Why quality assurance in transcription services is important?

by Target Language Translation Services

- November 12 2021

When customers entrust their valuable corporate files to a transcription vendor, they expect precise work delivered in a cost-effective and timely manner.

However, if customers achieve an audio file with much background noise that massively overpowers the already silent speakers, it may give them cause for concern and prompts them to assign one of their own team to double-check all of the work, any time or cost-savings are immediately lost! Apparently, as the most important factor, transcription quality control should not be ignored.

Importance of quality in transcription services

An overview of transcription just showcases three different level processes including recording, dictation, and transcribing. Though there are only three processes broadly, transcription needs a detailed level of quality assurance process before delivery.

Quality transcription is vital

Having a thorough, reliable method in place is foundational to managing the consistency and quality of the transcription. A small mistake in transcribing the fact of loss, for instance, could make the difference between losing and winning in arbitration. Quality matters.

Editing a transcript takes time

Time is genuinely valuable. Outsourcing transcription is often done to save resources as well as time. Naturally, experienced typists can produce a transcript in the fraction of the time it would take the average person.

Simple errors can result in big problems

A transcript that holds spelling mistakes or grammatical errors seems unprofessional and typos may badly showcase the information in the transcript. A high-quality native transcription for video file makes sure the information is presented in a fabulous and professional manner.

Quality transcription process

Having a clear, detailed and reliable process in place is foundational to maintaining consistent, high quality transcription. It begins by hiring experienced transcriptionists, maintaining a strong QA team, and then tying it all together with solid customer service.

Qualified transcriptionists

Highly experienced and specialized transcriptionists with relevant industry knowledge are the starting point of a successful transcription quality control process. The work of a trained transcriptionist with relevant industry experience provides a very solid foundation on which to build a quality control model. Vendors spend a large amount of time recruiting qualified transcriptionists and delivering extensive initial and ongoing training.

Customers frequently ask about automatic audio transcription or voice recognition software and it is worth highlighting here. This technology is rapidly improving and some transcription vendors are beginning to use the technology. Unfortunately, this approach still requires human editors. For the moment, human transcriptionists are still the best route to quality transcription.

Quality assurance team

The work of a trained transcriptionist with relevant industry experience offers a very solid foundation to build a quality control model. Potential misunderstandings and miscommunications in the material are addressed through requests for supporting reference material (if needed), and additional research for verification. Once finished, the work is checked a second time for a specific set of quality criteria – typographical errors, blanks, phonetics, and formatting errors.

To overcome any risk of familiarity blindness, a qualified Quality Analyst then reviews the transcription file. Adding this third-tier of oversight with the fresh perspective of a qualified professional who has not been immersed in the document for hours, makes sure that the document is error-free.

Customer service is critical

Customer service is a critical — and often overlooked — part of transcript QA. Nowadays, transcription is a human-based business. Quality transcription is so important, yet errors do occur. This makes having an effective customer service team a necessity, not a convenience. If an error occurs, a vendor should provide an easy route for customers to request corrections. This is where customer service really proves valuable. Being able to have errors quickly resolved is a vital final step to the QA process.

Quality is Intentional

Hiring experienced transcriptions, maintaining a strong QA team, and delivering excellent customer service are crucial for maintaining consistent, high quality transcription, which can give customers the peace of mind of knowing that their business or academic files are in safe and secure hands.

This article is reprinted from Allegis, voxtab and TRIDINDIA.

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