What Is On-Demand Transcription, and When Is It Better Than Automatic Transcription?

What is on-demand transcription

There are two ways to turn a recorded call into text. In the first, automatic transcription, you turn the service on for a line, and every call that passes the threshold is transcribed on its own. In the second, on-demand transcription, you decide on each call separately.

With on-demand transcription, nothing happens by itself. Calls are recorded as usual, and the recordings are kept. When you need a specific call in writing, you pick it and click to transcribe. Only that call is transcribed, and only that call is paid for.

What transcription is in general, how the engine works and what accuracy depends on, we explained in the article on call transcription. Here we look at a practical question: when it is better to pick calls one by one, instead of transcribing all of them.

How it works, step by step

1. The call is recorded — like any call on a line that has recording set up.
2. You pick a call — out of the recorded calls, you choose the one you need.
3. You click to transcribe — the recording of that call goes to transcription.
4. You pay only for that call — based on its length, with a minimum charge for a short call. The other calls cost nothing.

There is no monthly subscription here. You can transcribe one call a month, or several calls a day, as needed. In a month when you didn't transcribe a single call, you paid nothing for on-demand transcription.

The main difference from automatic transcription is who decides, and when. With automatic transcription, the decision is made once, for the whole line. With on-demand transcription, the decision is made again for each call. It takes a little more attention, but you decide exactly what is transcribed, and what you pay for.

A minimum charge for a short call

On-demand transcription has a minimum charge for every transcription you pay for with money. A call shorter than the minimum is billed as the minimum. A call longer than that is billed by its length, in seconds.

We won't list the minimum itself here. It appears in the transcription window, before you confirm, so you see it in advance.

And what about a minute package? If you have a package, only the actual length of the call is taken from it, with no minimum. The minimum applies only when you pay for the transcription with money.

Automatic transcription has no minimum charge. There, every call that was transcribed is charged by its length, and the 20-second threshold already leaves out the short calls. Transcribing voicemail messages has no minimum either.

No wasted transcriptions

A "wasted transcription" is one you paid for and nobody read. On a line with many calls, this happens more than you might think. On many lines, a large share of the calls are routine: a customer with a simple question, a supplier confirming a delivery, an employee setting up a meeting. Most of the time, nobody will go back and read them.

With automatic transcription, every such call that passes the threshold is transcribed and charged by its minutes. The threshold filters out the short calls, but a routine three-minute call passes it easily.

With on-demand transcription, this problem doesn't exist. You transcribe only what you really need, so every transcription is one that someone intends to read.

Example: Yossi runs an accountant's office. On a normal day there are dozens of calls, most of them questions about documents and scheduling meetings. About once a week there is a call in which a client explains a complicated situation in detail, and Yossi wants the details in writing. He transcribes only those calls, and pays only for them.

Unwanted calls don't cost money

Every office gets calls nobody wanted: sales pitches, surveys, wrong numbers, calls that were cut off in the middle. Some of them are short, and some are not. A polite agent who talked for half a minute with an insurance salesman created a call that passes the automatic transcription threshold.

With on-demand transcription, calls like these are simply not picked. They stay as recordings, and nobody pays to transcribe them.

This matters most on lines that get many calls from outside, such as a number published in ads or on a website. A number like that usually also gets more unwanted calls, so it makes more sense there to choose what to transcribe.

No monthly service fee

Automatic transcription has a monthly service fee per line. The reason: a server of ours watches the line all the time, downloads each recording when it is ready and sends it to transcription, and that server costs money even when there are no calls. We explained this in more detail in the article on automatic transcription.

On-demand transcription doesn't need that kind of constant watching of the line. You ask, and the call is transcribed. So there is no monthly service fee, and you pay only for the calls you transcribed.

This suits especially those whose need is not steady. For example, a business with busy seasons and quiet seasons, or an office that needs transcription only when there is a disagreement with a customer. In a quiet month, you pay only for the few calls you actually transcribed.

Calls below the threshold too

Automatic transcription has a threshold: it transcribes only calls in which the person who answered talked for at least 20 seconds. The threshold is there to save money on short calls, but sometimes it is exactly a short call that matters.

Example: Avraham gets a 15-second call. The customer says an order number and a delivery address, and hangs up. The call wasn't transcribed automatically, because it is below the threshold. But Avraham wants the details in writing.

