Online meeting tools are powerful productivity enablers for the modern worker – especially when you stop to consider that an average of 11 million meetings take place in the U.S. every day. But despite this number, both hosts and attendees alike are still prone to meeting mishaps that can disrupt the quality and overall effectiveness of even the most productive group. The bottom line? It doesn’t matter how good your online meeting software is if you aren’t using it appropriately! Here are five common mistakes we see our customers make and how to solve them before they start.
Problem: Attendees are confused on when a meeting is and how to join.
Solution: Be sure to circulate meeting details far in advance and avoid last-minute schedule changes if possible. GoToMeeting integrates with most calendars and those tools make it extremely simple to create, schedule, edit and send invitations and reminders!
Problem: Utilizing your device’s built-in mic and speakers.
Solution: Whether you’re sitting at your a desk or dialing in from your cell phone, distracting background noises and chit-chat can cause a frustrating audio experience for other attendees in the meeting. Open office floor plans might be all the rage, but if you can, try to find a quiet environment to join the session or find appropriate hardware, like a noise-cancelling headset. Also, remember to mute and unmute yourself accordingly.
Problem: An intermittent and spotty internet connection causes screensharing (as well as audio and video capabilities) to lag.
Solution: It makes sense to avoid scheduling and attending meetings when your internet connectivity isn’t at its best. But with GoToMeeting, you don’t always need access to reliable WiFi! Instead, you can have our Call Me feature dial you in, or host and attend any GoToMeeting session via our award-winning mobile apps. You can also Start a Meeting by Phone with an Organizer PIN if all you need is audio. As a best practice, we recommend freeing up bandwidth on your mobile device by closing any apps that might be running in the background.
Problem: When joining a virtual meeting in the same conference room as other connected devices, there’s an influx of audio feedback and echoes.
Solution: Make sure everyone in the room mutes or disables audio while one person’s connection serves as the sole audio provider. Better yet, use in-room collaboration technology, like GoToRoom with Dolby Voice! It serves as an all-in-one hardware and software system that allows users join and host meetings with a single touch. Additionally, GoToRoom and Dolby Voice comes fully equipped with intelligent audio and video features that bridge the gaps between in-room and remote meeting attendees.
Problem: No one in the meeting takes initiative to record, share, or note-take for absent meeting attendees.
Solution: The New GoToMeeting experience makes it super intuitive to record any virtual session. If you have Cloud Recording and Transcripts enabled, you can utilize Smart Notes in session to capture and define important content in the form of notes, highlights, and action items. Make sure to utilize the post-session Hub ecosystem to share the link to the video and audio recording, as well as the related transcripts and notes.
Don’t forget to check out the New GoToMeeting User Guide to get yourself familiar with the entire experience, and stay tuned for more tips and tricks from our Customer Success team!