Market research transcription is when you convert audio or visual recordings taken during primary research into written text for further analyses.
While a simple step at first glance, transcription services provide more than just words for you to read; good market research transcription improves research findings and adds value to the overall research process.
Utilizing market research transcription services will speed up your research work processes and deliver your research report on time. Depending on your audio or video recording length, you can expect <24 hours or even faster turnaround times if you use automated transcriptions.
Automated transcription services can even prepare the transcript during the interviews, which are ready for analysis immediately after.
On the other hand, transcription services will do all the menial work and free up precious time and mental resources. Rather than listening through all the audio recordings or jotting down messy notes during your research, you can focus on what’s important -- picking up non-verbal cues during the interview, analyzing qualitative data, and procuring actionable insights.
Since transcription services make your market research workflow more efficient, you can reach more respondents and collect more qualitative data. With more extensive qualitative data sets, you’ll be able to study them thoroughly and gain a greater understanding of your target customers and their purchasing patterns.
Outsourcing the market research transcription is one of the most effective ways to reduce costs. Depending on where they’re based, transcriptionists may charge lower rates than usual while still getting the job done.
Transcription services also improve the efficiency of your research workflow, which minimizes both opportunity and overhead costs. Rather than spending on staff management, training, insurance, equipment, and other overhead expenses, you can devote your valuable resources to extracting insights from an accurate data set already prepared for you.
While having an in-house transcription team may be convenient, not all hours spent in the office are productive. According to a study from Stanford University, productivity sharply decreases when someone’s work hours per week exceed 50. Considering the quick pace at which research studies tend to happen, it is worth considering contract-based transcription services to minimize the overhead costs of in-house staff.
Not to mention, automated transcription services start as low as $0.15 per audio minute, whereas professional transcriptionists may charge anywhere from $0.50 to $2.00 per audio minute. While automated transcriptions aren’t as accurate, they are great for affordably building a database before identifying important data sets to clean up with a human transcriptionist.
Human transcription services provide 99%+ accurate data sets, allowing for precise analyses and preventing researcher bias for more valid research reports. In addition, with verbatim transcription, you can prevent misunderstanding of your respondents’ answers by having a holistic understanding of the context and their thought processes.
Possessing high-quality data that accurately reflects real-world conditions are imperative for data analysis and informed decision-making. Even the slightest misunderstanding in the consumers’ behavior and motivations may result in costly mistakes.
For example, McDonald’s failure to recognize that their customers valued price over taste resulted in their Arch Deluxe burger flopping when marketed based on taste. As a result, they spent approximately $200 million in advertising a burger that nobody bought.
Of course, there are many factors at play in McDonald’s product flop. Nonetheless, this shows that the first steps of market research -- primary research and transcription, must be error-free, or it could lead to poor insights and execution.
Transcription services increase the value of your market research by providing extra deliverables to your clients that they can use according to their needs. The transcripts can also be used for circulation for those who couldn’t attend the primary research or for stakeholders who may find the data sets useful.
Marketing transcription can also boost SEO and increase market reach through creatively repurposing your research content. You can convert the transcripts into digital content such as blog articles or videos, and post them on your marketing communication channels.
Aside from transcripts, market research transcription services can also provide complementary services such as sentiment analysis, keyword mapping, and API integration. These tools will allow you to extract key insights immediately after you have precise data sets.
Training in-house transcription staff or doing the work yourself could compromise your market research compliance standards. On the other hand, qualified transcription services will meet compliance and quality standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 9001, HIPAA, and GDPR compliances.
If you publish your market research content online, these transcriptions must meet accessibility compliances such as WCGR and AODA. Aside from reaching more people online, having video transcripts are also useful for your organization as backups or comprehension aids for situations that might be beneficial - for example, when the audio quality is unclear.
Market research transcription services can store and organize your sensitive data in a way that is optimized for searchability.
Using a system like Speak, you can create searchable media databases that let you easily search through your stored media for specific moments you’re looking for.
You can use Speak to bring up every mention of a keyword, topic, or phrase and jump exactly to those moments that matter. You could even organize the data sets according to respondents and their demographics. This way, you don’t have to sort through dozens, if not hundreds, of transcripts just to find a specific data set.
Market research transcription is a crucial first step that determines the success of your research and its effectiveness. Transcription services provide precise data sets in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner - all in one well-organized database.
Transcription services also increase the chances of extracting key insights that translate into valuable ROI for your organization and, ultimately, increased profits.
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