How I Built A Transcription Service Used By 95K Customers
Hi, my name is Ofer Tirosh and I’m the CEO and Founder of Tomedes. Working in the language industry, I became aware of the high demand for transcription services in the legal sector.
The need for accurate legal transcriptions cannot be overestimated. First of all, the transcription format is ideal for lawyers since it identifies the speakers clearly. In going through what happened, a transcription is always a better option than an audio recording. It also allows users to go back and study what had transpired during a deposition or a trial allowing them to highlight important parts which they can use for their legal strategy. A transcription is also the best format for students as they try to learn the law.
Sometimes, these needs are not adequately met by the transcription industry. The accuracy is off or maybe the time it takes to produce the transcription is too much. We saw an opportunity to provide accurate and on-time transcription services to legal industry players.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I founded Tomedes, an international translation company that provides language solutions to everyone from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Our experience in working within the language industry through Tomedes has exposed us to the demand for a similar platform for legal transcription. We saw the need for an accurate and reliable legal transcription platform and that’s how we came up with the idea for LexTranscribe.
We worked on meeting the demand for a hub where people in need of legal transcription services can connect with those who can do the actual work. It was important for us to meet the needs of our clients by tailoring our services to what they needed. There was no single lightbulb moment for that but it was a gradual realization that such a platform was needed.
Because of our experience in building a platform for translation services, we felt that we can also do the same for legal transcription services. Our first move was to reach out to various stakeholders and those who usually get legal transcription services to test if our idea is valid and we confirmed that there is a market for our idea.
Try to listen without bias. It’s not easy to do that but when you manage to listen with an open mind in every conversation, you are sure to take away useful learning from it.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
First of all, we conducted research to test and validate our idea. We needed to find out the scale of the need for a platform for legal transcription services. We did that by reaching out to those who regularly require legal transcription services and discussing their needs and their priorities.
Once we confirmed that there was a need for a well-designed legal transcription services platform, we proceeded with creating a brand. We thought this through from various angles. One particularly important thing was that the brand messaging and the platform itself were easy to understand. Many of our users will speak English as a second or even third language, so we wanted to ensure that the language we used and the processes we designed for carrying out legal transcription work were clear and straightforward.
We also spent some time thinking about the visual elements of the platform, including picking the brand colors and the typography to be used. After we chose those, we proceeded with the actual development of the site.
This is where our experience in building and running a platform like Tomedes came in handy. We used the same process that we followed for Tomedes to build LexTranscribe, with changes to adjust it for the needs of legal transcription (rather than translation, which was the focus of the Tomedes site).
Having gone through this once already with Tomedes made for a smoother process in developing the LexTranscribe platform. We already had access to the right skills in terms of developers and engineers. Plus we knew the pitfalls and time drains to watch out for along the way.
Describe the process of launching the business.
Even while we were building the platform, we were already working frantically in preparation for its launch. We developed an extensive online marketing campaign that used SEO and social media, and press releases for promotion.
Because we had such a big launch campaign planned, we needed to be able to provide fast, professional legal transcription services from the moment we publicly revealed the platform. As such, we worked hard to ensure we had a team of top-notch legal transcriptionists in place, ready to work for a range of business clients, including both domestic clients and those from various locations around the world. By making the platform so easy to access, we weren’t limited in terms of those we could support with our services.
It was exciting to launch LexTranscribe with so much fanfare. When I first launched Tomedes 15 years ago, it was all done very quietly, with no big campaign. This time, it felt good to have such a comprehensive launch strategy in place.
LexTranscribe is part of Tomedes’ reorientation of the company’s expansion strategy in line with the celebration of its 15th anniversary this year. The lextranscribe.com domain is just one of several major digital assets that Tomedes has developed. The other assets will soon be launched and revealed as well.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
We leveraged the relationships that we have with our existing Tomedes clients to direct them to LexTranscribe. We made them aware that we have built this entirely new platform for legal transcription, built along the same lines as the Tomedes that they know and rely on for their translation needs.
We are banking on the fact that the positive experience that they have had with Tomedes will be enough for them to try out LexTranscribe. In short, we are following the same customer-first approach that has been attracting clients to Tomedes for the past 15 years.
Our online campaign to attract new customers has also continued, following on from our launch campaign.
Of course, attracting customers is all well and good, but you need to deliver a high-quality, reliable service if you wish to retain them. So that’s precisely what we’ve done. Those customers who have used LexTranscribe have experienced not only first-rate legal transcription but also timely delivery, friendly, helpful customer support, and decent pricing. Our retention strategy focuses on these three elements: fast service, high quality, and affordability.
So far, the strategy is working well. We’ve received positive feedback from our initial customers. We’re also maintaining a positive dialogue with our talented pool of legal transcriptionists, to ensure that they too are happy with the way the business is evolving. After all, they are a core part of LexTrascribe’s success, so it’s important to ensure that we attract and retain professional, skilled transcribers, as well as those who require their services.
It has been pleasing to see the number of repeat customers using LexTranscribe start to build up. There are other transcription services out there, so the fact that customers have tried us and decided to come back for more is certainly encouraging. It shows that the model is working.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Although we have just launched it, we are very optimistic about the future of LexTranscribe.
We recognize that we might not see a lot of customers yet because the awareness of our brand and platform is not that strong. All of that is part of our plan. We are confident that we will see profits come in for the next few years.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Yes, I learned that a model which worked for one business can still work for another one, provided there are some adjustments and customizations. The model we used for Tomedes was modified for legal transcription and I think it’s working fine.
I also learned that working on several projects at once can be a very taxing endeavor.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We’ve fallen in love with Zoho and it’s basically what’s powering LexTranscribe behind the scenes. It is what we use to communicate and work together internally. It has everything from email to chat.
We are also using other tools and platforms but the bulk of our work is done through Zoho.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky. It’s a useful guide on how to run a startup until it becomes a thriving, long-term business. There are a lot of books that focus on starting a business but this one focuses on the next steps. There are some insights there that I used for both Tomedes and LexTranscribe.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Do not underestimate the power of reading. Books can reveal some learnings that otherwise you would have to learn the hard way. But why do you have to go through a negative experience before you learn a lesson? With books, you don’t need that.
Try to listen without bias. It’s not easy to do that but when you manage to listen with an open mind in every conversation, you are sure to take away useful learning from it.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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