Digital Dictation and Transcription Equipment

Going digital with your dictation is a smart move.  Transferring to digital with your dictation from the old style of using cassette tapes makes life much easier for your secretary and for yourself.  Whilst there is an initial outlay the long term benefits make this a wise investment.  Some of the key advantages are:

• Quality is superior and it saves times
• Dictate away from your desk
• Eliminates the need for individual tapes
• Can be voice activated thereby avoiding those long silences
• Faster and easier to transfer work to your secretary and add additional voice instructions
• The transcriptionist is able to manage different recordings much more easily
• Sound quality can be enhanced when transcribing
• You can record for much longer time spans
• You can work hands free
• Edit your voice file to add in further comments for those moments when you forgot to say something
• Much easier and quicker to send files to your secretary via the web

But which equipment to choose for your dictation?   Here is a little list:

• Personal handhold devices which you use with a USB to interact with your PC
• Dictate directly into your computer
• Pocket handheld PC or Smartphone
• Dictate into a telephone
• Dictate via the internet from anywhere in the world
• Desk microphone, good for conference meetings

Perhaps you are a writer that wants to record your thoughts whilst on location, a scientist recording notes at a conference or a surveyor wanting a record of your site visit, going digitial with your dictation enables you to have that option.  Making the transfer will enhance your workflow and of course you are able to transfer files easily to a firm like ourselves to be transcribed! 

If you need help on this subject or would like to talk to us about outsourcing your transcription work please contact us.

Getting Your Finances In Order

Whether you are a business or a private individual it has never been more important to ensure your finances are in order.  Save the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves is one of the truest mottos there is.

We help clients issue invoices, chase payments and reconcile them.  We came across a recent web tool which perhaps is beneficial for individuals if you need that “kickstart” to improving your finances.  It is called PocketSmith and the link is at the end of this post.

It works like a web calendar and perhaps helps make the task of addressing your figures and finances a little more interesting.   You put in your scheduled payments, alter for special events, upload your accounts and it provides a forecast of how financially healthy you are looking.  It shows you the impact interest rates might have and it comes with interactive graphs to bring your figures to life. 

One of the things I like is how it demonstrates a year’s worth of coffee (or any other little luxury!) impacts on your figures.   Perhaps good for the diet as well!

The link to view the product is http://www.pocketsmith.com/

National Customer Service Week

National Customer Service Week is on 5th – 11th October.  It is a chance to celebrate good service within your business and useful for engaging with customers new and old about how you rate as a business and how you could improve.   It is also an opportunity to involve employees in a practical way.

There are some good ideas on the Institute of Customer Service Website – http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.com/Default.aspx  You can also register your business, receive a certificate to display and start the ball rolling with ideas and actions to make the most of the week.  Business at the moment is very competitive but doing something positive like this can give you that edge and certain je ne sais quois?  (And apart from zut alors that is about all the French I know!)