Ciara Ferrier

Sharing Calendars - Google and Outlook

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:45:40 GMT

How do you share calendars between Google and Outlook?

At first, it looks like they don't talk to each other but a fix is available.

Whereas sharing a Google calendar with another Google user or sharing an Outlook calendar with another Outlook user is fairly straightforward, allowing a Google user to view your Outlook calendar or vice versa can be a frustrating problem, where the process doesn't work as expected. Users are prompted to create Outlook accounts when they want to work within the Google space. Luckily, there is a workaround.

The key difference is the calendar is "published" rather than "shared" in a true sense.

Below are instructions:

Outlook to Google.
Google to Outlook.

Outlook to Google

"Publishing" actions within Outlook

In either Outlook for the web or the PC desktop Outlook app, navigate to the Calendar tab and click on the gear or cog icon in the top right-hand corner.

In the Settings pane, navigate to " Calendars " and " Shared Calendars. " These options are already highlighted because we were already working within the "Calendar" area of Outlook.

Select the calendar you would like to share from the dropdown under " Publish a calendar. "

Choose your sharing permissions and click " Publish. "

This will generate two links:

HTML link
ICS link

The HTML link will allow the recipient of the link to view your diary in a web page.

The ICS link will allow them to subscribe to your calendar, seeing events integrated into their Google calendar.

So, copy the ICS link and share it with the person you want to be able to view your calendar.

"Accepting" actions within Google

Select the + sign beside "Other Calendars."

Select " From URL ."

Paste the Outlook calendar ICS URL into the box below " From URL ."

Events from the shared calendar will now display in Google Calendar.

NB: it can take up to 24 hours for an event added in Outlook to show in Google.

It is not possible for the Google user to add an event to the shared calendar .

Google to Outlook

"Publishing" actions within Google

Click the three dots beside the calendar you wish to publish.

Select " Settings and sharing ."

In the Settings pane that opens, scroll down until you come to " Secret address in iCal format. "

Copy the URL and navigate to the Outlook calendar.

Select " Add Calendar " and then " Subscribe from Web ."

Paste the URL of the Google calendar here.

Assign the calendar a name when prompted, and select a charm. Click " Import ."

The Google calendar will now appear in your calendar list.

Revoking Access

To revoke access either way (from Google OR Outlook), navigate back to calendar settings and reset the sharing link. The published calendar will only present further updates to users with the new link.

My First Administration Role

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:55:41 GMT

What you learn when people are allowed to call you out on being wrong.

My first administration role...

...was in housing, based in a small office near the busy junction in the distance of this photo. As I write this, I am smiling because I am remembering an occasion walking to work with my now-husband along this road. A seagull flew over and pooed on us. I say “us,” THANKFULLY , it pooed on the shoulder of his coat and NOT (as I first feared) my hair, which at the time was long and very thick. That would have been a catastrophe.

It would have been catastrophic because of the expectations of this role. Housing is a pressured sector. It is not actually about HOUSES ; it is about PEOPLE and HOMES . Any kind of life can walk through the door at any time. Front office staff were expected to be well-presented in smart office wear. They were not expected to turn up with seagull poo in their hair. Had that poo hit my hair, I would have had to turn around, go home and wash it, resulting in the loss of most of my lunch break for the next couple of days. At least, as I assured my husband, he could mop off the worst of it, HIDE his coat at his own workplace and drop it into a dry cleaner on the way home.

As well as being properly turned out, we were expected to always be polite and courteous and the director was not particularly supportive of the front office. He would often stop by when you were juggling talking to someone in person, taking a phone call and simultaneously printing out property brochures to say, “Now remember to multi-task.” At the same time, he could also be spontaneously kind, buying everyone ice-creams on a summer’s day when we were melting.

There was an "old" way of doing customer service that might have been better

The reasons people move in and out of houses are not always happy ones. Divorce, bereavement, loss of a job, a house sale falling through are all driving factors. It is rare that people just choose not to pay rent; again, the circumstances behind that are difficult. Sometimes landlords are tricky and tenants have to put up with inconvenience and half-hearted property maintenance. In that situation, the office is battling on two fronts.

At the time, I found this role challenging, however looking back, I realise that it has taught me aspects of customer service that have now fallen by the wayside – and I don’t think this is necessarily right .

