The 5 Best Meeting Transcription Software Tools for Teams and Leaders

The two main reasons why org leaders who care about operational efficiency turn to transcription services is speed and efficiency.

It used to be that human transcription was the only option for accurate meeting transcripts. But, human transcription services are costly, and the transcription process takes a lot of time. Meeting transcription software, on the other hand, enables everyone that uses it to focus on having great conversations while the tool takes meeting minutes and notes automatically.

That being said, not all meeting transcription software is made equally. Different kinds offer different functionality based on what the tool is to be used for, such as on an individual basis versus needing more robust org-wide support. There are, however, many benefits to taking advantage of automated transcription, and in this article, we’ll explore the best transcription services so you can make an informed decision about which one is right for you and your team. 

We’ll discuss:

• The best meeting transcription software options for leaders and their teams
• The benefits of using a meeting transcription app in your organization
• Frequently asked questions about meeting transcription software
• Final thoughts

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The best meeting transcription software for leaders and their teams

1. Fellow

Fellow is the best transcription software and an all-in-one AI meeting assistant for remote and hybrid teams. Fellow can auto-join your meetings in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet to provide AI-powered transcription services as well as meeting notes, summaries, and video recordings.

Fellow has the ability to transcribe meetings in more than 90 different languages. Once they’re generated, Fellow makes it easy to search your transcripts for key decisions, specific phrases, or anything you’re trying to find that was mentioned in the call. To make your meetings easier to consume, Fellow takes your transcript and automatically assigns chapters to different conversation points.

Connecting with all your favorite conferencing tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, Fellow's AI features also have the ability to automatically generate key decisions and action items from your calls. You can then seamlessly integrate them with your favorite productivity tools like Asana, Linear, Jira, and more, so nothing falls through the cracks. 

To ensure every meeting is secure, Fellow is proudly certified for Service Organization Controls (SOC2), which means that your data and information are continuously being protected.

Fellow has a free version, then paid plans start at $7 per user per month.

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‍G2 Rating: 4.7/5

2. Gong.io

Gong is a meeting transcription tool that is designed for individuals working in sales. They like to call themselves a “Revenue intelligence platform.”

It uses AI to find patterns across different kinds of sales interactions, like emails, phone calls, video calls, and messages alike. The purpose of Gong is to help win more deals for sales teams by finding data driven analytics on what’s working and what’s not.

G2 Rating: 4.7/5

3. Chorus.ai

Not unlike Gong, Chorus focuses on serving as a conversation intelligence platform for sales, looking out for trends such as popular conversation topics and requests for new features in your meeting recording instances.

Because they rely on data in order to find trends and make suggestions, it’s ideal for teams that make many calls and send many emails.

G2 Rating: 4.5/5

4. Otter.ai

Otter is a meeting transcription tool for solo users looking for enhanced accessibility. You can upload audio and video files for AI transcription, as well as have Otter attending meetings.

A great option for generating sales insights and marketing tasks, Otter also has functionality for recruiters looking to hire their ideal candidate. It's worth noting that some users have said that background noise can make this tool's transcription accuracy less effective, although this can also be true of other transcription services.

G2 Rating: 4.2/5

5. Fireflies.ai

Not unlike Otter, Fireflies.ai’s top use cases are for sales persons, marketers, and recruiters alike. It’s even ideal for podcast hosts looking to create closed captions for their media content because it can automatically transcribe audio files.

G2 Rating: 4.8/5

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The benefits of using a meeting transcription app in your organization

Now that you have the top options for meeting transcription software, let’s explore the benefits of transcribing your meeting calls.

Having meeting outcomes that are clear and concise 

When you don’t transcribe your meeting audio or video, it’s easy to leave the meeting unsure about what the next steps and takeaways are. This is especially true if you or your team spends the day hopping from one meeting to another without time to reflect on the meeting you just finished. Transcribing your meeting calls will ensure you can meeting hop with peace of mind, knowing every meeting has a recording and searchable transcript to go with it.

Automating the task of assigning action items

Not unlike how important key takeaways are, action items being assigned at the end of every meeting is best practice. However, it is a time-consuming best practice, often assigned to one individual if not automated by a meeting transcription software. Advanced tools like Fellow have the ability to automatically create and assign action items to relevant attendees, so users can skip that action items block of the meeting, and leave feeling reassured that their action items will be automatically generated at the end of every meeting.

