You may try out the transcription work yourself, but in case you are lacking good typing skills or do not possess specialized transcription equipment, a considerable amount of time will be consumed. Moreover, the job also involves transcribing the speech accurately and going for the correct homophones.
There are certain ways to ensure that you get a clear transcript so that you can avail of transcription at an affordable price.
* You should use the best quality transcription equipment as per your means and also make sure that it is suitable for the purpose. In the case of transcribing interviews, you should use an external microphone rather than a built-in one, while for focus groups, it is advisable to go for several microphones. Again for conferences, there should be portable microphones that can be moved around among the audience.
* Good preparation is a must for every interview. Try to arrange for a meeting room that is devoid of any noise, so that it becomes easy for the transcriber to listen to the recording. It is beneficial to spell out the name of the interviewee at the start and reveal any other information that needs to be incorporated within the final transcript, such as the date, the title of the job, and the like.
* Try to maintain silence and minimize interruption as much as possible when the interviewee is speaking. This is because if you speak, certain important words by the interviewee might be missed out in the recording.
* Once the interview is over and you are handing over the recording to a transcription company providing accurate interview transcription, you can make the job easier by providing a group of keywords to the agency or the concerned transcriber.
If you follow the above–mentioned procedure and provide specific format or instruction to the service provider you are hiring, you will definitely get excellent transcripts at an affordable price.