The Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing Audio Transcriptions

If your business involves a lot of writing/typing (letters, memos, reports, correspondences, queries, etc) then there is a chance that you will have to outsource some or all of the typing.

Businesses that communicates via  conference calls also utilize transcription services to have a written documentation of their communications for filing and serving reports.

Outsourcing audio transcription typically involves recording your proposed typing into audios (MP3s) and then outsourcing those dictations to a transcription company, usually in a third world country.

The audios are then transcribed by specialists called transcribers and then the final transcripts are then sent back to the customer.

Below is the ultimate guide to why and how of outsourcing audio transcriptions and how to integrate the process of outsourcing audio transcriptions into your workflow.

The primary reasons for outsourcing transcriptions include:

• To reduce costs – by doing away with your secretarial staff you will save a ton. You won’t need to provide medical insurance or deal with absenteeism. On the other hand, a transcription company will provide services 24/7.
• To free up time – all you have to do is invest some time in recording your audio dictations, all else will be taken care of by the transcription company. Outsourcing transcriptions saves you time spent on typing, editing and proofreading documents.
• To get professionally formatted and proofread transcripts or copy
• To focus on your core business – by outsourcing these clerical works you can spend more time in the creative or decision-making side of your business.
• To enjoy a more work-life balance – one of the hazards of being a highly demand professional or CEO is that you don’t have enough time for your family or loved ones. By outsourcing hopefully you’ll spend more time with you family or loved ones and improves your health – mental or physical. At the end of the day, happiness comes from time together with family and loved ones.

Types of Transcriptions you can outsource

• General Transcription: General transcription is the most commonly used type of transcription. General transcription covers a broad spectrum of areas, but basically includes interviews, lectures, presentations, podcasts, and all types of transcription with the exception of medical and possibly legal transcription.
• Legal Transcription: This type is used by law firms, courts, etc. and might include depositions, hearings, general correspondence, reports, witness statements, etc.
• Medical Transcription: This type is used for any type of progress notes, patient summaries, etc. 
• Academic Transcription: This is pretty self-explanatory, but it entails work from any type of school, mainly university students, professors, doctoral students, etc.
• Business Transcription: This type is used for general correspondence or any type of office needs.
• Dissertation Transcription: This type is used for doctoral students completing their dissertation and usually involves a bulk of interviews used in preparing their final dissertation.
• Focus Group Transcription: This type is used specifically for focus groups, and these groups generally consist of more than three or four speakers.
• Market Research Transcription: This type is also self-explanatory and may or may not include more than one speaker. It is generally used for any type of market research.
• Podcast Transcription: This type is used for transcribing podcasts. Some clients prefer to not only broadcast their podcasts live, but also place the transcripts on their website or merely to store in their archives.
• Sermon Transcription: This type, of course, is used to transcribe sermons. Many churches like to be able to provide hard copies of their sermons to the handicapped or simply place them online for everyone to read.
• Interview Transcription: Also pretty self-explanatory, this is the most commonly used type of transcription, as it deals with any type of interview between two or more people. Interview transcription can fall under most any of the other categories.
• Lecture/Presentation Transcription: This applies to lectures or presentations, where there might only be one speaker. Sometimes, there will be an announcer to introduce the main speaker.
• Text-to-Text Transcription: This is transcription, involving typing from written text (such as handwritten materials, .pdf files, etc.) into an editable MS Word document. Also known as copytyping.

Therefore, people utilizing transcription services include lawyers/law firms, medical doctors/hospitals, media houses (TV, movies, film makers, talk shows), bloggers, webmasters, content producers, podcasters, video bloggers, pastors, preachers, businesses, insurance companies, writers, journalists, research students/scholars, 

Choosing the Right Transcription Company

There are transcription service companies in almost every field. Choose one that specialize in your industry. This will go a long way in your relationship with each other. The quality of their services will more likely be excellent.

Choose a reliable company. A reliable transcription company means one which meets your expectations and needs in terms of quality, turn around time (TAT) and volume of output.

A transcription company that comes highly recommended by other firms in your industry or colleagues should be considered a potential partner in your business.

