Statistics show that on average two out of three people who stop doing business with a company do so because of bad customer service (Source: abc News Online) Many times these people won’t actually give feedback to the company. Instead they never return to that particular business again and spread word to friends and family about the service they experienced. This is why the need for mystery shoppers is strong because it’s a way for companies to receive an honest review of how business is being conducted, without the staff knowing what’s occurring.

Mystery shoppers play a big role in the improvement of customer service and businesses heavily rely on them for feedback and constant improvement. As a mystery shopper you will be given a variety of assignments which involve anything from eating out at your favorite restaurant to watching the latest movie. You can also take pride in knowing you’re helping to improve customer service standards. Mystery  shopping is easy, fun and flexible.

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Here are a few:

- Must like to shop. If the thought of going to the mall doesn’t appeal to you, this probably isn’t the right job for you. Mystery shoppers need to be willing to shop and visit new stores and locations.

- Keen eye for detail. When you start a new assignment you’ll know before hand the things to look out for, in other words what the company is paying you to find out, you must remember to notice and observe all of these things during your “shop”.

- Must be accurate and timely in completing your shop and any related paperwork (survey/feedback forms, etc.). You’ll have to show good organization skills and complete your assignments in a timely manner. After finishing a job you’ll have to accurately fill in all the appropriate paperwork and follow the company’s instructions as to how and when to submit the paper work to them.

- Ability to be objective and honest (you cannot give your personal opinions about a company; you must only report the things that occurred while you were on assignment). You should always be honest and give only accurate feedback to the company you’re working for.

- You need to be reliable (many shopping companies will let shoppers go after one incomplete shop or cancellation). These companies rely on you to perform your assignments in a timely manner.

- Strong communication skills. In most cases you’ll be role playing and strong communication skills are very important. For example, you may be asked to go into a sporting goods store and ask about the different types of a specific piece of exercise equipment and several other questions. You may notice that the sales person seems impatient or abrupt; this shouldn’t stop you from completing your job. You’ll need to display the ability to communicate and not shy away from certain situations in order to do your job well.

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As with many other service-oriented businesses, many of your clients may come from recommendations from past clients. By providing a high quality service and meeting the needs of your clients, you’ll greatly improve your chances for success in this type of business.

Here are just a few people may need your transcription services:

College Students – Students will often record lectures on hand-held recorders. Many times they like to have these lectures and recordings transcribed.

Social Work Agencies – Government agencies often times record their meetings and need these transcribed. Some agencies have”on the record” interviews with legal witnesses or parents who are being investigated by the courts and will often need these recordings transcribed so the transcripts can later be used during legal proceedings.

Realtors – Realtors may record a variety of letters which then need to be transcribed.

Insurance Companies – Insurance companies need an accurate record of all claims made. The loss adjustors will often record notes about the claims and you will need to go through a standard template and transcribe these notes for the client’s records.

Charities and similar organizations – Many charities make an audio recording of their meetings and then like to have these transcribed for their official records.

Book Publishers – Although book publishers often have personal letters and meetings they like transcribed, they also often have work to be edited. Good transcriptionists are also good at editing as it goes hand in hand with the job. Book publishers need people with a keen eye for detail to help edit transcripts.

Life coaches, business consultants, online marketers and speakers are just a few more busy professionals who also need transcription services. Many of these people like to maximize their content and will have their speaking events or client coaching sessions transcribed. With online marketers, there are tele-seminars, coaching events, and audio products which can all be transcribed too.

As you can see, there is a lot of general transcription work available; the key is to know how to find it and how to approach potential clients.

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Helpful Skills to be a Transcriptionist:

• Ability to apply common sense. Often times you won’t understand what the dictation is saying and you’ll need to try to put the phrase into context to figure out what the speaker means.
• A keen eye for detail. This will help in proofreading and editing to ensure you turn in the highest quality work.
• Strong work ethics. You’ll have to meet deadlines and be extremely reliable.
• Good organizational skills. If you have a lot of clients it’s important to stay organized.
• Good communication skills. For marketing your business and dealing with clients.
• Professionalism and discreetness (often times you’ll be transcribing very sensitive documents which require full confidentiality).
• Basic computer skills and the ability to get around a word processing program
• A good grasp of the English language, good spelling and grammarskills

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Aside from the basic business equipment you will need some specialized equipment. Depending on what type of audio you will be transcribing you will either need equipment that supports micro/macro cassette tapes or software that allows you to transcribe MP3 digital audio files.

It can be a little on the pricey side to purchase equipment that supports micro/macro cassettes. The price range varies greatly and depends on what type of equipment you purchase. If you are in the market for this type of equipment you might want to check eBay. You can purchase one on eBay cheaper than going to an office supply store and buying one there. Again, it will decide on what type of files you plan on transcribing if you need this equipment or not. It’s entirely up to you.

A lot of general transcriptionists will transcribe MP3 audio files. In order to do this you will need software that supports a MP3 file. One example is Express Scribe (http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/). Express Scribe is a free download that is available for your computer. This software uses what are known as ‘hot keys’ (your keyboards F keys) to rewind, fast forward, stop or play the audio. Some people are fine using just these keys but other people find transcribing easier to do with the use of a footpedal.

You can use a footpedal with the Express Scribe software you just have to make sure it’s one that is compatible with the software. The website where you get the Express Scribe software gives you the option of purchasing a footpedal if you choose to do so. It’s a personal preference as to whether you use the footpedal or not.

Once you have your basic business equipment and the software or equipment you will need for your transcribing projects you are ready to roll. You are now ready to market yourself and start picking up clients for your transcribing business.