The kinds of "enquiries" we dealt with

Some of the customer “enquiries” and “complaints” were essentially what would nowadays be labelled “verbal abuse,” and “aggression,” and they would not get answered. We absolutely had to handle those situations. The director would remind people of the intense pressure people were under and he would expect us to serve everybody regardless of how they treated us. It didn’t help however, that the office systems needed updating. At this time, the early 2000s, we had no email or website, so EVERY enquiry had to come through three telephones. They rang so consistently the noise would be a continuous screech, rather than a “Ring, ring.” An aside, but about seven years later I returned and covered a maternity leave. By this time, the office manager had installed a website and email and begun to advertise through various online platforms as well as the local paper. It took the pressure off considerably because people could actually see what was available and then call to enquire about only the properties they were interested in.

Some of the situations we handled probably were inappropriate looked through today’s perspective. I have been called, “The skinny girl in the corner,” and whilst pregnant with my son, someone delivering a filing cabinet expected me to hold it up while they slid it off the sack barrow. On the insistence of the director, I also had to carry the full container of water from a large dehumidifier up a steep flight of stairs from the basement a few days before going on maternity leave. I sat in front of a client shouting at me, refusing to leave the office when he had not brought his first rent in cleared funds, mere days after undergoing an amniocentesis test.

Other situations were ridiculous. For example, one of the builders we used to contract to do property repairs managed to lock himself into the courtyard of a block of flats. He called up to let us know he was stuck and to ask if we could arrange for his release. We did sort something out, although the laughter afterwards must have blanked my memory. I think we contacted the tenant in another flat that had a door into the same courtyard and asked him to let the builder out through his flat. He was perplexed, but he did it.

Then there are the situations that are truly heart-breaking, like when a tenant dies unexpectedly…

You learnt to anticipate and mitigate

When you are constantly dealing with difficult customers, you learn to anticipate and try to mitigate problems before they arise. Sometimes they still arise despite best efforts and sometimes honesty requires us to say that actually, the situation was entirely self-inflicted. For example, the situation with no email and no website meant people were frustrated before they even got through to speak to us, even if they didn’t have a complaint to start with. Despite this huge limitation making it incredibly difficult to deal with the sheer demand we faced, we were expected to engage people regardless. To do this, you had to be resourceful and think outwards; try to head off problems before they became problems. In contrast, the modern approach seems to be towards more inwards thinking. "This is it. Take it or leave it."

When I got it completely wrong

On one occasion I received an absolute ear-bending over the telephone by a man shouting down the line. This would not be tolerated nowadays. HOWEVER , I am going to tell you that he was right. He had every right to be angry with me and he had every right to express it. Over 20 years later we are quick to say, “Oh, verbal abuse.” We are far slower to say, “Righteous anger. A well-deserved metaphorical butt-kicking.”

The situation was this. Every rented property with gas appliances has to undergo an annual gas safety inspection. We would keep records and print off monthly lists of those properties due the following month. It was easiest when the owner had requested our engineer do the renewal. We would give a list to our engineer, who would return it with a date that he wanted to do that gas inspection. We could then send written notice of the inspection and issue the engineer with keys so that tenants did not need to be at home when he visited. If they wanted to be there, but couldn’t make the allotted time, they could call him and rearrange to a mutually convenient time. The engineer would return completed certificates, which would be entered into our computer system in order to drive the renewal process the following year.

If a landlord had a British Gas contract, arranging the inspection with their engineer was much harder. In the situation in question, we received a letter of notice from British Gas, which arrived the day before they were due to inspect. It was not clear if all relevant parties – landlord and tenant – knew and the tenant did not like keys being handed out. I tried calling him but got no answer. There was not time to write to him as at best he would receive the letter the same day as the inspection.

In my “wisdom,” I cancelled the inspection and rearranged it for the following week, sending the tenant a letter to make him aware. The next day, he received the letter…as he sat at home waiting for the British Gas engineer to arrive…having booked a day off work to be there. Rather than cry “verbal abuse,” to this day I still say, no, I was in the wrong – and I apologised personally and properly.

"No man is an island, entire of himself" - JOHN DONNE

Even our smallest actions have an impact on another, however much we try to remove ourselves.

Customer service became about server, not served

Somewhere along the way, we made things better and we also made them worse. Staff are better supported but they are also more disaffected. We are disconnected from each other and experience fewer low-contact social interactions, such as interacting with someone to purchase a daily newspaper. We are all only interested in hearing good things said about us and we put up walls – within ourselves and using AI – against honest, frank and direct feedback. “Talk to the hand,” was rude but “Talk to the bot,” is apparently okay. We have gone from the customer being always right (we know they aren’t but…) to the customer is never and can never be right. We impose on rather than engage with customers.