A transcription company should be reasonably priced for your business to utilize their services. You should be able to save cost. That’s why it’s recommended to find a third world transcription company. A third world transcription company charges less because costs of living in those countries are low.

I'd also add that a transcription company with a functional website and blog and has a dedicated online presence is to be preferred.  It will mean there is more points of contact.  It will also mean they understand and appreciate SEO, online lead generation and social media and their business applications, which is important especially for those outsourcing podcast transcriptions for their blogs or websites.

Finally, choose a transcription company that makes working with them simply and easy. Ideally, they should be able to provide easy and simple means of sending and receiving files, send regular invoices, have helpful customer care and easy payment method.

How to Outsource Audio Transcriptions Effectively and Efficiently

Before you start outsourcing, provide your chosen transcription company with the necessary instructions and guides you want them to follow.

These may include:

• Templates of various documents they may have to type – letters, reports, standard statements, memos, witness statements, etc
• Style guides – fonts, font size, how to name files, how to fill in reference numbers, using American or British spellings, American or British styles of writing names, etc
• Contact email ids, address details, titles and designations they may have to include in their transcripts
• List of abbreviations and names of individuals, companies and businesses.
• Expected turn around time (TAT). If there are documents you need urgently make sure your chosen transcription company has the resources and means to deal with such assignments. Of course, such assignments will cost you more.

Providing some or all the above will spare you a lot of hassle or editing when you start outsourcing transcription, apart from time and money. You will be able to integrate transcription process to your workflow more efficiently.

Effective and efficient utilization of outsourcing resources will enhance your productivity and equal effective delegation of tasks.

Factors Affecting Transcription Rates
Understanding the factors affecting transcription rates is essential to saving cost by knowing how to record audio dictations, proper dictation with appropriate environment etc.  Please read the above link to read more on that.  Meanwhile below are the major factors affecting transcription rates when outsourcing audio transcriptions.

• Audio length
• Audio clarity/quality
• Number of speakers
• Accent of the speaker(s)
• Subject matter of the recording
• Editing & proofreading
• Location of your transcription provider
• Urgency of the file
• Ultimately, your contract.

How to record a good quality audio dictation to outsource

When recording your dictations into audio recorders take time to thoroughly think through and organize what you want to record. Be concise. You will save a lot of money if you are efficient in recording dictations.

If two or more persons are recording, take turns to speak. Record your dictations in a quiet and isolated place where there is no background noise or any distraction or interruptions.

Do not rush; speak evenly in a clear voice. Use abbreviations sparingly; and when using abbreviations, be sure to state what the abbreviation stands for at least once in your dictation.

Investing in a good quality transcription recorder will go a long way in providing good quality audio recordings for your transcription services provider.

Why go to this length to get a good quality audio? It’s basically to save time and money in the long run. With a good quality audio, transcribers will complete transcribing in no time at all and to a high quality. Your transcriber will be able to give quality transcripts if your audio is clear and clean. You then won’t need to proofread the final transcript and readily use it.

Sending and receiving files

Sending and receiving files should be as hassle free as possible. Email may not be ideal if you intend to send large volumes of audio files as it will take time to upload, and download the files from the other end. An FTP solution or a third party solution like, ShareFile.com might be a better idea.

If your recording is video it may make sense, in most cases, to convert the file into MP3 before sending off to the transcription company.  But, if the video may help them in better transcribing the file, leave it be.

If the video or audio (podcasts) is already online simply sending them the link would save time and effort in uploading and downloading the file.

Integrate these best practices for outsourcing audio transcription to enhance your business in terms of productivity while saving money, time and living a much healthier lifestyle.

As can be seen, transcription helps quite a variety of industries and individuals.  Its a huge market. The medical transcription market alone is enormous--around $20–25B globally and is expected to grow around 15–20% per year for the foreseeable future.  With content marketing aka blogging going mainstream bloggers have also started utilizing podcast transcription to attract readers.  Outsourcing audio transcriptions is here to stay and will only get bigger and more sophisticated with time.