Once you have signed up with Budget Conferencing, their conference call services are easy to utilize. They offer all of the features, file sharing and interactive abilities we were hoping to find in a conference call service provider. The only time the company contacted us was when we signed up; they never responded to help emails or followed through with sending us information we requested over the phone. It seems once this conference calling service gets your business there is a lack of follow through.
As we mentioned above, Budget Conferencing has all of the conference call services and features we were looking for in a conference call service provider. They provide, among others, automated invites and RSVP’s, multiparty videoconferencing and audio broadcast. They limit the number of participants of the conference call to 125 and there is no time frame the meeting must fit into. The conference call services are accessible 24 hours a day.
All of the good conference call services will make it possible for you to share documents, applications, files and whole desktops with your participants and they offer you all of that. In addition to file and desktop sharing, the host can access a computer remotely and share desktop or applications and documents stored on the hard drive. All documents are shared or transferred to participants in real time.
Through the interactive abilities hosts can poll the participants by asking a question and then view and share the results in real time. Chat capabilities make it possible for the host to communicate with participants one on one or to communicate with all participants at one time. Hosts can also receive a post conference report with a list of participants who joined the call, how long they stayed logged in and when they logged out.
A menu bar running horizontally across the page offers navigation to various interface topics: Home, Meetings, Reports, Administration and Search. The largest areas on this page allow users to manage their accounts or start and schedule web conferences. We found it fitting that these were the two largest areas on the page since they will more than likely be the most used functions. After selecting one of the options you will be taken to another page that will provide you with options concerning the topic. Navigating the site is easy because each feature will work similarly and you will receive step by step guidance until your task is complete.
Through the online account management and the company website you will have access to technical help and support through the phone, email or chat. We never received a response to our email so we called a phone number to get in touch with a representative. We were connected to a representative within minutes they said they would send us the information that we wanted. After days of waiting for the information we called again, we were again told that the information requested would be sent to us with more information on their services. Again, we received nothing. Their help and technical support staff failed at providing quality service to their clients.
Budget Conferencing provides the features and tools users look for and is well designed and easy to navigate. We felt the account home page needs more color to ensure users that the site has been well developed and designed. Despite their poor client support, we felt this service would be a good choice for a conference call service provider; however, there are much better choices available.