Enabling participants to skip meetings and catch up later

There is nothing greater than the ability to stay in the loop on valuable insights from meetings without actually having to attend it, and leveraging a meeting transcription software gives leaders and their teams that superpower. Because every meeting has an associated summary, transcript, and video or audio recording, attendees that only need to consume the information afterwards have the ability to get time back in their calendars and review what was discussed at a more opportune time for them. 

Staying fully engaged in the conversation 

Before the advent of meeting transcription, meeting participants would have to either manually or digitally write down their meeting notes while having conversations in order to remember what was discussed. This led to distracted discussions and a lack of connectivity between participants scrambling to jot down things for future reference. Using a meeting transcription software allows users to just talk, without having to break eye contact or focus on anything else other than the other participants. 

Onboarding future employees with ease 

The task of bringing someone new on to the team can be a challenging one, and one of the most difficult things to accomplish is sharing context. Having previous meeting recordings and transcripts to review is ideal in setting up your onboarding process for success, because anyone new to the team has the ability to gain context by being shown instead of having it explained.

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Frequently asked questions about meeting transcription

With all the possibilities that come with leveraging meeting transcription software in your organization, here are some frequently asked questions about meeting transcription software:

Can I use speech to text for meetings?

Speech to text is a great resource when trying to turn spoken word into written text, especially if you’re dictating thoughts or notes as a single person. However, it’s not ideal to use speech to text for meetings with multiple individuals. Even one on one meetings are not conducive to using speech to text, as many speech to text tools have trouble discerning between multiple speakers. 

Can you explain how to record and transcribe meeting minutes free?

Many popular meeting transcription software options offer a free trial of their services so you can see which tool is right for your organization. Some tools offer free plans with limited storage or a set number of minutes of transcription. Deciding which plan is for you will all depend on how many meetings you and your organization are in every week.

Can you use Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant or Cortana to transcribe meetings?

Unfortunately, these tools are designed to transcribe short bursts of speech, approximately less than a minute at a time. When dictating using Siri, you can easily watch the words on the page, stop and start when convenient, and fix mistakes as they happen. Similar to the pitfalls with speech to text, virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have trouble when it comes to multiple speakers and audio quality issues. 

Will transcribing my meetings solve my meeting problem?

While transcription services are powerful solution for keeping track of discussions and decisions, ultimately a transcribed bad meeting is still a bad meeting. There are however steps you can take to make them successful.

Shaping healthy meeting habits starts at the root of the source. This means ensuring that every event has a clear and collaborative agenda that participants can review and fill out before the meeting starts. When everyone comes to the meeting knowing what's going to be discussed and has an agenda to follow, your meetings will inevitably be shorter and more concise, and thus your meeting transcripts will be easier to consume.

What's more, there's no point in transcribing meetings if the calls themselves are inefficient. This can happen if the meetings are booked without a purpose, enough advance notice, or contain too many attendees. Meeting productivity software like Fellow connects to your calendar in order to prevent these meeting mishaps from happening altogether with its Meeting Guidelines feature set. It prompts attendees to add a purpose when creating an event, give enough notice to attendees so they can come to the meeting prepared, and keep the calls lean and efficient by keeping the mandatory attendee number to a maximum of 7.

“Every attendee over seven reduces the likelihood of making a good, quick, executable decision by 10%. Once you hit 16 or 17, your decision effectiveness is close to zero.” — Harvard Business Review‍

SUMMARY: Transcribing your meetings only does half the job. Solve your meeting problem by promoting great meeting habits at scale with a solution like Fellow.‍

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Final thoughts

Transcribing meetings for you and your team will give everyone a huge leg up when it comes to making your meetings more efficient and productive. Meeting transcription software can help your team have meeting outcomes that are clear and concise, automate the task of assigning action items, enable participants to skip meetings they can consume asynchronously, onboard future employees with ease, and stay fully engaged in the conversation. 

Even the best transcription app is only effective if the meeting is effective, so make sure your meetings are being properly supported with the right software. Fellow helps ensure every meeting is crafted with cost and efficiency in mind, so you can get the most out of every meeting transcript.