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Think outside of the box though.

Try some places that you wouldn’t normally think of like local charities or even your local radio station. Places like your government offices are probably in need of general transcriptionists also. Other places to look for possible clients would be any type of business that do conference calls, panel discussions, etc.

A quick overview of places to contact for possible transcription clients will be places like insurance companies, government offices, radio stations, businesses that do market research, places that have panel discussions, etc. And anywhere else you think that a general transcriptionist may be needed.

Another option you have as a general transcriptionist is to market yourself via the internet. Now that so many small business owners or work at home moms know the value of content, many of them are hiring transcriptionists to transcribe podcast interviews, teleconferences, etc. Having these items transcribed into text format provides a way to add new content to their website.

Either way you decide to market your business, offline or online, you will want to have a website. A website shouldn’t be an option, it should be a necessity. You will want a site so that people can find you and seek out your services. You will want to make sure that you have contact information easily available on your site along with services provided and your prices.

Another great and easy idea to put into use, to market your general transcription business is utilizing the email signature. Most email accounts give you the option of creating a signature that will be attached to all your outgoing messages. You should take advantage of this setting and create your signature using your business name, your business website URL, your phone number, etc.

Other ways to market yourself are by joining forums/message boards. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to just spam the boards meaning don’t just post about your business if they offer a free advertising day. You should be there to build relationships and then talking about your business will come naturally as you develop relationships. Most message boards allow you to have your business name & ULR in your signature.

There are lots of options available for marketing your general transcription business. The route you take will depend greatly on what your niche market is and whether you plan to work solely with offline/local clients or with online clients. No one can tell you what will work best for you; it’s entirely up to you and what you prefer to do.

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As a general transcriptionist, you don’t have to be specialized and it doesn’t require any sort of training. You do need to be a fairly decent typist (about 65 or more words per minute), be able to edit your work for spelling and grammar errors and that’s about it.

A general transcriptionist that works from home will more than likely provide their services to those that are looking to have things like teleconferences, podcasts or interviews transcribed.

As a transcriptionist you can make a decent income if you want to. It’s all about putting time and effort into marketing yourself and persevering to build up that business. You won’t become rich overnight, but eventually you can make a nice income.

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The most logical step would be to start marketing yourself locally to the doctor offices in your area. Put a ‘feeler’ out there. In other words type up a letter explaining your services (and make sure you have contact information on there also) and send it out. Don’t think that just because you’ve sent out a letter telling about your new medical transcription services that the business is going to start rolling in. It’s not that easy. Your next step, now that you’ve sent a ‘feeler’ out will be to follow up.

When following up you’ll probably want to wait a couple days to give companies time to get your letter. Don’t wait to long but don’t call too quickly either. After a couple days (from when you sent your letter out) go ahead and make some phone calls to the offices. You’ll find that making some follow up phone calls probably gets you a lot farther than having just sent a letter out and not making any phone calls as a follow up.

Now that you’ve placed some phone calls you probably have found that you’ve landed a couple clients. Make sure to take your time, follow the rules and provide outstanding work. If you are unsure of something regarding the way the medical report is to be formatted, etc then make sure you ask for clarification. Once you’ve done a couple jobs for a client you might even find that your business is now growing because of word of mouth. A happy client will more than likely give your name to someone else.

One last thought you should consider – a website. Don’t think that just because you have marketed yourself locally and picked up some local clients that you don’t need a website. Every business should have a website, including you as a medical transcriptionist. Now-a-days it is fairly easy to set one up yourself but if you don’t feel that you have enough knowledge to do it yourself, you can always have one made for you. It’s an important aspect of your business that will benefit you in the long run. d of.

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Any job pertaining to the medical field will more thank likely always have a need for more professionals, as is the case with medical transcriptionists. As more and more people age they tend to be seen by Doctor’s on a fairly regular basis. As more babies are born, doctors take on more patients. What does all this have to do with medical transcription you ask, pretty much everything.

Every time a patient is seen by a doctor there file has to be noted and most insurance companies no longer accept a Doctor’s hand scribbled couple lines of notes. If they want to be reimbursed by the companies, they have to provide an accurate (non hand written) account of the patients visit.

A doctor will dictate all notes in one of a couple different ways. They will either use a digital recorder or a handheld cassette recorder. Some doctors will even use the phone lines to create a voice file. This is where the need for medical transcriptionists comes into play.

As a medical transcriptionist you will take a doctor’s dictated notes and transcribe them into a report. There will be certain terminology and guideline rules that you will need to follow and if you are ever uncertain make sure to double check with your client for clarification. Your job isn’t just typing a report, it’s typing a patient’s records which is very important and imperative that you do it accurately and follow all rules and regulations.

According to the quote shared at the beginning of this article, you should be able to understand that medical transcription is a good business to get into and yes there is always a need for more of them.

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As a medical transcriptionist your work will be interesting and vary every day. You’ll build relationships with doctors and other medical staff. You’ll have a career that’s rewarding and exciting. There are also many different choices for work. You can choose to work from home for a national online company or for a local company. You can choose to work at a local hospital or doctor’s office. Or you can choose to start your own home based medical transcription business. Your clients can be local or you can choose to have national clients or both.

The possibilities for medical transcription job choices are endless. Medical transcription is a business where you really do have full control of your earnings and growth. And there is no shortage of medical transcription jobs in sight, so you can be sure this will be a long-term profitable career.

With so many great opportunities for medical transcriptionist it’s no wonder the US Department of Labor predicts “employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014.”

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