The Beginner’s Guide to Business Transcription

Welcome to business transcription. But first, how do you know that your company can benefit from a service like this?

Imagine this situation: Your workforce handles a considerable amount of relevant information, but this occurs over phone calls or video conferences. Or maybe the story is different: You need certain audio-recorded details to be safe on paper, where you can consult it efficiently and reliably. Another scenario could be that your employees received online training sessions with valuable information to better preserve in a written file. Or perhaps you would like to document information from interview processes, tests, etc.

Are you familiar with any of these instances? If the answer is yes, you are definitely in the right place and need corporate transcription services. And if the answer is no, you should still stick around. There are endless possibilities in the transcription universe, and these are just a few use cases. We are sure that, if these examples are not typical for you, you can still reap the benefits of corporate transcription. Just read on.

What Is Business Transcription and Why Is It Important?

In a nutshell, business or corporate transcription is the act of writing what was said on audio or video files, which could later help make financial, commercial, and legal decisions.

From large corporations to small start-ups, both regularly produce a large stream of these types of content that require business transcription services. And in today’s increasingly virtual landscape, this is becoming even more common. 

Such content can take the form of presentations, meetings, and conferences, in which participants present critical financial data, develop new business strategies, or conduct competitive benchmarking.

However, this information does not always have a written backup or does not include enough details. And as we all know that “words can be lost in the wind”, business transcription becomes essential.

Some of the advantages of relying on corporate transcription services include:

• Having reliable information for future references, no matter how old it may be.
• Saving time, effort, and resources to get adequate data.
• Improving SEO positioning for online visibility of your website or international eCommerce.

Are you looking to brush up on your SEO skills? Learn more about it in this comprehensive guide to multilingual SEO.

#OptimationalTip: Reading is faster than listening to long recordings or watching and re-watching conferences’ videos. Give yourself (and your staff) a break while you can guarantee not to miss any vital data.

Types of Business Transcription Services

One crucial fact to consider is that there is not just one way to transcribe a recording and the decision on which one to count on lies in each business’ need.

To be precise, you can choose between 3 types of transcription services.

Let us take a closer look. 

Edited Transcription

It focuses on producing good quality and concise text, correcting grammatical errors, unnecessary phrases, slang, etc. However, although it involves the omission of elements (even complete sentences), it keeps the essence and the overall idea of the speech. 

Edited transcription can be an appropriate choice if you want to publish a book or paper using recorded data since it employs a more formal register and focuses on readability. 

Do you need the transcription from a seminar or webinar, conference, or interview? Then this type of corporate transcription can be the best option.

Verbatim Transcription

This service focuses more on capturing all the elements of the speech—verbal and non-verbal. That is, it transcribes all sounds, including throat clearing, verbal pauses, noises, fillers, slang, etc. 

Verbatim transcription—or true verbatim—aims to depict the scene in a most literal way. It tries to preserve the elements that can influence the speech (like noises or interruptions) and the ones that can show emotion (such as voice changes.) As examples of this service’s use cases, we can mention court hearings, police investigations, job interviews, market research, and focus group.

Since the amount of data to transcribe is larger, and the task requires focusing on every possible detail, the verbatim transcription service can take longer and be more expensive. 

Intelligent Transcription 

It is the midpoint between the previous two types of business transcription. It involves removing irrelevant details while staying true to the participants’ voices. For example, if the speaker uses fillers like ‘ums’, ‘err’ or repeats words (non-intentionally), the transcriber will omit them since they do not affect the overall meaning of the speech.

The intelligent transcription—or clear verbatim—aims to preserve the verbal and non-verbal elements that are vital for the message, which means that maybe it is a good idea to omit when the speaker coughs, but if he stutters after a crucial question, it can also be a good idea to transcribe that sound.

Finally, clear verbatim transcription is popular among medical fields and business communications—although not limited to them.

#OptimationalTip: Are you conducting market research about the viability of a new product launch? Do you want to know your customers’ opinion of a service? Would you like to know your employees’ opinion on the work environment? Then verbatim transcription can be your best ally. Remember, it is not only about what people say but also about how they talk.

Business Transcription Strategy: Automated or Manual?

There are different types of corporate transcription services and also different strategies and tools available to get the job done. The transcriber can choose to perform the task manually or with the help of AI, using automated software. 

Let us explore in detail.

Automated Transcription 

The transcriptionist uses speech and voice recognition technology to carry on the corporate transcription assignment. This AI technology relies on an algorithm powered by databases and glossaries. While it is a great time-saving advantage, no transcription software can guarantee 100 per cent accuracy, making post-revision necessary. 

For example, AI tools cannot recognise linguistic context, understand what the speaker is saying if they speak with a heavy accent, and might confuse people and places. In addition, if speakers’ voices or languages are mixed in the same sentence, AI tools can fail to discern correctly.

Manual Transcription

This process involves human expertise and skills, which will be more time-consuming. Still, it guarantees effective results, as humans can appreciate the subtleties of language that the AI does not perceive. 

For business transcription, the professional will make the text more understandable and easier to read, even distinguishing when non-verbal elements are essential or not, what each speaker is saying if it is a group conversation, among other benefits. If your business requires high quality and accurate documents, this will be your best option.

Hybrid Approach to Transcription

Remember that not everything is black and white. Professional transcriptionists must ensure quality and reliable content, whether they use AI or not. To do so, they will adopt a hybrid approach, in which the software will be a support tool but not the sole method to achieve the desired outcome. In other words, they will analyse if the technology is beneficial for each business transcription case, and if so, when and how to use it. Afterwards, they will carry out the proofreading and edits they deem necessary. 

#OptimationalTip: Numbers do not lie, and neither do corporate transcription services. And the information that is relevant today, can still be meaningful tomorrow for making informed decisions.

Step by Step: The Process of Business Transcription

Regardless of whether the transcriber opts to use automated transcription tools, the minimum and essential steps in the process are as follows:

• Format type check: The audio quality plays a key role in the complexity of carrying out the business transcription—and this may depend on the file format. Recordings can come in any of the following formats:
  • MP3, MP4, MPEG, WMV, WMA, DSS, MOV and DVF extensions
  • Degradable microcassette recordings
  • Live audio and video broadcasts
• Typing: The transcriptionists will listen to the audio while typing the content faithfully for the manual method. This step includes researching additional information to correctly spell names, places, or slang.
• Proofreading: Afterwards, the transcribers double-check the business transcription document for spelling, punctuation, and omission mistakes. To do so, they listen to the audio again while reviewing the text.
• Editing: This step is necessary for clean verbatim transcriptions (or intelligent) as well as for edited ones. Here, the professional removes all filler elements, false starts (unfinished sentences), repetitions, external sounds, etc.
• Final version: An editor formats the content to produce a neat and professional-looking document. It is worth noting that the priority in business transcriptions will always be to deliver an easy-to-read file.

#OptimationalTip: There is no person with such a prolific memory to remember all details. And what is more, this way of thinking can be more prone to errors, especially for numbers and figures.

Final Thoughts: A Challenge and an Opportunity

Business transcription can be a challenge without adequate experience and skills. A simple typing error or a misunderstood figure can result in poor corporate decisions, misleading performance analysis, loss of capital and so on.

But enough about the worst-case scenario, let us think assertively. Having reliable data at hand means opportunity: For growth, expansion, timely decision making and immediacy. Information is power and time… time is money.

Do you need corporate transcription services? We are just a click away; contact us today.