Key Factors for an Effective Interview

A conversation between two or more people – the interviewer(s) and the interviewee(s) – where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee is called an interview. A good interview is a focused, direct conversation between two or more professionals. Interviews are the best way of understanding a complicated situation and viewing it from someone else’s perspective. From a transcriber’s point of view, an ideal interview should take place in a quiet surrounding without any disturbance. This helps in producing a better quality transcript.

The first and foremost requirement while transcribing an interview would be the introduction of the participants of the interview for speaker identification. This information is not only limited to speaker identification, but also helps in getting additional information on the participants, which in turn helps to produce a good quality transcript.

A good interviewer should always be prepared with questions, facts, and sources of information in a professional manner. Speaking clearly, slowly and repeating keywords also helps a great deal. The pace of an interview should be controlled in accordance with the time allotted.

There are instances where there may be multiple interviewers. In this case, coordination with fellow interviewers is the key. Interviewers should divide the questions to be asked between themselves. If there is no coordination between the interviewers, it would result in a lot of interruptions. Such overlap of communication should be avoided.

On the interviewee front, interviewees should try to be concise while answering the questions posed to them. Digression should be avoided. Avoid interrupting the interviewer and let the interviewer finish questioning before beginning to answer. An interviewee should always keep in mind what information the interviewer is seeking and then give crisp and clear answers. There also can be instances where there are multiple interviewees. Again, it is important to have coordination with fellow interviewees. Interruptions should be avoided and there should be clear segregation of people answering particular types of questions and so on.

However, there are instances when an interview falls below its potential because of some reasons such as the participants are not fully prepared, the interviewer has not organized the questions, or there is no fixed format followed. When an interviewer speaks in an unclear or a hurried manner, the interviewee sometimes fails to comprehend the questions and can repeatedly request the interviewer to repeat the questions. This results in deterioration of the transcript quality. The same rule applies for the interviewee as well as they too have to be prepared for the interview with all research, facts, and sources.

In order to conduct a good interview, distractions should be avoided such as cell phones, BlackBerries, meeting room intrusions, etcetera. In case of a phone interview, it is feasible to utilize a landline. Interviews on cell phones should be avoided. Focus should be maintained on what is required of the interview by all the participants. Try using an ergonomic keyboard, which is quieter than a normal keyboard, so that the sound of typing doesn’t intrude on the interview.

Following all these general and basic practices will be useful in ensuring an effective interview and subsequently in producing the best quality transcripts.

Cripton's Transcribers: Their Background and Experience

Cripton, a division of Cactus Communications Pvt. Ltd., provides English transcription services to academic and corporate clients. Cripton boasts of a team of highly experienced, qualified in-house transcribers and editors with an average work experience that ranges from 5 to 10 years. The main aim of Cripton is to strive to work closely with the client to understand all the aspects of client needs and provide the best possible transcription services that suit and satisfy the clients’ requirements.

The process of transcription, or the conversion of voice-recorded reports into text format, is carried out by a transcriptionist. The key skills and abilities that go into making a transcriptionist are: Sound knowledge of diverse terminology; usage of correct punctuation, grammar and spelling; appropriate internet search skills; and excellent typing skills.

Cripton has individuals with varied educational backgrounds working as transcriptionists delivering on client documents according to their field of specialization.


There are individuals who are graduates in Science – majoring in either Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, or Electronics/Engineering – and provide their vast expertise in catering to the transcription needs of clients on subjects related to scientific fields like natural sciences/phenomena, biological life, metaphysics, mathematics, and social sciences; and medical fields like cardiology, chiropractics, gastroenterology, internal medicine, neurology, orthopedics, pediatrics, podiatry, psychiatry, radiology, and a host of other fields.

There are individuals who hold a Bachelors degree in Commerce – majoring in accountancy, business administration, e-commerce, economics, finance, and marketing – and provide their vast expertise in catering to transcription needs of clients on subjects dealing with finance, fiscal and industrial policies, market fluctuations, and trade. The transcripts could be related to board meetings, conferences, interviews, lectures, speeches, roundtable discussions, symposiums, seminars, or teleconferences.

There are individuals who have graduated in Arts or Humanities – majoring in advertising, business management, journalism, mass communication, media studies, performing arts, travel and tourism, and more – and provide their vast expertise in catering to clients on subjects like English being taught as a foreign language or accommodating to a client demanding a transcript in a specific format, example: with timestamps.


In a nutshell, Cripton’s transcriptionists are capable of handling transcripts from as varied and diverse fields like business, law, market research, medical, and any individual with a transcription need, the guiding principle being to understand the client's needs and providing prompt and flexible services, maintaining confidentiality, and regular communication with the client. Thus, one of the main pillars of the success of Cripton and its transcriptionists has been in striving to provide accurate transcriptions on time, every time.

Cripton also provides equal growth of opportunities and thus a transcriptionist can graduate to become an Editor, who edits transcripts and checks for quality, and also grow further to the level of a Quality Lead or a Process Manager.

Why does inserting timestamps necessitate a premium charge?

In today’s article, we will focus on inserting timestamps in transcripts.

· Entering timestamps is largely a manual task performed by transcribers who listen to and transcribe the audio files. This transcript is subsequently reviewed by editors who also need to ensure that the final product is of good quality with careful compliance of instructions.

o Being a manual task, it consumes the transcribers’ time and efforts depending upon the frequency of the required timestamps.

· Inserting timestamps at regular intervals takes the transcribers’ attention away from their basic transcription requirements.

o In order to ensure quality output with timestamps and compliance of instructions, the transcribers spend an unusual amount of time transcribing audio files with such instructions. This ultimately results in loss of productivity for the transcribers.

· The following are some of the examples of the frequency of timestamps, i.e. when to enter a timestamp:

o Every 5 minutes, every 2 minutes, every 1 minute, every sentence (suitable for subtitling), every time there is a change of speaker, etcetera. These are just a snapshot of some requests we have received so far.

· The most time-consuming and exhaustive of the above methods is when one needs to insert timestamps in every sentence. Again, if both the start and end time are required, one cannot expect a transcriber to transcribe more than 20 minutes in a particular day (ideally a transcriber can transcribe more than 50 minutes in an 8-hour shift). This indicates that transcribers need to insert a timestamp at the beginning and the conclusion of a sentence, then again at the beginning and end of sentence2, and so on. This process is repeated until the end of the audio file.

o For example:

§ 0:00:05 – 0:00:20

§ Sentence1

§ 0:00:21 – 0:00:39

§ Sentence2

· Consequently, the lesser the frequency, the more time and efforts required.

· Again, inserting timestamps for every speaker change can be complicated.This is because several times, speakers (mostly discussion participants and in some cases interviewers/interviewees) interrupt each other and thus cut off the flow of the conversation as they tend to speak at the same time. In this case, the process becomes even more difficult.

· These days, there are some software products available which claim to help insert timestamps in a transcript. After exploring those products, we have realized that inserting a timestamp is still a combination of two commands. This means that every time a transcriber wants to enter a timestamp, they need to provide two keystrokes. This instance illustrates that manual efforts have to be taken to maintain the quality of the transcript.

· All in all, inserting timestamps at regular intervals, for example, at a frequency of less than 5 minutes, requires meticulous and intensive efforts on the part of the transcribers.