Thursday, August 25, 2011

Achieving More Affordable Transcription Rates

When planning to hire transcription services, after seeking out the utmost quality, accuracy, and on-time delivery, the next aim would be to land affordable transcription rates. Therefore, when shopping for transcription services, online or otherwise, you'll want to be completely sure of how much they actually charge and the turnaround time for delivery. Once these factors have been stated clearly, you can attempt to judge their professional acumen and expertise before finally hiring one from the many options available.

When it comes to saving on transcription rates, you, the customer, have one of the most important roles to play. There are some very effective measures you can implement which can help you save substantially on costs related to transcription. Therefore, it's very important to read up on them and understand them well before attempting to hire transcription services. The following relevant reading could help:
Improve the Audio Quality

Should you really want to save on transcription rates, always make it a point to provide good quality audio for transcription because the hourly rates or costs associated with transcription depend largely on how easily decipherable your audio is. Rates are lower for transcribing clear audio pieces, while audio with disturbances, interruptions, or where speech is otherwise difficult to discern, will cause higher rates. Therefore, assess the quality of your audio before attempting to get it transcribed.

To ensure that your transcription rates are as affordable as possible, here are a few recording tips you can adopt and implement when preparing your audio clips for transcription:
Recording Tips
Some relevant recording tips which may, in turn, help you save on transcription rates are as follows:

* Try to facilitate recording where there are no distractions. Avoid recording in noisy surroundings which would create unnecessary disturbances in the background. Even recording while driving or travelling is a bad idea, as it can cause unnecessary noise.

* Distinguishing numerous voices - especially of the same gender - can pose problems, even for a highly experienced transcriptionist. The more complexities you include, the higher your transcription rates will become. Therefore, if recording a meeting or a conference of some sort, ask the speakers to introduce themselves so that one can be distinguished from the others.

* Ensure a proper flow of conversation when two people are speaking. Ask speakers not to interrupt each other in between conversations, in order to avoid confusion. If you have a sequential flow, it's easier to transcribe, and simple services often cost less. Also, a proper conversation trail will help in reducing editing time and blanks.

Naturally, an audio clipping which is clear and sans disturbances, which has distinct voices where the speakers introduce themselves, and which ensures a logical and sequential flow of conversation with no stoppages or interruptions, is delightfully simple to transcribe and hence would attract lower transcription rates.
Author: Garden Martin
Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

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