Conference Calls Versus Face-To-Face Meetings: Which Solution Is Best?

When business is good, it's easy to forget that there are limits to our financial resources. Sales move along at a healthy clip, revenue expands, and budgets seem boundless. In that environment, a lot of business owners and managers overlook the costs related to organizing face-to-face meetings. When business slows and budgets shrink, those costs can become crushing. An alternative is necessary.

Today, we're going to explore the advantages of conference calls. We'll explain why they make sense, not only during the current economic crisis, but even when business is thriving. To drive the point home, we'll also calculate the true cost of a hypothetical face-to-face meeting.

Reasons To Meet In Person

To be sure, there are benefits to meeting in person; mostly, it's a matter of nuance. For example, it's easier to look across a table and see boredom in someone's eyes. Are they fidgeting or slouching in their chair while you're speaking? Also, physical contact like a handshake or pat on the shoulder can carry weight. Meeting in person isn't without value. The question is whether doing so makes sense given your limited budget.

The True Cost Of Face-To-Face Meetings

Managers and business owners often underestimate the cost of organizing an in-person meeting. When you factor in travel expenses, food allowances, hotels, transportation, and the cost of each employee's downtime, the price tag can soar. Below, we'll describe the true cost of a hypothetical meeting. We'll assume that 10 employees are participating, each earns an annual salary of $60,000, and the meeting is an all-day event.

Travel expenses per employee: $300
Hotel room for one night: $200
Transportation (rental car): $50
Meals and refreshments: $100
Salary (adjusted for one day): $240

Total cost for each employee: $890
Total cost of a face-to-face meeting for 10 employees: $8,900
Annual cost of organizing a monthly face-to-face meeting: $106,800

We haven't factored in the cost of each employee's downtime. Keep in mind that requiring your staff to travel in order to meet in person pulls them away from other projects. Measuring the cost of doing so is extremely difficult.

It's clear that face-to-face meetings are expensive. In fact, given your budget, they may be cost-prohibitive. That's one of the reasons why web and phone conferencing offer a better solution.

Advantages Of Web And Phone Conferencing

The two biggest advantages of organizing a virtual meeting are price and convenience. From the example above, you can see how in-person meetings can quickly decimate your budget. A web conference or phone conference carries a fraction of the cost. And while a face-to-face meeting can take weeks to plan, a virtual meeting can be organized within hours.

Another benefit of phone and web conferencing is increased productivity. Even though there's an implicit expectation that employees will work while in transit, that's rarely the case. For example, a Harris poll that was taken for Delta Air Lines found that only 5% of traveling employees work while they're on the plane.

So, which solution makes the most business sense for your company: virtual conferencing or face-to-face meetings? Recently, we've seen several of the largest companies in the U.S. shed thousands of employees in order to cut costs. Every budget is finite. The further you can stretch yours, the more competitive you'll be in your market. That's why you should consider replacing face-to-face meetings with phone and web conferencing solutions.

Businesses worldwide confidently rely on ConferenceSuite to deliver the best audio, web and video conferencing services at the best rates. For more information, visit http://www.conferencesuite.com/