Now that I’m living and working from abroad, I’m finding Skype indispensible. But I guess the same is true for most freelance copywriters these days – why spend time travelling to visit clients (and braving the weather) when you can get all the info you need over the phone?
Admittedly, you miss out on getting to know people face to face. But phoning can be a great time saver, with conversations more ‘to the point’ and productive.
Recently, I’ve been working on a number of case studies, which have involved interviewing people in various places. To avoid spending the time slot (and wasting busy people’s time) frantically scribbling down notes, I’ve been using a free MP3 Skype call recorder so I can allow the conversation to flow freely knowing I can play them back at leisure to pick out any juicy facts I’d otherwise miss.
Once installed, the MP3 Skype Recorder automatically saves every call, and there aren’t any restrictions that I could find which would normally force an upgrade:
Copywriting telephone interview tips
Whilst I’m on the subject, here are a few telephone interview tips you might find useful:
- Work out questions in advance and send them over prior to the interview
- Use your questions as a guide to structuring the interview, but feel free to dig deeper if you unearth a new angle
- Ask open questions which encourage discussion, rather than can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’
- Don’t answer your own questions, even if you think you’re being helpful
- If they’re being distracted, suggest rearranging for another time
- Afterwards, send them an email thanking them for their time and reassure them that nothing will be printed without their signoff
Next week: advice on writing case studies
This was a great post… I learnt many things from your article…
Check out http://callgraph.biz too. Its also a free Skype recording plugin for PC’s.
And also Supertintin, http://www.supertintin.com/ , best recorder I’ve tried so far.
yes, supertintin is one of the best skype recorders around, especially for recording video calls. http://www.supertintin.com
as for me – i prefer IMCapture for Skype recorder.
Nice design and low price!
http://www.imcapture.com/IMCapture_for_Skype/
I recommend Supertintin. I have tried it for my interviews and business calls. So far, I have no issues using it with Skype 5.1.
I strongly recommend Supertintin. It’s easy to install and very convenient to use.