10 Good Uses of 3-Way Calling

If you’re old enough, and especially if you lived in a rural area, you may remember the old “party line”. Several households in the same area would share the same telephone line and could listen in on their neighbor’s phone conversations. Now everyone has an individual connection and we need to set up a 3-way, or conference, call if we want to talk to more than one person at a time. This can be very useful for several reasons.

1. Business meetings – The primary users of the conference call phone feature are businesses that want to save time and money conducting meetings, especially if the people involved need to travel long distances. Clients or business associates across the country or around the world can all get together on the phone instead of in person.
2. Training – Another way companies use 3-way calling is for routine training sessions within their company. Branch managers or employees from different locations can all get the same information at the same time.
3. Reporting – Businesses that routinely need sales figures or quarterly earnings reported use a conference call system to report the information and then take questions or comments at the end of the session.
4. Clubs or groups – Any group can use 3-way calling to share ideas and information. Whether you belong to the local kennel club or church group, everyone can get together on the phone to stay connected.
5. Family – Families who may be close in their hearts can be spread far apart physically. Instead of waiting for the next big get-together to hear each others’ voices, they can all get on the phone together and share the latest news.
6. Planning an event – If you need to plan an event with several people involved, 3-way calling is just the ticket. Instead of constant phone calls and emails flying about, everyone can get in on the same call and make sure no detail is overlooked.
7. Strategy session – Whether you’re involved with a business, social group or just want to plan an elaborate prank, everyone can plan their strategy together on a conference call. Whatever you’re planning, you want to make sure everyone is on the same page.
8. Share ideas – Do you have a great idea you want to share with everyone at once? Get them all on a 3-way call so you can hear their immediate reaction too.
9. Politics – Conference calls are used extensively in politics. Political leadership will set up calls for training and to share ideas. Campaign staff may set up a periodic calling time to give the volunteers updates and pep talks. It’s very important, however, to make sure the calls are secure to make sure the opponents aren’t listening in.
10. Connect with public – Elected officials and others can set up an elaborate 3-way calling system to hear from the general public. A robo-call is generated to call people randomly throughout a district to give them the option of talking to their representative. If they’re not interested or not home, then nobody’s time is wasted.

Conference calls are not without their problems, however. Background noises from various sources can make it hard to understand what anyone is saying, so a method of using a mute button is usually implemented for large groups. What used to be a somewhat expensive phone call only used by large companies is now fairly commonly used by just about anyone. Depending on the circumstances, 3-way calling can be very inexpensive and sometimes even free.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011 at 11:04 am and is filed under phone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.