Subpar transcription quality can happen with human or automated transcription. Transcription requires specialized skill and experience.
Shoddy transcript quality can negatively impact your reputation, business outcomes, and liability. So, if you’re converting speech to text and the resulting document quality is lacking, it’s essential to find out what’s causing the low quality so you can rectify it. Subpar transcription quality can happen whether you produce transcripts in-house or with the support of an outside transcription service. In this article, we’ll explore some of the common reasons that can contribute to subpar quality.
One of the first points to consider is if the right person is doing the work. If you’ve delegated a transcription project to an employee in your office as an added task, is that employee already overwhelmed with other work? Are they not adept at typing or research? Do they struggle with spelling, grammar, formatting, or word processing? Any one of these possibilities may indicate they’re not well-suited to the task. Plus, if their attention to detail or listening skills aren’t top-notch, this can result in error-riddled transcripts.
If you use a transcription service, you are likely outsourcing transcription because you don’t have internal resources to convert speech to text. So, when your transcription service is sending you low-quality transcripts, this is beyond frustrating. Sometimes transcription companies have staffing problems. For example, if your transcription service doesn’t invest in its relationships with its typists or if they don’t pay them well, this can result in transcriptionists not feeling valued. Understandably, this dissatisfaction can translate into poor-quality work output.
Transcription requires skill and careful concentration. Still, even the most experienced transcriptionists can make mistakes. To ensure accuracy, quality assurance is an essential component when converting speech to text. So, suppose your transcriptionist or transcription service doesn’t have a structured process in place to verify document integrity, including a human check supported by tools like spell check and grammar check. In that case, quality issues are bound to be an issue.
Automated speech recognition technology is an incredible tool to shorten the time it takes to produce documents, prevent backlogs, and lower production costs. While speech recognition capabilities continue to evolve, and accuracy rates can be impressive, artificial intelligence transcription tools are not without their limits. Putting recorded audio files through speech recognition unchecked by a human review often explains why nonsensical errors can crop up in transcripts.
A common misunderstanding is that anyone who can type can transcribe. To transcribe well, in a way suitable for publication or submission to a court or inclusion in a medical record, takes training and practice. Even transcriptionists who complete formalized transcription schooling begin their careers under the supervision of a QA specialist, a senior transcriptionist, or both. So, while anyone who can type can transcribe, to do so with a level of precision that preserves the subject matter’s integrity takes a qualified professional.
Once you discover what’s at the root of your transcription quality issues, you can begin to take steps to mend the situation. For instance, you may need to upskill your in-house employee or reassign the project to one or more other better-suited employees. If you’re outsourcing transcription to a transcription service, you will need to contact the agency and be prepared to cite specific examples of the quality issues. Starting a dialogue will help you work with them to establish the root cause and rectify the quality issues.
If you need further assistance with improving your transcript quality, we invite you to contact us. Athreon’s clients consistently rate us as one of the best transcription services for document quality. We’ve refined our QA methodology over our many decades in the transcription business. What’s more, our concurrent and retroactive QA reviews and quality analytics help us detect and remedy quality issues before they create problems for our clients. Contact us for a no-obligation free consultation and trial.