A good summary answers the question the reader is about to ask
Most automated call summaries are a shorter version of the transcript. What a business needs is different: the decision, the commitment and the next action.
The short version
- Three parts: what they wanted, what was agreed, what happens next and who does it.
- The reader is usually on a phone between jobs. Optimize for that, not for completeness.
- Anything the summary omits should still be findable in the transcript underneath.
- A summary that hedges is worse than no summary, because someone still has to read the whole call.
Why shorter transcripts make bad summaries
The obvious way to build this is to compress the conversation: the caller said this, the assistant said that, then this happened. It reads sensibly and it is close to useless, because the reader does not want a narrative of the call. They want to know what they now have to do.
Compression also keeps the wrong things. Pleasantries, repetitions and the caller working out what they meant all survive into a shortened version, while the one line containing the agreed time may not, because it was short.
The test is whether someone can act on the summary alone. If they have to open the transcript to find out what was agreed, the summary has failed at its only job.
The three parts, and what goes wrong with each
What the caller wanted, in their terms. Not inquiry about services, which is a category rather than information. A chipped front tooth before a wedding on Saturday is the same length and tells the reader everything.
What was agreed. The time, the address, the price if one was discussed, and anything the caller was promised. This is the part with consequences, because a caller who was told something will hold you to it whether or not it made it into a note.
What happens next, and who does it. A summary that ends without an owner produces the situation where three people assume someone else is calling back. If nothing happens next, say that too: caller will call back after speaking to their landlord is a complete and useful ending.
The things a summary should never do
Guess. If the caller mumbled a house number and the assistant is unsure, the summary should say the number was unclear rather than pick the likelier option. A confident wrong address costs a visit; a flagged uncertain one costs a text message.
Editorialise. The caller seemed frustrated is an inference from a transcript that cannot hear tone. If it is in the summary, someone will act on it, and it may simply be wrong.
Hide the awkward part. A summary that omits the caller asking about a complaint, or asking for a discount, is optimizing for a pleasant read rather than a useful one. Those are exactly the calls somebody senior needs to see.
Related reading
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