How to Transcribe Interviews for Client Projects

Market researchers need to be able to quickly transcribe interviews for client projects — it’s a vital part of the job. The faster you transcribe qualitative data like customer interviews and focus groups, the faster you can glean valuable business insights for your clients. 

In-depth customer interviews, or qualitative interviews, allow businesses to analyze their current operations and find areas for improvement. By taking a peek inside the minds of their customers, business owners can discover what’s working, what isn’t, and what specifically needs to change. This information can help your clients:

• Identify customer expectations and needs
• Ideate ways to improve products or services
• Get context and insight into how customers use your product
• Hone marketing messaging

How many qualitative interviews should you conduct?

So, how many interviews should you conduct? In short, it depends. What are your client’s expectations? What resources do you have? How much time do you have? What is your project’s scale? These are all necessary considerations. You could need need to interview six people. It could be 12 people. It could be 60 people. 

As you conduct interviews and analyze the information you collect, you’ll be able to discern whether your current sample size is sufficient or if more research is needed. Effective interviews and focus groups typically last between 30 to 90 minutes. And the larger your sample size, the more audio or video you’ll need to process post-interview. 

How to transcribe interviews for client projects quickly and easily

Researchers need tools to make their post-interview workflows as efficient as possible. Transcribing hours of audio or video footage from interviews and focus groups is incredibly time-consuming — time that could be better spent working with your clients to help improve their business. 

But these interviews need to be transcribed as quickly as possible. Doing so will allow you to gain insights that could help you adjust your interview process. Maybe you notice questions to add to your interview guide, or questions that need tweaking. Perhaps your current group of interview subjects isn’t quite right for your purposes; transcripts of their interviews can help you determine whether you need to find different target interview subjects.

Unfortunately, transcribing interviews isn’t the most glamorous task — just ask anyone who has ever transcribed an interview before. Finding the right tools to both record and transcribe interview audio can go a long way towards reducing headaches and speeding up the process.

Luckily, a transcription service like Rev provides a recording app and fast, 99% accurate transcription. With a free app like the Rev Voice Recorder, you can record interviews and focus groups directly to your phone. In addition to a high-quality recording of the session, the app also allows you to: 

• Order 99% accurate transcripts in the app
• Organize and edit the recording in the app
• Share the recording via Dropbox from the app
• Backup audio files in Dropbox

Alternatively, you can also upload your audio or video files directly into Rev.com and click “Get Started” to get accurate transcripts in a matter of hours. 

If you’re ordering transcripts for qualitative research interviews, ordering true verbatim transcription could be a useful resource for you. This method of transcription will capture pauses, false starts, words like “um” and “uh”, and laughter. This way, you’ll not only know what your interviewees are saying, but how they’re saying it. That added context can give your research — and your clients — a deeper level of understanding of the responses.

Transcribing market research interviews doesn’t need to be a tedious part of the process. Rev offers a fast, accurate, and affordable transcription alternative, allowing researchers to focus on analyzing their data, optimizing their interviews, and delivering valuable insights to their clients.