TO STRESS : there is clearly a level that could quite accurately be called verbal abuse . I’ve experienced that as well, with no support in calling it what it is. My point is that I think we jump to label a certain level of feedback that is actually (as per the Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson movie Anger Management ) “righteous anger” at how, as customers, we are treated.

Hospitality, for example, are under immense pressure and we should be mindful of this. But so are household budgets. If we saved up to go out for dinner for grandma’s 80th and the food is cold, we CAN say, “This is disappointing. I expected better.” We cannot go around swearing at people or behaving violently, but we also cannot lose the right to express honesty at poor service directly to the organisation concerned. I’m not endorsing keyboard warriors on social media either. If you have a problem, take it to the organisation directly. If you have done that, it is up to the organisation to listen and understand why you feel like that. Handled correctly, sometimes negative feedback can bring about positive change.

Customer service applies to professions

When we say, “Customer Service,” the mind jumps to those working in reception, retail, hospitality roles, rather than the professional roles such as medicine, dentistry, education, law and so on. BUT the only difference is that in those roles, we don’t call customers, “Customers,” we call them, “Patients,” “Students,” “Parents,” “Relatives,” “Clients,” “Colleagues.” Whilst the professions are under considerable strain, so are their customers. Technology should deliver greater choice, but the reality is it sometimes feels like it reduces choice. Many of us have systems and strategies imposed upon us, where we can see the implementation has not been properly considered and we have not been properly consulted. As a human being, you look around and wherever you try to engage, the answer is “Deal with it.” On presenting to my GP with a lump, I was asked over the telephone, “What do you want me to do about it? It could be something or nothing.” Spoiler alert: it was something…

Respect is a two-way street and deference is no longer a thing

Everyone is absolutely deserving of respect but sometimes this is lost in an expectation of deference. People have a right to expect accountability. Deference can be contrary to seeking accountability. Being accountable to patients, students, parents, relatives, families, clients, colleagues is how they are shown respect by the professions. When professions are accountable, this is how they receive respect in return. They absolutely deserve respect but they should not expect deference.

Martha’s Rule is an example of accountability in medicine. Having now put two children completely through school, I welcome the ban on smartphones in school. We were put in a position by a school where we had to put our children on contracts with smartphones so that they could access online work being set IN CLASS . Previously the children had had pay as you go phones and the ability for the phone to access Wi-Fi at home only. The school did not provide Wi-Fi the students could access and so our children needed the contract to have data to do their classwork. My husband and I pushed back strongly against this – rightly so – because it was an imposition on the values we wanted to teach our children as parents. In imposing on us, our rights and choices as parents were reduced with no consultation beforehand. If you do not consult, you do not give yourself the opportunity to put your case across and attempt to gain understanding of your rationale. You are not anticipating or mitigating problems, you are putting yourself straight into fire-fighting mode. This does not earn respect and it most certainly does not earn deference.

What is good customer service?

My role in housing was challenging but so formative in how I try to deliver good customer service in the current climate. I have got it wrong and I have been correctly and firmly held to account for that. If we want to avoid difficult feedback, we have to deliver proper people-focused service.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Look beyond yourself.

Have an open attitude and LISTEN .

Accept you can be wrong.

Understand that people have a right to express dissatisfaction or opposing views.

Recognise that feelings unavoidably drive feedback and professions cannot retreat behind the excuse of “unprofessional.” People concerned about their children, loved one or their own health cannot be expected to always be professional about it. They feel that they are supposed to be grateful - and the majority are - but they should feel grateful AND heard.

6. Understand it’s not about YOU as an individual, it’s about the SITUATION . You’re a face for an organisation but the you that is personal is something separate from that.

My MO to customer service

Anticipate problems. Rotate a system around in your brain, examine it from as many angles as you can to identify stumbling blocks.

Consult with stakeholders.

Consider the impact of all stumbling blocks.

Strive to mitigate those impacts.

Be approachable.

People absolutely hate a lack of communication. If they ask for an update give them one, even if the update is that you still don’t know.

Look for solutions. If you don’t know, what can you do to find out?

Seek advice.

Regroup. Verbal complaints, ask for it in writing so you can’t lose anything. Respect that written complaint if it’s clearly come directly from the individual even if the language is not what you consider correct. If it’s been written by AI, reflect on and query it.

10.

Own your mistakes.

11.

Answer complaints personally, NOT using AI.

