Before You Add Call Recording, Make Consent Part of the Plan

Table of Contents

• Why this matters
• General principles
• Consent planning checklist
• What this means for you
• FAQ

Why this matters before you record

Call recording can be genuinely useful — for training, for quality, for capturing details a busy team might miss. But before you switch it on, there's a step a lot of businesses skip: making consent part of the plan from the start.

We're not lawyers, and this isn't legal advice. What we can share is the general approach we take and recommend: be transparent, keep a clear policy, and get the specific rules that apply to your business confirmed by a qualified professional.

The point of this post isn't to give you a legal answer. It's to make sure consent isn't an afterthought.

General principles we follow

Here's the general approach we take, and that we suggest you take too:

• Tell callers — a clear notice at the start of the call that it's being recorded, in plain language.
• Keep a clear policy — know what you record, why, how long you keep it, and who can access it.
• Check the rules — confirm Canadian and Manitoba requirements with a qualified professional for your specific situation.
• Apply it to every call — whether a person or an AI receptionist handles it, the same principles apply.

This matters whether you record calls yourself or use an AI receptionist that captures transcripts. If you're setting up an AI receptionist, our post on how an AI receptionist actually sounds covers the setup side; this covers the responsibility side.

Consent planning checklist

Before you record a single call, work through this:

This pairs with the broader question of how an AI receptionist fits your team — which we covered in whether an AI receptionist replaces your team.

What this means for you

Call recording can be a real asset — if consent is part of the plan from day one. Be transparent, keep a clear policy, and get the rules confirmed for your business. The technology is the easy part; the responsibility is what deserves your attention first.

If you're thinking about adding an AI receptionist with call capture, book a free call. We'll walk through the setup and the consent questions together — and point you toward getting the specific rules confirmed for your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions