Transcribing and summarizing your calls

In this article, you'll learn how to have the CRM write out your phone calls and sum them up for you. It's handy when you need to remember what a customer asked for, check a price someone quoted, or catch up on a call you weren't on, without listening to the whole recording.

You don't add transcription from Features. It's a setting on each phone number, and it covers the calls and voicemails that number records.

To open a number's settings on the web:

1. 1.In the menu, click Settings, then Phone numbers.
2. 2.Find the number and click Edit. On a phone-sized screen the button reads Call settings.

To open a number's settings on the phone app:

1. 1.In the menu, tap Phone numbers. It sits in the Phone & booking group.
2. 2.Under the number, tap Call settings.

Turning on transcription

A transcript is made from the call recording, so recording has to be on too.

On the web

1. 1.In the number's settings, stay on the Basic tab.
2. 2.Tick Record calls.
3. 3.If you want callers to hear that the call is recorded, tick Play a recording notice to callers and type your wording in the box that appears.
4. 4.Tick Transcribe recorded calls.
5. 5.Click Save.

If Transcribe recorded calls is ticked but Record calls isn't, you'll see "Transcription needs call recording on." Turn recording on as well, or there's nothing to transcribe.

On the phone app

1. 1.In the number's call settings, stay on the Basic tab.
2. 2.Turn on Record calls.
3. 3.To play a notice before the call connects, turn on Recording notice and type your wording.
4. 4.Turn on Transcribe calls.
5. 5.Tap Save at the top right.

Each number has its own setting, so repeat this for every number you want transcribed.

Reading a call's summary

Once a recorded call has been transcribed, it shows up in the conversation with that customer. In Conversations, a short summary sits right under the playback controls, so you can scroll a thread and see what happened on each call at a glance. On the web you'll see the same thing whether you open the thread from Conversations or from a client's or job's page.

Reading the full transcript

When you open a transcript, the summary moves to the top and the call is written out below it, line by line. Each line is marked Customer or Office, so you can tell who said what.

On the web

1. 1.Open the conversation from Conversations.
2. 2.Under the call, click View transcript. On a phone-sized screen, it's the transcript button in the row under the player, next to the playback speed.
3. 3.Click Hide transcript to fold it away again.

On the phone app

• •In a thread from Conversations, tap the transcript button in the row of buttons under the player. Tap it again to close the transcript.
• •On a client's conversation, tap View transcript, then Hide transcript to close it.

Voicemails

Voicemails left on a number that transcribes get a summary and a transcript too, shown the same way as calls. Voicemail alert emails are titled with the caller's name or number, quote what they said, and have the recording attached. You choose who hears about new voicemails on the Voicemail alerts card on the Phone numbers page: who gets the app notification, which numbers get texted, and which addresses get emailed.

The alert waits for the transcript so it can carry the words. If the transcript fails or runs long, the alert still goes without them after a few minutes.

Good to know

• •A transcript isn't instant. Give it a minute or two after the call ends.
• •Only recorded calls and voicemails get a transcript. A missed call with no voicemail has nothing to transcribe.
• •Transcription starts with the calls recorded after you turn it on. Calls recorded before that stay as recordings only.
• •A voicemail where nobody said anything is marked read for you, so it doesn't sit in your inbox as unread.
• •Voicemails from callers the spam filter flags are always transcribed, even on numbers that don't transcribe, so the words can show whether the call was real. These are labelled Suspected spam. One that's clearly a robocall is deleted along with its recording.
• •The Scheduler reads these transcripts to fill in job details from a call. Open it right after a call and it waits for the transcript first. Click Fill in without this call if you don't want to wait. On a phone-sized screen and in the app the button reads Fill in without it.

Related articles

• •How to turn on call recording
• •Listening to call recordings
• •Getting voicemail alerts by text and email
• •Turning a call or text into a job with the Scheduler
• •Forwarding a call recording or voicemail