When choosing a transcription company there are many important factors you should consider before passing on your files. In some cases these factors will depend on your requirements, and the reason why you are in need of a transcription service. There are various different ways in which transcription companies operate. And if you are wanting something of high importance transcribed, there are a number of things you should be wary of.
This article will outline what you should look for when looking into professional transcription, as well as the reasons why certain methods of transcription might be more suited for your needs.
Are They An Offshore Transcription Company?
Some companies that offer transcription claim to be a UK transcription company. However, in some cases, even though the company itself operates within the UK, they often send the documents overseas to freelancers who will carry out the transcription process. This is generally a cheaper method of having your audio files transcribed, due to the fact that the company itself can get away with paying freelancers outside of the UK less than one based within the UK.
The main reason for this is the fact that various other countries have different regulations when it comes to how employees are treated. And in some cases younger people are able to work, and get paid less for doing the same job.
There are various things to think about when it comes to using these types of companies. The first is, do you want to support an unethical transcription company? By using companies like this, with no real knowledge of how their workers are treated you could be supporting a company that operates in an unethical way.
The second aspect to think of is, who is transcribing your file? Another known issue with using offshore transcription companies is the fact that you do not know who is transcribing your documents, and where they are from. This might mean they are not fluent in English, and this can have a negative impact on how accurate your transcribed document is. If you are working in highly professional industries such as the legal and pharmaceutical industry, there is no room for error, as inaccurate results can really affect how a court case runs, and the treatment of patients.
The final aspect to think of is, are my files safe? As soon as your files leave the UK, they are no longer protected by the privacy laws the UK has in place. This means that if your files are exposed outside of the company, you could face issues seeking legal advice on this issue.
What Is Transcribing Your Audio Files?
A fact about the transcription process is that it can now be done by both a human or a machine. This is a recent development as there is now software available that means machines can take audio files and type them out word for word.
This method does have its benefits, one of them being that it is often much quicker than having a human carry out the transcription process. As well as this, due to the fact that they do not have to pay a human for the time it takes them, using machine transcription can often be a cheaper alternative.
However, despite the fact that it is often a lot cheaper and a lot quicker to use a machine as a method of transcription, these machines do have their limitations.
These limitations are due to the way in which the software is programmed. The first limitation that a machine faces when it comes to transcribing audio files is the fact that they can not always tell the difference between voices. This means that if you are planning to have a conversation between more than one person transcribed, a machine probably is not going to work for you, as you might end up with a block of text, which is not separated out as a conversion.
As well as this, in the English language there are certain words that sound the same but have multiple spellings. These are known as homophones. For example, there are several ways to spell the word there, and different spellings are used for different contexts. A machine would have trouble using the correct spelling, in the correct context which means that the written document might not be 100% grammatically correct.
To Conclude:
Overall there are many different ways in which transcription companies can operate, and the type of country you should use will depend on your circumstances.
For example, very important industries such as the legal industry should use companies that use human transcriptionists, that are based in the UK. This is due to the fact that you are more likely to get a highly accurate result from a human that is fluent in the English language and is highly trained, than a freelancer based in another country.
However, if you are looking for a cheaper and faster transcription service, and the level of accuracy is not as important for you, a machine transcriptionist would be able to get the job done for you.
