With transcription technology improving every year, it is easy to think we will soon get to a point where businesses no longer need to hire professionals to do the job on their behalf. It is a good job, too, because the list of businesses in need of transcription services is rapidly increasing, but you will quickly realise technology cannot replace trained transcribers.
While transcription tools can help you get the job done, they cannot do it alone and more businesses than ever will be needing professional transcription services in 2019.
Are transcription services really that important?
The answer to this question depends somewhat on the industry you are in but transcription services are going to be important to the vast majority of businesses at some point. In many cases, transcription is a crucial part of the industry and you simply will not be able to do without it in the following fields:
- Law: Anything from interviews to court cases, public statements and parliament sessions.
- Healthcare: Patient statements, medical procedures, lectures, meetings, international events.
- Science & technology: Test logs, international meetings, conferences, etc.
- Education: Lecture notes, transcripts for videos and other materials.
- Marketing: Audience research interviews, product testing, industry events, expert interviews.
- Journalism: Interviews, transcripts for public events, videos, statements and more.
That gives you an idea of the major industries that rely on transcription to accurately get messages across to wider audiences. Any instance where public events or sessions need to be recorded – anything from police interviews to flight records –some kind of transcription process is required.
Without this, it is simply not possible to record, store and share a log of everything that took place. Likewise, when the spoken word needs to be repeated with 100% accuracy or translated into other languages (think news stories, international summits, etc.), transcription converts audio into text – by far the best way to document what was said in a way that can be accessible to everyone who needs access to it.
The everyday business uses of transcription
While major industries rely quite heavily on transcription in obvious ways, the practical everyday use cases for smaller businesses are not always as self-explanatory. The thing is, this is where most of the growth in transcription services is happening, though – because the typical modern business now operates in a very different way.
Here are some of the most common ways today’s businesses are using transcription:
- Video transcription: Important for UX, accessibility, video SEO and turning your footage into written content for maximum ROI.
- Podcast transcription: The same things apply if you are creating podcasts or any other kind of dialogue-based audio content.
- Creative sessions: Group meetings are great for creativity but you need a way to record all those good ideas.
- Staff training: From training videos to notes from meetings, customer interactions and all kinds of others material – all kinds of training content needs transcribing.
- Market research: Converting spoken feedback from your target audiences and existing customers into text.
- Phone calls: If you are recording phone calls for training purposes then you are also going to want to transcribe them.
- Technical support: Documenting technical and customer support processes is crucial for understanding the problems your customers experience and how good you are at dealing with them.
- Disciplinary meetings: Transcribing disciplinary meetings is crucial from a legal perspective.
Your list of transcription needs can vary greatly, depending on the nature of your business and how you like to run things. What is clear is that, in the technology and content-driven age we are now in, the amount of content that the average business needs to transcribe is steadily increasing.
In some cases, it is about documenting key business processes for legal protection but this is not exactly anything new. What has really changed over the past ten years is how businesses use transcription (and various other language services) to boost productivity and create more effective business processes.
This is where transcription is improving business training, customer services, marketing strategies and other crucial practices that today’s companies need to master.
To learn more about how transcription services could benefit your business, you can contact our team of dedicated professionals.