What is call transcription?
Call transcription turns the spoken words of a phone call into written text, usually automatically with speech recognition software.
Why it matters for sales teams
Text is faster to use than audio. A manager can skim a transcript in a minute instead of replaying a whole call, search across calls for a competitor's name or an objection, and quote the prospect exactly in a follow-up.
Transcripts are also the input for most AI features in sales tools, including AI call summaries, sentiment analysis and conversation intelligence. If the transcript is wrong, everything built on it is wrong too. Transcription works from the call audio, often a call recording.
What affects accuracy
- Audio quality on both sides of the call.
- Accents, crosstalk and background noise.
- Industry terms, product names and people's names.
- Whether each speaker is recorded on a separate channel, which makes it easier to tell who said what.
Example
After a discovery call, the rep searches the transcript for "budget" and finds the moment the prospect named a range and a decision date. They paste that line into the CRM note rather than paraphrasing it from memory.