I'm volunteering in a team providing technical support for webinars. Usually we do this in turns, there is one person hosting the webinar and providing assistance.
He/she is sitting behind his computer monitoring the webinar sound and video (often with a headset on).
We would like participants be able to call one telephone number if they have technical difficulties.
We are looking for some software or service that can route incoming calls on that one phone number to our individual mobile (or home) phones.
We tried using a voice conference service, but that does not work because you then have to monitor both the webinar and the voice conference with one set of ears ;-)
Monitoring the webinar and then handling the occasional incoming call (phone ringing) works better. We can 'step out' of the webinar for a few minutes (listening/talking through the phone and keeping an eye on the screen).
This is for European webinars, meaning the participants are from all over Europe and have to dial an international number already (currently our private phones).
Additional requirements:
- Windows 7 or later
- We should be able to switch the forwarding number before each webinar (maybe even on the fly during the webinar, if a second support person becomes available), depending on who's doing the support.
Only one personal phone must ring. - If we have to make an account, that's fine. We can share the login data in the support group.
- The software or service itself should be free.
- Minimal or no extra fees for the participants. Preferably 'no', i.e. they just pay their international rates as they do now.
- If we have to install/start software on our local machines, that's fine, but the calls have to come in on our physical phones, not the computer.
Note: Technically speaking the call could come in to the computer and override the webinar sound, so the support person does not have to switch devices, but I doubt that will work fluently - hence my emphasis on physical phones.