In the digital age, you need to get maximum exposure for your content in audio and video format. An online transcription company can provide the solution by capturing these recordings in as accurate text files that can be used for various purposes and shared widely online. Professional transcription services are extensively used in the legal, medical, corporate and educational sectors and for market research, conferences, meetings, and keynote speeches. Video production firms, podcasters, entrepreneurs, content strategists, authors, publicity coaches, marketing consultants, freelance writers, and SEO experts also benefit from video to text transcription solutions.
Transcriptionists in reliable business transcription companies adhere to best practices to meet client goals. Let’s take a look at 5 useful hacks that experts use to maximize transcription productivity.
- Understand client requirements: A reliable transcriptionist would have a clear idea about the client’s specific requirements before undertaking the work. This will save time that will go into making corrections at the end of the project. Professionals will review and meet client needs with regard to formatting and type of transcription (verbatim or non-verbatim, etc), template, font and text style, margins, headers, file names, and time codes. They will also prioritize urgent files.
- Focus on quality over quantity: A professional would aim to deliver an accurate transcript, prioritizing quality over quantity. Only the words that are spoken in the audio would be included and for verbatim transcripts, all words heard would be typed as they are. These include conjunctions, filler words and inconspicuous sounds that can be heard. Only type the words that are spoken in the audio file. Phrases or words that are not understood are tagged appropriately according to the company’s guidelines. Time is also important – trained transcriptionist would take about an hour to transcribe 15 minutes of standard quality audio and review the job at hand constantly to meet time goals. However, the focus would be on producing an error-free, logical document. They would follow best practices such as and doing a spell-check after completing the transcript.
- Have the right tools in place: Professionals will have the right software and hardware in place to perform transcription. This includes special software for video transcription that allows audio playback using just the keyboard or foot pedal, Word expander programs to increase your typing speed, and noise-canceling headphones, speech recognition software. In addition, professionals also use custom keyboard shortcuts and macros and grammar checking tools, and have extensive experiencing researching online to find what they need to deliver quality work.
- Proofreading: Though experts don’t type so fast that accuracy is compromised, proofreading the typed document is important. Business transcription companies have stringent quality checks in place. All transcripts are carefully checked to identify and correct grammatical errors, typos, missing/incorrect words, and other textual mistakes. Their QA team will also ensure that the document is formatted to meet client specifications including addition of timestamps and speaker labels.
- Pay attention to ergonomics: Delivering quality transcription work also means having an ergonomic workspace and taking regular breaks. This includes having the computer monitor placed on a sit-stand desk at least 20 inches from the eyes, an ergonomic keyboard and mouse that are positioned correctly, an adjustable chair absolutely that provides adequate lumbar support. The chair should have a solid base with wheels so that it can be easily moved into different positions. Good lighting is also an important feature of an ergonomic workspace.
Transcripts undoubtedly offer many benefits for businesses. Social media marketing, podcasts, and video marketing are critical to a digital marketing and SEO campaign. Audio transcription and captioning improves your online presence by making sure that your videos and podcasts are seen by your target audience. Videos with transcripts show up higher in SEO rankings, and viewers can also refer to the transcript for review after watching.
Regardless of your industry or field of work, choosing the right service provider is essential for the best results. Consider the following to make the right choice:
- Transcription is performed by a human and not computer generated. Computer-generated transcripts have a high error rate.
- The provider can handle your audio file. Experts can work with any type of audio/video file – MP3, MP4,WAV, G2; 3GP; ASF; AVI; DivX; DV; FLV; M4V; MKV; MOV; MP4; MPEG; VOB and WMV.
- The company is well-equipped to deliver your accurate transcripts to meet your deadlines.
- The work will be done by a transcriptionist with expertise in your field. For e.g., legal transcriptionists are knowledgeable about legal jargon and court proceedings and these qualities are needed to produce a professional transcript.
By partnering with an experienced online transcription company, you would be assured of good results to achieve your business goals.
