Recording Phone Interviews — Consent, Setup and Getting a Usable Transcript

An interview is where a recording earns its keep. When you are not writing, you are listening, and when you are listening you ask better follow-up questions. The mechanics are simple; the consent part deserves more care than usual, because the whole point is to use what the person says.

Before the call

• Test the merge on the network you will be using. A two-minute test call tells you whether conference calling works; see the separate guide on carriers.
• Charge the phone and find a quiet room with good signal.
• Decide the terms. On the record, on background, or not for attribution — agree this with the interviewee in advance. A recording is not a licence to quote.
• Prepare the announcement so it sounds natural rather than legal.

Asking on the call

Start the recording, then say something like:

"Before we begin, I'd like to record this so I can quote you accurately. It won't be shared beyond me and my editor. Is that all right?"

Wait for a clear yes. If the interview is for research, mention how the recording will be stored and when it will be deleted — many research ethics processes require exactly that.

During the call

• Listen more than you write. Jot down the time when something quotable happens: "18:20 — the funding figure". That turns a long recording into a short job later.
• Ask for repetition when a key point is said over a bad line. It is normal in interviews and saves you guessing afterwards.
• Do not stop the recording to go off the record without saying so. Agree it aloud, stop, and restart with a fresh announcement.

After the call

1. Rename the recording with the interviewee, topic and date: "Interview — A. Kaya — housing costs — 14 Jan".
2. Listen back once and mark the passages you need.
3. Transcribe only those passages. Full transcripts of an hour-long call take several hours and are rarely needed.
4. Check quotes against the audio before publishing. Memory paraphrases; the recording does not.
5. Delete the recording when your retention obligation ends. An interview recording is personal data about the interviewee.

When the answer is no

Some people will not agree to be recorded. Take careful notes, read the key quotes back to them at the end of the call, and confirm them in writing. It is slower, and it is still a perfectly good basis for accurate reporting.