Our Story

We provide professional, confidential, accurate transcriptions to a variety of industries, including market research, medical, and legal professions. We are the leaders in digital transcription services in the UK and are at the forefront of digital transcription technology, delivering transcripts of the highest possible quality and accuracy.

Our team of language speakers have vast experience in accurately translating over 200 languages into English. We can offer translations wherever you are based in the world.

What makes us special?

  • We have a long-standing proven track record for accurate, confidential and timely transcription.
  • We have a dedicated team of professional UK transcribers that only transcribe for McGowan Transcriptions.
  • We are unique in that we do not subcontract any third parties for transcription projects.
  • We offer a global service which accommodates varying time zones.
  • We are members of the MRS and AQR and abide by their code of conduct.

Why choose us?

McGowan Transcriptions offer a secure, world-class transcription service that has been in business for 30 years; choosing McGowan Transcriptions will save you valuable time and hassle and guarantee quality assurance throughout the transcription and translation process.

If you have transcription requirements from English audio to English text or translation services in up to 200 other language combinations, you have come to the right team.

  • All of our professional translation and transcription team are native speakers – this allows us to understand the context, regional dialects, localisations and slang, eliminating misheard and misunderstood words.
  • We have 30 years of experience, 40 UK professional transcribers, 600 hours of weekly transcripts and over 23,300 satisfied customers worldwide!

Working with McGowan Transcriptions means you will not need to deal with two agencies with two timelines; you can work solely with McGowan Transcriptions. We will manage your needs seamlessly, to ensure we deliver the highest quality translations and transcriptions.

Corporate LiveWire Award Winner 2019-20

Meet the Management Team

Joe McGowan – CEO

Joe McGowan – CEO

Joe formed McGowan Transcriptions back in 1993 – modems had not been invented and we worked with cassettes – oh how the world has changed!

Today we are at the forefront of digital technology. Now, in this era of GDPR, and with cybersecurity being of utmost importance, we have bespoke uploading systems and secure environments. However, the real backbone of our success continues to be our fantastic team of professional transcribers.

You will not find the same quality of service anywhere else.

Linda Wathen – Operations Manager

Linda Wathen – Operations Manager

Linda studied Psychology at the University of Warwick. From the outset she knew she didn’t want to be a psychologist as a career, but the subject fascinated her and was really good for transferable skills.

Linda joined Sodexo Benefits & Rewards Services UK in 2015 as a Customer Care Agent, then in 2018 moved internally to a new role as an Operations Coordinator – Sales Admin. Linda had a fantastic four years with Sodexo but 2020 was her year for change and has been part of the McGowan Transcriptions team since February 2020.

Tracey Pulfer

Tracey Pulfer – Operations Coordinator

Tracey has a proven track record of success in the transcription world, which has been her focus for the past eight years and she has worked on some exciting projects during her career.

At McGowan Transcriptions, we believe in fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment, and we are confident that Tracey will fit right in. She is a team player and is always willing to lend a helping hand to colleagues. She has already made a positive impact on our team, and we are confident that she will continue to do so in the future. You will be hearing from Tracey via phone or email as we go through 2023.

David Bartholomew – Client Relationship Manager

David Bartholomew – Client Relationship Manager

David has been with McGowan Transcriptions since 2001 so knows what our clients’ needs are, how to achieve them, and is constantly looking for ways to increase value for each individual client and their unique requirements.

Cheryl Evans – Quality Control

Cheryl Evans – Quality Control

Cheryl joined us in 2021 and is an integral part of our Quality Control department – she is the earlybird so this role is perfect for her as she is responsible for ensuring all client deadlines are met without compromising on quality!

Cheryl worked for a number of large companies in her early career like BSI and BBC. In the last ten years, Cheryl held roles in telecommunications companies and lived and worked overseas, which added to her great love of travelling.

Paul Dyson

Paul Dyson – Quality Control

Over the past 31 years I have worked in various situations including telephone insurance claims, office administration, running my own small programming business, and most recently in the charity sector. These have given me a great deal of experience with both the public and the business world, communicating with people from all walks of life. The benefit of this is that I have a good understanding of local and regional dialects, accents and idioms that can crop up in the many audio files we process, which should prove beneficial when providing quality control for the transcripts.

Working as part of a team is always a pleasure to me, and I love to encourage others as much as possible in the amazing contributions that they make.

Quick Quote

Quick quote

Fill out your details and get a free quote from the UK’s leading Digital Transcription Professionals. Reliable, fast, secure, accurate and confidential.

Interview with Joe McGowan, CEO.

“Prior to creating McGowan Transcriptions in 1993 I worked in the market research industry for DRSM, Field Management Ltd and Hall & Partners in roles ranging from Field Manager to Support Manager.”


What made you decide to become a transcriber and create McGowan Transcriptions?


“Organising transcription was a part of my role as Support Manager and I was always frustrated at how the industry worked; the quality was usually awful and the costs were per hour of time taken, so were wild to say the least! I decided I would be the one to change this!”


Why McGowan Transcriptions?

“I went through many names before settling on McGowan Transcriptions. Had I known then about the internet and its search engine requirements I’d have chosen something that Google liked!”


What makes McGowan Transcriptions special?


“Our team of professional transcribers makes us special and unique. Every single member of the Transcription Team is excellent at what they do and they understand our clients’ needs for accuracy and speed. Every single one of them will go the extra mile if needed for a transcription project.”


How has technology changed the transcription industry?


“Massively! The internet has changed the way we receive transcription projects. In 1993 we worked solely on cassettes, so once the postman had arrived we knew how the day was going to be and the vast majority of our clients were from London and the UK. Nowadays while we are all tucked up asleep somewhere on the planet someone is uploading a transcription project to McGowan Transcriptions, often not scheduled in, so technology has added an element of surprise that wasn’t there before!”


What frustrates you today about transcribing compared to earlier years?


“Some individuals fall into the trap of believing that they can achieve an accurate transcript by outsourcing to another agency in a different country. In my experience, this is not the case. I can’t tell you how many projects we have taken on in recent years that have already been attempted by another agency, only to have such poor transcripts returned to render them useless. The other frustration is recordings being uploaded later than expected, this has a massive impact on our schedule and often it’s because there is no physical cassette sat on the desk screaming ‘don’t forget me’…but rather a digital file sat invisibly in the computer forgotten about!”


Anything the rest of the team at McGowan Transcriptions might not know about you?


“I’m a professional artist and singer! I also make a wicked cup cake!”


Quality Digital Transcriptions

Upload your files

Simply upload your audio files straight into our safe and secure online environment.

Transcription templates

Verbatim, Intelligent Verbatim, Full 100% Verbatim, Edited Nvivo, Specific Templates. You tell us what you need, we make sure you get top quality transcriptions.

We value (e)quality

we are members of MRS and AQR.

MRS
Information Comissioners Office
Association Qualitive Research
C2E
Equality Register
World Business Review

Meet some of our transcription team

Li Collins

Li Collins
Team Mentor & Senior Medical Transcriber

Donna Lennon

Donna Lennon
Senior Medical & Research Transcriber

Nikki Mulcahey

Nikki Mulcahey
Senior Transcriber

Chris Dunne Senior Legal Transcriber

Chris Dunne
Senior Legal Transcriber

Sheila Agnew Research Transcriber

Sheila Agnew
Research Transcriber

Jane Wheatley Senior Transcriber

Jane Wheatley
Senior Transcriber