How Accurate Transcribing Can Benefit Your Business

by Startacus Admin

Let’s use English as an example. When native and non-native speakers are combined, English is the second most spoken language in the world. Add in all the different variants including the popular one’s like ‘British English’ and ‘American English’ and things can get very confusing, even for native or fluent speakers. Differences can range from the same words being spelt slightly differently, right the way through to words having multiple meanings. This can have a huge impact on the accuracy of what’s been said, versus what’s actually been written down.

So how does that impact your business?

As the world gets better connected, more businesses conduct their work nationally and globally. This can bring different parts of a business, foreign based suppliers and also a firm’s culturally diverse customers, into more contact with one another. In the ever-connected world we’re living in, written communications need to be clear, concise and easily understood by everyone.

Accurate transcribing is crucial to this. From putting together accurate quotes for PR purposes, to making sure market and social research is useable, more people need access to what’s been said, along with an instant understanding of the words. Transcribing can be the difference between a voice being accurately heard and completely mis-interpreted.


Ask yourself what proportion of your written notes get lost in translation?

Have you ever been in back to back meetings and by the end of the day, forgotten what’s been said? You’ve then tried to refer back to the minutes someone produced, only to find that half the details are missing. Perhaps because the note-taker couldn’t keep up with what was going on, or maybe they were mishearing a particularly broad accent? It happens far too regularly. Crucial information and action points can be missed, turning often time-consuming meetings into a complete waste of time and money.

In the professional world, meeting minutes are also often taken by someone who should be actively participating in the meeting too. This not only impacts their ability to give the meeting their full attention, but they’ll also have to try to split themselves between note-taking and being actively involved. This means they won’t be able to perform either function to the best of their ability. Another reason the transcription might not be as detailed or accurate as it needs to be.

How can you avoid these problems?

To accurately transcribe the spoken word is a skill that can take years to perfect. There are specialist service providers out there who pride themselves on being able to produce a variety of styles of transcription, to cater for specific requirements.

Firms like Apple Transcription for example, are used by the police and courts to provide verbatim and semi-verbatim transcriptions. They can also assist with general commercial transcription, ranging from verbatim to summarised transcriptions. Using a transcription service provider can help ensure your minutes have the right level of detail and are completely accurate.

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Published on: 26th January 2018