I’ve been using Skype for over two years now and despite the occasional audio problem, I consider it an essential home office tool. Ever since Oprah started using the program on her television show to communicate with her audience all over the world, I’ve been reading and hearing more about its use.
If you haven’t felt the urge to download Skype to your PC or mobile phone device, here is a brief summary of how I use Skype.
Skype Chat
This past week I received an order for translation from an agency whose Project Manager was traveling to another country and would be working from a different time zone for the duration of the project. The PM is a pretty avid Skype chat user so I kept my computer status set to “connected” (conectado) for the five days from contracting through project delivery. I also set my status to connected on my mobile telephone so that I could still have real-time communication during the time that I was teaching, while driving and during other non-PC face time. So, when the unexpected problems of this project arose, I was able to respond within seconds to all inquiries.
Skype Phone
I use my cell phone for business purposes and though my service package has a large number of included minutes, I prefer to conserve minutes whenever possible. Skype allows me to make national calls to non-Skype phones for a low annual rate. As my business grows I will be able to communicate directly with customers in different countries, at no cost if they are also Skype users. I could also purchase one of the international pay plans. Currently, that would not be cost effective for me since I do not have a cluster of clients in any one country.
What impresses you most about Skype? Don’t know Skype? Here’s a good page to view: www.skype.com/go/voip
Let’s share ideas!
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