Transcribing your interviews can be incredibly useful for a multitude of reasons. Whether you want to improve your SEO, quickly look back on what was said without having to rewind, or even use the interview as a legal document, transcription is a must.
Transcribing Interviews: Which Route Is Right for You?
The transcription process can certainly become a long and tedious process. Luckily, there are many alternatives for transcribing, and one option certainly shines above the rest.
Transcribing It Yourself
Transcribing an interview yourself may seem like a relatively straightforward process, but it is much more time-consuming than one might think. Unless you have experience transcribing, this process could take days or even weeks. This may seem like an exaggeration, so let’s break it down.
The process of transcribing involves listening to the entire audio repeatedly, writing down every word (including filler words if you would like verbatim transcriptions), splitting the dialogue up to indicate who is speaking, and then going back through the file again multiple times to correct any mistakes or unclear speech. Completing this process can become daunting and tedious.
Nevertheless, it only gets more complicated. If your interview contains more than two people (such as panel interviews), this only lengthens the process, causing even more work on your end.
While it is possible to transcribe independently, ultimately, it will take up more time and effort in the long run. Unless you have endless amounts of time and patience to spare, we do not recommend it in the least.
Using a Transcription App/Software
If manually transcribing is too time-consuming and challenging, then surely uploading your audio into an app or software and having it automatically transcribed is the solution. Right? Well, it’s not that simple.
While these programs will do a good chunk of work for you, they are far from perfect and can be downright frustrating at times. Even if everyone in the interview is speaking clearly and concisely, these programs can still fail to capture what was said. Ultimately, they leave you with more work, having to edit and correct all the program’s mistakes.
On top of this, these software programs are not capable of separating speakers’ dialogues. Everything will be written out as if it’s one long monologue, not a discussion between two or more people. Again, this just leaves you with even more work.
At the end of the day, these tools are not as automatic and seamless as they seem. At the bare minimum, you will have to manually separate all the dialogue and relisten to the entire audio multiple times to correct the mistakes made by the program. It’s more attractive than doing it entirely by yourself, but it is still way too time consuming. Simply put, there is no way to use these “automatic transcription programs” without having a mountain of manual work left over.
What Is the Easiest and Quickest Way?
Hands down, the easiest way to transcribe your interview is to hire a professional. There are thousands upon thousands of people who are quick, qualified, and excited to transcribe your audio.
The first worry people usually have about hiring a professional transcriptionist is the cost. Many try to avoid the hiring process due to the fear of it costing an arm and a leg, but there are many cheap, high-quality transcription services out there.
The most dependable qualitative interview transcription service by far has to be one employing human transcribers. Professional transcriptionists deliver high-quality interview transcriptions in as quick as 6 hours to 5 days. In that time, they will undergo multiple editing phases to guarantee you receive an accurate interview transcript. And you don’t have to stop at just one interview. You can submit multiple audio files at once to be worked on by separate professionals. This means you could generate all your transcriptions (that would typically take weeks to complete by yourself) in as little as 6 hours!
To Conclude
Ultimately, there are plenty of different ways you can transcribe your interviews. You can spend frustrating weeks on them by yourself, or you can try transcription programs and still wind up fixing their mistakes down the road. Alternatively, you can save time and choose to hire professionals. We know which is the smarter choice.
