Teleconferencing Ettiquette

Teleconferencing Conferencing Etiquette

Just like etiquette at a dinner table or on a golf course, etiquette is important to ensuring that all participants are comfortable with their situation and that their attention is directed to what is important.

Teleconferencing has some business etiquette that can be applied to ensure that your guests have the best possible experience.

1) Be On Time: Chairpersons, Hosts and/or Moderators should arrive a few minutes early to greet each of the participants, and let them know when everyone is present and ready to start the call.

2) Mute: All participants should mute their line if they are not speaking. This reduces background noise and improves the audio quality of the call.

3) Introductions: Always introduce yourself when speaking for the first time
It is important to introduce yourself when first speaking as other participants may not recognize your voice.

4) No HOLD: Avoid putting your phone on HOLD. Putting your phone on hold could play music into the conference which may make it difficult for the other participants to continue the meeting in your absence! Use the MUTE as an alternative.

5) Agenda: All well run meetings have an agenda that focus the participants on the items of top priority. Create an agenda and keep to your schedule and respect the time boundaries of your participants.

6) End the Call: Clearly state when call ends. To avoid an awkward ending to a call, announce that the meeting has adjourned and thank everyone for their time. If you press # #, you can disconnect all of the callers.

Other tips:

Background noise: If you have a noisy participant (coughing, typing, finger tapping, pen clicking) you can mute all the lines using the *5 feature - mute all. Then anyone wanting to speak can press *6 to unmute their own line. If muting everyone is not an option, then gently remind participants to be mindful of creating background noise.

Late Arrivals: If you have a late arrival but want to get started, press *4 and record the call. When they do join, you can let them know that the portion of the meeting they missed can be played back after the call so you don't have to have everyone wait while you bring them up to speed.


We hope this was helpful! If you have any Teleconferencing Etiquette suggestions, please share!

From the team at Recite Conferencing