may find out that the office mouse, who never so much as squeaks during an in-person session, is comfortable enough to share an idea that will save the company tens of thousands of dollars every year.

In addition, web conferencing that includes links to outbound sites, like funny YouTube videos to break the ice (here’s a good one for those marketers out there who overuse certain buzzwords – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1o1WD_2×0A courtesy of BazaarVoice) are always well received.  Plus, when the moderator can control the message and the flow, it just makes for more productive workgroups.

All too often, great employees lack good written communication skills. Web conferencing can be an effective replacement for poorly-penned memos and messages—and emails unread because they get buried in a sea of spam. In addition,a web conference allows team members to read those oh-so-important important non-verbal clues missing from written correspondence.

Web conference systems also help human resource departments streamline the interview process and benefit calls. It becomes much easier for HR managers to schedule blocks of interviews with job candidates and record one single benefits call and replay later, rather than trying to coordinate meeting schedules with as many as a dozen interviewees or hundreds of employees.  Recording an interview can allow decision makers to review and compare applicants – an added benefit to the HR manager. And, as noted in this Inc. article, using web technology to conduct interviews definitely ups the “cool” factor when it comes to attracting rising young talent.

So if you’ve been relegating web conferences to cross-country meetings, it might be time to reevaluate the ways this tool can boost business. From granting a platform to team members who might not otherwise speak up to attracting and choosing the right talent for your firm, web conferencing is a solution worth considering.

To learn more about the ways web conferencing can make your work life more efficient, contact RollCall.

You’ve been on board with conference calls for awhile, and you know how easy it’s made communication for you, your employees, and clients. Don’t stop there. There’s another tool you can implement that will take critical relationships to the next level—whether that’s a more cohesive workforce or a more profitable client list: web conferencing. Here are the most frequently asked questions about this technology:

What is web conferencing?

Quite simply, it’s holding virtual meetings, training sessions, and presentations over the Internet. Participants can be in the same building or on the other end of the world. Web conferencing is an interactive communication platform, where team members actively collaborate.

Although the features of web conferencing solutions vary, here are just a few potential options:

• Audio and/or video feeds
• Desktop sharing
• Polls and surveys
• The use of whiteboards
• The ability to reach out to hundreds of participants

How does that make my job easier?

Conducting conferences over the web means you can get the right message to the right people—without having to put your other projects (or your personal life) on hold so you can schlep across the country with an overstuffed suitcase. What’s more is that the money men and women at your company won’t have to call you into their office to talk about your receipts—again.

How does it work?

A moderator—either someone in your company or a representative of the web conferencing service—sends participants a URL link and a security code allowing access to the virtual meeting room.

The virtual meeting room is where the action happens. Team members can share documents as well as items on their computer desktops. In addition, web conferencing systems may incorporate a whiteboard, or virtual blackboard, which is an ideal way to brainstorm—no matter where the participants are located.

How much does it cost?

Most providers offer plans that feature a range of options designed to fit nearly any budget. A bare bones plan, for example, might allow you to share PowerPoint slideshows, conduct polls and share desktops while an upper-end plan offers video capability as well as audio and web recording.

What questions should I ask when shopping for a web conference service?

Here are a few guidelines from Inc.com:

• Can you and other participants easily use the service?
• Does it require the purchase of special software?
• Do they offer customer service?
• Are there a variety of options to suit different needs?

For a more comprehensive shopping list, OfficeArrow features a must-have guide for choosing a web conference solution.

Do you have more questions about web conferencing and how it can help you achieve your business goals? Have an FAQ you want answered?  Leave a comment or contact RollCall, a global leader in web conferencing services.

Has Bob the salesmen been driving the same sales route for 20 years? Does Maggie have just enough web-savvy to check her e-mail account? When it comes time to implement a communications component, whether it’s teleconferencing or webinars, you could find it becomes the subject of impassioned resistance.

Here are 4 tips for transforming those kicking-and-screaming employees into tech devotees:

1 – Accept –According to an article in HR Specialist, employees often greet new ideas with resistance. They may have valid concerns about incorporating new technology so be sure to listen to them.

2 – Educate – Employees may be more willing to accept tech changes if they understand the reason for the change. Will it help them become leaner, meaner sales machines? Will it allow them to retire their weary travel bags? Whatever the reason, be sure to articulate it in a reasoned manner—in other words, don’t say, “We’re doing this because that’s how management has decided to do things now.