This is where on-demand transcription comes in: you can always transcribe by hand even a call below the threshold of automatic transcription, as long as it was recorded. So the threshold doesn't keep anything from you. It only decides what happens on its own, and what happens when you ask.

Just keep in mind: a transcription like this is charged at least the minimum charge of on-demand transcription, even if the call lasted only 15 seconds. And if Avraham has a minute package, only the 15 seconds of the call are taken from it.

So the threshold doesn't hurt anyone. A short call that wasn't transcribed isn't lost. It stays recorded, and you can transcribe it whenever you need.

Automatic or on demand: the comparison

The table sums up the main differences between the two ways:

There is no single right answer for everyone. The main question is how many of the calls on the line you really need to read.

When to use which, and how to combine them

A simple rule of thumb:

• Most calls on the line matter, and you want a record of all of them — automatic transcription. For example a call center, sales or service, where any call with a customer can include a detail you need to remember.
• Only now and then there is a call you need in writing — on-demand transcription.
• You have both — combine them.

A combination looks like this: you turn on automatic transcription on one line, where the important calls go, and leave the other lines for on-demand transcription.

Example: David runs a nonprofit. The donations queue has many calls with donors, and he wants a record of all of them, so he turns on automatic transcription there. On the office extension most calls are routine, and there he transcribes only when needed. This way he pays a service fee for one line only, not for all the lines.

It is worth checking the decision from time to time. A line that started with on-demand transcription and became busy may now need automatic transcription. And a line with automatic transcription where most transcripts are never read may be better suited to on-demand transcription.

Example: from automatic transcription to a combination

Menachem runs an office supplies store. At first he turned on automatic transcription for the store's main number. After a month he noticed that most of the transcripts arriving by email stay unopened: stock questions, suppliers confirming deliveries, sales pitches. What really matters to him are the large orders from institutions, which come to the orders extension.

He kept automatic transcription only on the orders extension. On the main number he switched to on-demand transcription: when there is a call there that he needs in writing, he picks it and transcribes it.

The result: the transcripts that reach him by email are ones he actually reads. He pays a service fee for one line instead of two. And no important call was lost, because all calls are still recorded, and any of them can be transcribed when needed.

One condition you must not forget: recording

On-demand transcription is done after the fact, on a call that already took place. That is possible only if the call was recorded. In a call that wasn't recorded there is nothing to transcribe, not automatically and not by hand.

This leads to an important practical point: even if you plan to transcribe only on demand, call recording must be on for the line in advance. You can't decide after an important call that you want it in writing if it wasn't recorded.

When the line is recorded, the option stays open: the recording is kept for the retention period set for recordings, and if you need it in writing during that time, you can transcribe it. Before you start recording, it is also worth reading about recording privacy.

When it is worth transcribing a call

On-demand transcription is a tool, and it is worth knowing when to use it. A few situations where it helps:

• A disagreement — a customer claims he was promised something. Instead of listening to the whole call, you read it and find the sentence.
• A call with many details — addresses, sizes, quantities and dates. In writing it is easier to copy them without mistakes.
• A summary for another employee — someone who wasn't on the call can read it instead of listening to all of it.
• A long call — it is hard to remember a half-hour call. The transcript keeps what was said in it.

In all these cases, it is worth remembering what we explained in the article on call transcription: when a detail matters, like an amount or a date, check it against the recording too. The transcript helps you find the right place in the call, and the recording is the source.

Mistakes to avoid

On-demand transcription is simple to use, but there are a few mistakes that come up again and again:

• Not recording the line — someone who plans to transcribe only on demand and leaves the line without recording will find out, on the day he needs a certain call, that there is nothing to transcribe.
• Relying on memory on a busy line — on a line where most calls matter, on-demand transcription depends on someone remembering to ask. On a busy day it is easy to forget. If this happens a lot, automatic transcription probably suits that line better.
• Forgetting the short calls — someone who uses automatic transcription and expects every call to arrive by email may look for a short call and not find it. It isn't gone: it is below the threshold, and you can transcribe it by hand.
• Transcribing without knowing why — before you click, it is worth asking: who will read this transcript, and why? If there is no answer, it may be better to leave the call as a recording.

These mistakes are easy to fix. Most of them are solved by one decision, made in advance, for each line: is it recorded, and is its transcription automatic or on demand.