President's Message about Pricing

As the visionary at DDI, it has always been my goal to provide a win-win-win situation for clients, transcriptionists, and DDI. One requirement of the transcriptionists who work with DDI is that they generally enjoy the work because let’s be honest, transcription can sometimes be a tedious task and without some level of enjoyment, many will simply “drop out.”

Having a win-win-win goal in mind, we strive to produce excellent transcripts and documents efficiently and accurately thereby benefiting our clients while at the same time earning a fair wage. We understand there are many transcription services available and welcome the opportunities that competition provides to clarify our goals and procedures.

One thing we do not aim for, though, is cutthroat pricing or to be the cheapest service available. In fact, it is a sincere goal that the transcriptionists who work with DDI are compensated fairly and therefore earnestly provide the very best of their abilities in their service for DDI and its clients.

What follows are some common concerns from transcriptionists that we strive to alleviate at DDI. We hope this message helps allay some concerns for you, too. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ginger Hoffman
President

The speed of transcription is dependent on the quality of the audio.

Transcriptionist: Industry standards, as I've heard them, say to allow a 1:4 ratio, at least. That means one hour of audio should take around four hours to transcribe. But it really depends on the quality of audio and how fast you can type. I've had one hour of really horrible audio take as long as six hours to transcribe, and on other occasions, I've been able to fly through an hour of excellent audio in as little as two hours. (Note: Industry Production Standards guidelines suggeste that poor audio can result in up to 12 hours of transcription time per audio hour.)

Response: Rightly said. Audio quality is indeed the primary factor.

Plus the number of persons in the audio, and also whether they are chatting or crosstalking or interrupting each other, whether someone has a speech flaw (stammering, etc.), whether they have clarity of thoughts or are giving many ums, uhs or many false starts or whether they use incorrect grammar or slangs, or words or phrases or names that you need to search on google.

And such things mentally exhaust you so you will end up in a spiral where your speed keeps on reducing while doing an imperfect audio. All and any of these would drastically reduce your speed. Yet, one major factor I think is psychological, and that is whether you find the audio interesting or not.

Industry has nothing to do with an Industry's payment norm

Transcriptionist: David, I agree with you. If it gets to a point where I have to work 16 hours/day, seven days/week, then I'll find something else to do. I really do not understand why we are not valued higher. Just because we work at home does not mean we are not competent. I know for a fact that I am more competent than some people I have worked with in offices in the past. I just choose to work at home, not in someone else's office. Yet my work seems to be valued lower...I don't get it.

Barb

Response: No, you need not work 16 hours a day. Your or someone's competency has nothing to do with an industry's payment norms. Translations pay at some rate, transcriptions pay at another rate, and so on. And that has nothing to do with a translator's or a transcriber's competency. Of course, they must produce quality work in the field in which they work but they will still be paid with industry standard pay rates. If they don't produce quality work consistently, they would stop getting work.

I think you are using 'competency' in the sense of how much money you wish to earn. I think they are not really related in the sense that even if you are consistently competent doing transcription, the clients will not double or triple the rates they are paying you because there is competition in the world and they would get other transcribers to work on the rates they are paying to you.

So, could you elaborate why you feel you are not considered competent by your transcription clients?

Transcription pays if done right

Transcriptionist:

I agree with you. That is why I am currently going to court reporting school. I can work less hard doing this and make more money!

In Response To: Our Transcribing group ran a poll several months ago. The findings were surprising - and disappointing. The vast majority of transcriptionists who voted were not happy with their work, with their income, and with other issues. Burnout was an important issue.

They did not consider transcription to be a satisfactory main income for any family...