3 – Train – The heart of resistant employee’s arguments is the fear that he or she won’t be able to do what you’re asking them to do, according to a SmartBusiness article. One way to take away their resistance is to provide training. Remember training shouldn’t end with a cursory introductory session. Expect to provide to provide cheat sheets or booster training, Training aides, such as cheat sheets, can also go a long way to making change-phobic employees more accepting.

4 – Support – Choose a teleconferencing or web conferencing company that provides comprehensive customer service. You should have access to everything from live online support to quick start guides. When Bob gets befuddled, he should have all the tools he needs to solve the problem and continue on with his day. Customer service shouldn’t break your budget either. Look for a company that offers attentive service at no additional charge.

RollCall is an experienced provider of teleconferencing and web conferencing services.  Contact us today to learn how we can provide the support your staff needs to succeed.

Did you know that our partner, OfficeArrow is now providing a Bronze membership which gives you discounted access to Premium webinars in addition to many other great resources? Plus, OfficeArrow just rolled out a special new deal just to make the offer even sweeter.

If you sign up for a Bronze Annual membership from now until April 30^th, you will also receive a $50 Amazon gift card from OfficeArrow! That means that for only $49, you receive access to all of our Bronze features which includes 12 webinars.

Other features include:

• Online Training by Learn.com
• Conferencing from RollCall Business Conferencing
• Online Business Library by SkillSoft’s Books24×7®
• Business Templates
• Premium Articles & Contributors
• And much more! Read about all you get here.

Here are some of the Webinars that OfficeArrow is lining up for their members:

• Shifting Your Time Management Mindset: May 20

• Work Happy Now: How Your Team Can Experience Less Stress & More Satisfaction: June 24

• Mastering the “To Do” List: July 22

Who can’t use help in these ares? This is a limited time offer, so go ahead and take advantage of this promotion while you can.

Stop by our booth to meet Chris Overbay and me from RollCall and Stuart and Chrissy from OfficeArrow on Wednesday 4/14 at the 25th Administrative Professionals Conference at the Prime Obsorn Convention Center sponsored by the University of North Florida. Mention that you saw this post on our blog  and receive a special gift!

Did you know that OfficeArrow’s Managing Editor, Chrissy Scivique, will be hosting a break-out session at the conference?  Make sure to check out “Doing More with Less:  Strategies for Improved Workplace Productivity”.  See the rest of the agenda and learn more about the 25th Annual Administrative Professionals Conference in Jacksonville on UNF’s site.

Crowded employee training sessions. Travel expenses that make your boss turn red. Press releases that end up on the bottom of a publication’s fax pile. Communication doesn’t have to be that time-consuming, budget-busting or inefficient.

Webcast around the world

Maybe it’s time to start considering webcasts, or media files that can be accessed through an Internet connection. A versatile part of any communication strategy, webcasts can be streamed live or accessed on demand. Here are 4 ways webcasts can turn you into a communications star:

1. Employee training – Training can be a monster expense, especially if you run a high turnover business such as a call center. Cut costs by creating training webcasts. Employees can watch the videos over and over, and, can even be viewed from the employee’s home. Webcasts are also an ideal way to provide remedial training as well as expand an employee’s existing skills. These broadcasts can also help train office staff on procedure updates or changes. For a complete list of the pros and cons of using webcasts for training, visit OfficeArrow.
2. Live events – Whether you’re announcing quarterly earnings or hosting a press event, webcasts are becoming an increasingly important part of investor and press relation programs. Not only do they give your audience to access the presentation from any computer, webcasts can be archived and accessed on demand.
3. On-demand presentations – Would you like to record a welcome for incoming employees? Perhaps your company has produced a video for your media kit? Archived webcasts will build a library that can be accessed by any audience you choose. For example, you might use webcasts to create value-added presentations for clients. Utilizing on-demand webcasts not only increases your productivity, it also raises your professional profile.
4. Product demonstrations – Whether you sell top-of-the-line aquarium filters or uber-fancy baby carriers, product demos are a savvy way to show customers how to work products, according to an Inc. article.  In addition to demos, consider posting webcasts to help customers troubleshoot common problems. This allows customers to access the information 24/7, and it frees your staff from answering those questions that make them roll their eyes.

To start using webcasts to train employees, inform the press or investors, or educate customers, contact RollCall.