It is really hard

It is really hard to always be good at customer service. Everyone has bad days and everyone makes mistakes. Some people are harder work than others and everyone has different values and expectations. I'm frequently told that being conscientious is what makes me good, but it's also what can make me tie myself in knots. When things go wrong, it's important you don't "live" there.

Be proud of everything you do right and be proud of acknowledging when you are wrong. For many people, being wrong is really, really hard. When we admit we were wrong, we can often build a stronger, more robust process out of that mistake, whereas if we didn't accept we were wrong we might continue on that trajectory and not improve things.

If you can switch into an anticipatory mindset - not mentally preparing for battle, just trying to iron out kinks before anyone trips over them - you can avoid much conflict before it happens. I don't like conflict, so I prefer to live here.

Although there is so much customer service now delivered by AI - chat bots, even receptionists - bear in mind that even big companies still retain a strong human customer service team behind that. This year alone, once I have navigated their AI, I have received superb customer service from QuickBooks, Microsoft and my bank. We may say "But they are huge companies, they can afford it," but the AI systems aren't free either. For a small business trying to run on AI, the cost may not be less than a few hours of virtual assistant support and the human touch may deliver better results, as customers appreciate this more than ever.

Volunteering - National Trust

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:34:13 GMT

You gain by giving.

On at least two Saturdays a month, I volunteer at a nearby National Trust property. I have done this for eight years, starting at the same time that I switched to remote freelance work. There is a mill at this property and I first volunteered as a baker, changing to a house experience volunteer after my treatment.

Volunteering is beneficial to me, as well as the organisation, because:

I feel good about helping to preserve a beautiful place for the future, for others to enjoy.

It allows me to switch off for a while. I can’t get a signal on my phone there. It’s amazing. I spend my lunchtime sat in nature.

I make friends – offline friends!

It can give someone a sense of purpose, a feeling that they belong and are contributing. I was so happy that I could switch to being a house volunteer after treatment, back in this role one week after finishing radiotherapy despite still recovering. It was - and still is - a happy distraction from ongoing pain and associated physical limitations. They let me go at my pace and it’s been a really important part of my overall recovery.

But my primary motivation eight years ago was to keep myself going out, meeting the public in person, keeping up those customer service skills. I think if you don’t use those “muscles” they can waste, so you must exercise them. Greeting the general public helps you focus on something beyond yourself. You don’t give good service if you are tied up in yourself. When you give good service, you feel good and find you enjoy it for its own sake. Gaining by Giving.

This was Heritage Weekend, meaning free entry. It was a busy day meeting and talking to people who were genuinely interested in the property, collection and its history and were maybe those who wouldn’t usually visit. One gentleman even thanked me for volunteering.

If you live near a similar property and they have a Heritage Weekend, maybe try visiting, even if it’s not the sort of thing you would usually do. You may be surprised at the sense of connection you feel and how this affects your perspective in many different ways.

Landslide

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:13:22 GMT

"A Landslide will bring you down."

On 17 September 2026, we published the below text to our social media channels:

TIME TO WAKE UP

I have tried writing some balanced posts about AI - and people using AI - in administration. I have smiled gently at those who tell me I am worthless and the AI is a more meaningful entity than me. How dare I recover from serious illness and be happy to be alive when I'm just one more worthless "lower value" human taking up space?

It stops now.

I have worked with clinicians who are using Heidi AI to some advantage. HOWEVER, I am now going to tell you the honest truth about it. It's that good, because of ME. 9 times out of 10, it produces a sub-standard piece of correspondence but because I know and understand my client's template and workflow SO WELL, I am able to correct it and pass it to them for a final review where very often they don't need to make a single change to that letter. That is NOT Heidi's work, that is MY work. Instead of typing, I am reviewing. but still ME. I am MORE VALUABLE than Heidi.

I have worked with academics who tell me "Oh, the Team's transcript is good enough." I very sweetly send them a list of benefits and make murmurings about academic rigour, accuracy and consistency across a project which 9 times out of 10 goes unheard. Why would you NOT want human transcription? Why are you throwing away control of your own critical thought and how are you still calling yourself an ACADEMIC??

