Without phone calls, the business world and its daily operations will cease to exist. A simple conversation over the phone can help people crack deals and score many significant contracts. But there are some drawbacks to this practice as well. It can be challenging to explain the reasons behind particular business-related decisions, especially if the caller is a shareholder, business partner, or employee. As a solution, businesses can transcribe phone calls to refer to them later. In this article, we shall discuss how you can transcribe business calls by yourself and with the help of a transcription service as well.
Phone Call Transcription
Transcribing phone calls entails converting your voice conversations and meetings into an easily readable and searchable text format. Client calls generate a sizable amount of audio content daily for any company. You can keep an accurate record of all business-related conversations involving legal issues, financial planning, marketing choices, and more. Having all professional communications, including phone calls for your company, professionally transcribed is of the utmost importance.
Step-By-Step Process to Manually Transcribe Phone Calls From Scratch
In this section, you will learn to convert an audio recording into a transcript all by yourself. Follow these simple steps to start transcribing your call recordings.
#1. Setup Your Project:
In the words of Aristotle, “Well begun is half done.” As a result, you must prepare well before you start manually transcribing. Organize your audio file, media player, and word processor in advance because you might need to rewind the audio frequently. A correct approach will help you avoid hindering your pace and time wastage.
#2. Your Own Shorthand to Speed up the Process:
For things like speaker names and other frequently occurring information, you can develop a shorthand method of your own. If you are working with others, you can add a legend to the document’s header so that everyone knows what each heading means.
#3. Start the Transcription:
This step is intuitive. As you hear the recording, type the text in your word processor. However, you will waste valuable time if your typing speed is under 25 wpm. In this scenario, the best course of action is to trust a professional transcriptionist who can type at a rate of more than 50 words per minute.
#4. Edit the Transcript:
You can now thoroughly edit your document to correct grammatical and syntactical errors.
#5. Export the Text:
If you want to use the transcription for reading, you can export it as a DOC or DOCX file. But you must export it to another multimedia format if you want to use it as a video subtitle.
Step-By-Step Guide to Outsourcing Transcriptions
Although in-house transcription is cheap, it is less accurate than a professional transcriptionist’s work. So, it is always prudent to outsource large volumes of call transcription jobs to a reputable transcription company that can conveniently transcribe phone calls to text. To submit your call recordings, follow these steps and get your transcriptions done hassle-free.
- Cost Estimation: First, calculate the estimated cost for your project using the cost estimate calculator provided by your transcription company. You can also request a quote.
- File Uploading: Now, you can upload files to the company’s web portal using a web browser.
- Payment: Most reputable companies accept payment via credit cards, debit cards, or PayPal. Pay the fees to get your project started by professionals.
- Receive Transcriptions: Lastly, get your files delivered via email.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of your chosen transcription method, the audio quality must be sufficient for each word to be understood clearly. If you have expert staff, in-house transcription is a great option. In all other cases, trust a reputed transcription company to get urgent call transcripts with fast turnaround times and nearly 100% accuracy.