Copyright (c) 2010 Anne Shaw
There are a number of factors that should be kept in mind while hiring a transcription company. Professionalism, price rates, turn-around time and accuracy are some of the factors which should be taken in account.
Below are some sample questions you should ask a transcription company before hiring.
How many transcriptionists are there in your organization?
Usually the amount of work in transcription is huge. So, it is necessary to know, what the size of an organization is and how many people are working there. A transcription company should always be aware of their limitations. It is quite often that these organizations take projects in bulk and fail to complete the task on time. This results in the wastage of time and money.
Who does your project?
It is a matter of concern that who is undertaking your project. It is important to ensure that the work should always be done by some experienced person. It can not be done by anyone. The quality of the work suffers in this situation. Transcription is not just mere interpreting the technical or difficult terminology into simple terms but it also requires great knowledge of a particular language.
How much time the agency is spending on research?
Research is part of any job. So whoever is doing the transcripts should do a bit of research so as to ensure the technical terminologies used in the recording are accurate. A slightest of mistake can change the whole meaning of the document.
What are the different formats used by these agencies?
Basically there are 2 basic types of transcription formats: -
Intelligent verbatim- This is an accurate method of transcription which excludes verbal habits of people like 'kinda', 'you know'. Complete Verbatim- This process of transcribe involves the use of 'err','hmm'', it is absolutely ideal to express human conversations. It takes a longer time to transcribe the document and is also a bit of expensive.
What is your turnaround time?
It is important to ensure about the transcription agency's turn around time. The standard time to submit the transcripts is 3 to 5 days. In case if you want your documents before that inquire about the charges that they take for it.
What is your extra charge for noisy records?
Sometimes the recording is full of noise or accents of the speaker are quite critical, in such situations, the charges of transcription also goes higher and it also takes a longer time to transcribe.
What are your formatting styles?
Give instructions to the transcription agency about the formatting styles, whether it would be in short, easy to read paragraphs with page breaks at appropriate places or you would want for heading, sub-headings, special margins, italicizing texts and others. This may also cost you higher and would take long time.
What about editing quality?
Proper editing of the transcript is of great importance. Grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, fillers, slang's and other things should be kept in mind, while editing. All these factors make the transcript a ready to use documents. You can ask for headings and sub-headings to make it more visually presentable. You can also convert it in the following forms of PowerPoint presentations, e-books, Blog post and many more. The transcripts should be edited and proofread once they have been documented. It is also a matter of the reputation of the agency which is undertaking the activity of transcription.
Payment modes
You can select any payment mode depending on your and the agency's convenience. Some of the options are Pay Pal, Money Bookers, Payoneer, Xoom, Wire transfers, Money grams and checks.
Outsourcing your transcription work can lead to substantial savings both in terms of time and cost. But an uninformed decision can lead to the opposite! For best results, invest a little time on research and choose the right service provider. Good luck!
(ArticlesBase SC #2053413)Below are some sample questions you should ask a transcription company before hiring.
How many transcriptionists are there in your organization?
Usually the amount of work in transcription is huge. So, it is necessary to know, what the size of an organization is and how many people are working there. A transcription company should always be aware of their limitations. It is quite often that these organizations take projects in bulk and fail to complete the task on time. This results in the wastage of time and money.
Who does your project?
It is a matter of concern that who is undertaking your project. It is important to ensure that the work should always be done by some experienced person. It can not be done by anyone. The quality of the work suffers in this situation. Transcription is not just mere interpreting the technical or difficult terminology into simple terms but it also requires great knowledge of a particular language.
How much time the agency is spending on research?
Research is part of any job. So whoever is doing the transcripts should do a bit of research so as to ensure the technical terminologies used in the recording are accurate. A slightest of mistake can change the whole meaning of the document.
What are the different formats used by these agencies?
Basically there are 2 basic types of transcription formats: -
Intelligent verbatim- This is an accurate method of transcription which excludes verbal habits of people like 'kinda', 'you know'. Complete Verbatim- This process of transcribe involves the use of 'err','hmm'', it is absolutely ideal to express human conversations. It takes a longer time to transcribe the document and is also a bit of expensive.
What is your turnaround time?
It is important to ensure about the transcription agency's turn around time. The standard time to submit the transcripts is 3 to 5 days. In case if you want your documents before that inquire about the charges that they take for it.
What is your extra charge for noisy records?
Sometimes the recording is full of noise or accents of the speaker are quite critical, in such situations, the charges of transcription also goes higher and it also takes a longer time to transcribe.
What are your formatting styles?
Give instructions to the transcription agency about the formatting styles, whether it would be in short, easy to read paragraphs with page breaks at appropriate places or you would want for heading, sub-headings, special margins, italicizing texts and others. This may also cost you higher and would take long time.
What about editing quality?
Proper editing of the transcript is of great importance. Grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, fillers, slang's and other things should be kept in mind, while editing. All these factors make the transcript a ready to use documents. You can ask for headings and sub-headings to make it more visually presentable. You can also convert it in the following forms of PowerPoint presentations, e-books, Blog post and many more. The transcripts should be edited and proofread once they have been documented. It is also a matter of the reputation of the agency which is undertaking the activity of transcription.
Payment modes
You can select any payment mode depending on your and the agency's convenience. Some of the options are Pay Pal, Money Bookers, Payoneer, Xoom, Wire transfers, Money grams and checks.
Outsourcing your transcription work can lead to substantial savings both in terms of time and cost. But an uninformed decision can lead to the opposite! For best results, invest a little time on research and choose the right service provider. Good luck!
Anne Shaw is the CEO of Transcription Vendors Inc., a Santa Ana, California based transcription company, which attempts to bring transcription providers, general customers and transcriptionists together on a common platform for their business needs. Apart from providing Transcription Services , Transcription Vendors also provides Meeting Transcription specializing in business transcription, conference transcription and interview transcription.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/
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