If you are reading this in a 3rd or 4th line support role, CEO of some big corporation - and laughing - I have this to say to you. SHUT. UP. Right now, you are laughing at the "lower value" people but do you know what? Once it's eaten me, YOU are the new "lower value" humanity and it's coming for YOU too. The only people who are safe are the billionaires and although you are so safe and smug and secure, YOU CANNOT SEE IT because if you could, YOU WOULD STOP USING IT. You would start shouting for some brakes and regulations and start thinking about the tool, what it does, what it means and how it works, because most Claude enthusiasts can't actually tell you how Claude works. "I expect you to have fully completed this in 10 minutes time because that's how long it would take Claude." GET. LOST.

What prompted the meltdown? My 11-year old just started secondary school and they have said they are going to USE AI MARKING TOOLS to assess his ENGLISH WRITING. What are we doing that we have allowed this to happen?

Teachers, don't come near me telling me you are overworked and deserve a pay rise. I would feel more sympathetic if CoPilot were helping you out with some admin but why would you give away one of the most fundamental tasks which is the thing that ONLY a teacher should do?

Wake up and properly realise what we are endorsing.

NB - not talking out of school. I already shared my views in much more detail with them.

Human Transcription - Objections and Benefits

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:41:45 GMT

I'm sorry there wasn't much to write in the first column.

We may think of more for the second.

Data Protection is NOT the (Only) Issue

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:38:57 GMT

When we talk about standards and regulations for AI, we do not mean just data protection. We must also consider the safety around how we think about that data .

Heidi AI Scribe is registered as a Class I medical device under MHRA guidance for summarisation functionality. The Heidi website states that as the company explore “new and innovative features” their “regulatory footprint will increase, which is why we are progressing what Class II certification would look like for Heidi.”

With its current functionality, some clinicians feel almost affronted that Heidi would be classed as a medical device. This is because the superiority of clinical knowledge is so ingrained amongst them. Of course they are going to review content. Of course any output will reflect their own judgement! Putting Heidi through this additional layer of bureaucracy feels like an affront to their integrity.

Several years ago I worked in medical software development building maternity information systems. A patient record feels like it would just be a series of boxes that the clinician will fill in, ergo it is not a medical device. However, as soon as you put a calculation in, such as deriving age from date of birth, you allow the system to make a judgement and the threshold for needing to comply to medical device standards is really that low.

With an administration/technical background, I have no issue with that rule. You probably are doing the right thing, if you feel affronted by it, but actually this protects your integrity by maintaining that standard across all your colleagues and holding developers to account.

Heidi maybe doesn’t influence your thinking but simply by being able to summarise, it can and that is the key point. The rest of us can relate to this in terms of AI internet search summaries. Do you always look at the links in the summary, check what they say and question the veracity of the source?

So, I view the MHRA guidance on AI scribes as some level of guidance on the protection of critical thinking. Many of us, myself included, will say, “Oh, it’s got ISO 27001 so your data is safe.” But it isn’t actually just about keeping that data safe; it is about the safety of how we THINK about that data.

I’m not aware of a similar device standard applied to products in other sectors such as academic research, law, accountancy, engineering, journalism and so on – please let me know if you are aware of one. I put my hands up to needing to read more on the EU AI Act, however from initial reading I would expect more products will ultimately fall under those deemed high risk in Annex III.

Medicine already has this more stringent check in place. It is simply asking other sectors to come up to a similar standard and protect their professional judgement and critical thinking. Medics already have the self-worth to know that their opinion should take precedence. The rest of us should do the same.

CoPilot to your Captain

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:32:01 GMT

Whilst acknowledging questions and concerns around the use of AI, it must also be acknowledged that AI can introduce greater efficiency simply by assisting in small everyday tasks.

An example task

Researching flight options can be a time-consuming task for assistants. Firstly, we conduct an internet search using sites such as Skyscanner, which then direct us to the individual airline’s websites to verify. Secondly, we present our research in an easy-to-read format so that our client can skim through and choose their preferred option. Thirdly, once the client has confirmed their preferences we can go ahead and make their bookings.

Depending on the journey – length, number of connections – this task can take up to a few hours to complete and diarise all tickets.

The arrival of the internet saved assistants some time telephoning around for travel options. Wouldn’t it be great if we could not only find options, but have them returned in a format that is ready for review by our client?

I’m hearing that tools such as ChatGPT and Claude can do this exact thing, returning terrific results. However, following media reports this summer, I am just a bit wary about putting them onto my devices. I decided to test CoPilot’s capabilities as this is an included, but not really used, application within my Microsoft 365 subscription.

CoPilot

CoPilot is essentially constrained to the Microsoft tenancy in which it exists. I asked CoPilot to look up flights from location X to location Y, outbound date A returning date B. