Supporting Remote Workers with Call Transcription

If you thought remote work was on its way out, think again. Currently, 30% of the UK workforce is working remotely at least once a week. Subsequently, you must consider how to support workers in an increasingly flexible and virtual work environment.

Business communications take place through an ever-increasing variety of channels including video, phone, chat platforms and face-to-face. You can turn to tools like call transcription, live notetaking and meeting minutes to keep more accurate records of meetings, improve accessibility for participants both during and after sessions, and ensure remote workers are kept in the loop. 

What Is a Call Transcription?

Call transcription options provide a written record of dialogue from both live and recorded audio and video calls. Transcripts can be accessed and referred to long after the meeting or phone call has ended, providing a fast and easy way to maintain an accurate account of the conversation. 

How Do You Transcribe a Phone Call?

There are several different methods of transcription to consider. Some companies try using in-house employees to produce transcripts as this feels like a budget-saving option. However, it’s usually a false economy as team members who aren’t trained in producing transcripts can often struggle with the task, leading to less than ideal results. It is also challenging for individuals to actively participate in the meeting and write comprehensive notes at the same time. 

A great alternative is to use a professional transcription or notetaking service instead. For example, Take Note’s call transcription service boasts high accuracy rates and guaranteed turnaround times. You also won’t struggle with limited bandwidth when using phone call transcription services, which is likely to arise when trying to produce transcripts in-house.

If you’re able to record your call you can simply upload the recording to your chosen provider to be transcribed. As your meetings are likely to include confidential, sensitive or personal information be sure to opt for a secure transcription service in order to keep your data safe.  

If recording isn’t an option you can use a live notetaking service whereby a professional notetaker will join your session as it happens to produce comprehensive notes.

Conference Call Transcription

It’s one thing to transcribe a conversation between two people, but what happens when you need to document a call between multiple individuals? That’s where conference call transcription comes in. Whether it’s a traditional conference call or a multi-person Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting, conference call transcription services can take the guesswork out of documenting the conversation.

Effective conference call transcription providers, such as Take Note, are able to cope well with multiple speakers, accents and some background noise – areas where automatic speech recognition (ASR) is known to struggle. You should also expect the option to request speaker identification and timestamps for your transcripts to make them easier to review. These additional features will help you to work more efficiently with the transcript, and skip to let’s say the 30-minute mark into the call that you want to reference. These searchable transcripts can also help to eliminate the need for meticulous notetaking during a call, allowing your team to remain actively engaged in the conversation. 

How Do You Transcribe a Conference Call?

There are options to transcribe conference calls as they happen or from a recording. Most leading platforms have built-in call transcription software to aid this process. However, be warned, that the majority rely on ASR which can leave you with an output full of errors. Human-based services or hybrid offerings will deliver much higher levels of accuracy for a transcript you can be confident in sharing right away. 

If an audio or video recording of your call is available you can upload this content to your chosen provider to start the transcription process. As with a one-on-one call, if it isn’t possible to record your session there are alternatives such as live notetaking.

Transcripts of regular team meetings are a valuable way of helping your team keep up with the latest updates, especially when they haven’t been able to attend the meeting personally due to diary clashes, holidays or sickness. 

Depending on the type of meeting, meeting minutes could also be a good fit. Minutes provide a concise summary of the key discussion points, decisions and actions. The minutes output is written in the third person and is quick and easy to review. As general chatter is excluded it is ideal for those who want the important details quickly. Take Note provides a professional minute service that’s available either via a recording or through joining the session live. 

Captions vs. Transcripts: What’s The Difference?

There can be some confusion as to when you need transcription versus captions. Captions and transcripts may serve similar purposes to help with accessibility needs and compliance, but they differ in a few key ways.

Both captions and transcripts can be incorporated within conference calls or events happening live. Both can also be added to or accompany recordings that are shared with attendees after-the-fact. Captions help to provide another visual aid and can account for scenarios where the audio cannot be heard. Transcripts on the other hand provide a full word-for-word verbatim record in a longer form which is searchable and can help with notetaking and recall. Transcripts can also assist with providing you with legal backing so are often used in a HR setting. When used in tandem, captioning and transcription services can help businesses streamline their communication, offer accessibility and assist with record-keeping efforts on a larger scale.

Regardless of which solution you’re using, ensuring the security of your provider or partner is also key. Take Note’s process is designed to meet the highest security standards to ensure your confidential conversations and conference calls stay private.

Call Transcription Uses and Benefits

Call transcription has the ability to save you time and effort, but there are other unexpected ways your company stands to benefit from call transcription services.  

Increased Productivity: While staying on top of recent changes in workplace communication may seem overwhelming or tedious, research shows that companies that prioritise effective communication can actually boost their overall productivity by roughly 25%. Partnering with leading transcription providers such as Take Note, optimising your workflows and integrating technology allows your team to spend less time on repetitive tasks like notetaking and data entry and more time focusing on the valuable tasks only they can do.

Greater Accessibility: Phone and video calls should be designed to be as inclusive as possible. Providing transcripts of calls can help to ensure all participants are able to meaningfully engage in the conversation. Call transcription can be of particular importance to deaf or hard of hearing participants, as well as attendees with ADHD or who need additional support in order to fully participate. Available tools and services can also help companies adhere to key accessibility standards like the UK Equality Act of 2010 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Proactively offering transcripts also demonstrates your organisation’s dedication to diversity and inclusion. 

Improved SEO Rankings: You can also utilise call transcription services to improve SEO rankings. Audio and video content alone may not do much for a company’s search engine discoverability. However, when added to a company’s website or video descriptions, transcripts of calls, webinars and other content can be detected by search engines. It’s no secret that content creation takes time and resources — making transcripts of this content available online can ensure a greater return on the investment. 

Wider Reach: It may go without saying that the greater the audience, the greater the impact. Call transcription services are being used for conferences and events as well, not just private conversations. Offering transcripts can help grow your audience and offer a way for people who were unable to attend live to consume the content. Some individuals prefer to engage with written materials as it provides them with the option to search and scan, which can be more difficult with audio or video content. Making transcripts of the content available to participants, clients or even the general public can help to ensure that your company’s message reaches a wider audience in a digestible, easy-to-read way.

More Comprehensive Training: Many businesses record both internal and external calls for training purposes. These calls can be used during the onboarding process to provide new employees with a comprehensive understanding of your company’s preferred style of communication. Offering transcripts of these recorded calls can provide trainees with readable study materials that can be referred to during and after training sessions. Searchable transcripts, in particular, can be especially helpful to employees who wish to revisit a specific part of a call or training. Furthermore, providing written materials can help to attract a more diverse group of trainees, including individuals whose first language may not be English. 

Meeting Employee Expectations

The need for accurate records of phone and video calls will only continue to grow along with the demand for work-from-home arrangements. That’s why it’s so important to prioritise clear, efficient and equitable distribution of information to all team members from across your business. Offering call transcription will be invaluable as the reliance on audio and video calls for both internal and external communications continues to grow.

Take Note offers industry-leading services such as call transcription, notetaking, meeting minutes, closed captioning and more that can help you to host successful calls that are well documented and drive action. Take Note’s services can help you navigate the ever-changing needs of your workforce and clients while ensuring your calls are accessible to diverse audiences.

Get a quote today or learn more about our call transcription services and other business tools that can help you boost conference call efficiency and make for more productive meetings.