Editor’s note: Stephanie Tudor provides focus group and one-an-one transcriptions for the marketing research industry.

1. Be sure the moderator’s voice is not the only voice you hear. Have all respondents equally miked—not one very loud group of voices at one end of the table and one very soft group of voices at the other end.

2. Be sure that the overall sound quality, tone, and balance are adjusted for best recording.

3. When taping by yourself, be sure to get expert technical advice on what equipment to rent, including which microphone is best suited to the surroundings you’ll be taping in, the size of the room, and the number of people being taped.

4. Always rent or invest in high-quality equipment. As your research assignments are so important and often so time sensitive, it pays to be sure the tape quality is the best it can be.

5. Always bring and use a second tape recorder as a backup.

6. Use 90 minute tapes instead of 120 minute tapes. They are thicker, of better quality, and break much less often.

7. Monitor the tape recording throughout the focus group or interview session to insure that the recording levels remain consistent.

8. Always do a sound check in the actual room you will be doing your interview or focus group in—even if you are working at a focus group facility. Do this check before you begin the interviews. If using more than one room in the facility, each room should be sound-checked, as their acoustics may vary. This check should be done on the day of the interviews, as conditions may vary from day to day.

9. How to do the sound check:

For a one-on-one interview

Set up your equipment. Sit down at the table where you will conduct the interview and say a few sentences or read something out loud in a normal conversational tone. Then, sit down in the respondent’s chair and say a few more sentences in the same manner. Tape record both segments. Then play back the tape and listen for any noticeable problems.

For a focus group or meeting

Follow the same procedure as above, however, walk around the entire table and get voice levels from where each respondent will actually sit. This is even more important when taping in a meeting or conference room of a hotel or conference center.

10. Avoid all ambient noises that might interfere with tape quality, such as background noise, hiss, machine operating noises and air conditioner hum. Outside street noises should also be masked as much as possible.

11. Try to control the participants in the focus groups so that they do not all talk at once and have many side conversations. This will avoid many inaudible sections in the transcript and insure that respondents do not go off on unimportant tangents that confuse the main research issues.

12. Encourage the respondents as often as necessary to speak up, or ask them to repeat things that you think may not have been audible or clear enough for the tape to pick up.

13. When working with a facility you are not familiar with, have them send you samples of their tape recordings to evaluate their quality.

14. If you have time to do further research into the facilities in the cities you interview in most frequently, it might be helpful to get samples of tapes from prospective facilities before you book them.

15. Alert the facility that you are going to have the tapes transcribed and ask them to take extra care with their recording quality and sound levels.