What the best captioning companies all have in common

Captioning companies solve particular and distinct problems, so the market for them is relatively small. But like most things in life, there is a range of professionalism, competence, and quality, even within this small industry.

Good captioning companies get the job done, but great captioning companies go above and beyond. To spot one of the great ones, you need to look at the following three things…

Speed and accuracy

The single most important thing a captioning company should do right is accuracy. The second most important thing is speed.

Accuracy is essential when it comes to issues such as legal depositions, court exchanges, or official meetings. Even getting a small thing wrong can wreak havoc down the line, so accuracy is paramount for such occasions. Dates, times, monetary amounts… one wrong keystroke can void a contract or cost a company millions.

Speed is important when proceedings are moving at a fast pace. Heated exchanges in the courtroom, for example, need to be transcribed as fast as people are talking, otherwise what is being said might be lost forever.

Speed is also critical when speech-to-text reporters are translating for deaf/hard of hearing people.

The entire point of live captioning is to keep people informed and up-to-date with what’s happening, not lagging behind seconds, or even minutes, later.

Experience and reputation

As with anything in life, the companies you can rely on more, tend to be the ones with the most experience.

When it comes to captioning companies, do your research first before hiring. Many smaller, newer companies might have impressive websites, yet a little bit of digging shows they are simply one-man shows, recently started in the industry.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that – everyone’s got to start somewhere – but if you’re a professional business looking for the best captioning company to support your work, then you’ll need someone with plenty of experience and a good reputation.

Always check a company’s testimonials, reviews, and previous work before signing up.

The human touch

Captioning for deaf and hard of hearing people is a very intimate and trusted job.

The best captioning companies will have staff who are familiar with the disability and have a high understanding of deaf awareness.

An insight and appreciation of the deaf community will go a long way in the day-to-day practices of a company, bringing extra value and commitment to their clients.

And of course, it goes without saying that the best captioning companies never use automatic speech recognition software, which is not only impersonal, but rife with inaccuracies.

121 Captions tick all the boxes

As the leading caption company in the UK, we set the standard for our profession, contributing above and beyond what other captioning companies offer.

Our experts are hand-picked from around the world, typing at an incredible 300 words per minute, with a 100% accuracy target.

121’s reputation is second to none, with a long list of famous and respected clients, including the Foreign Office, Al Jazeera, Sky News, the BBC, The Associated Press, and many more.

Our reputation, experience, and professionalism is so profound that we offer a no-quibble 100% money-back guarantee. If you’re not happy with our captioning services, we’ll give you your money back.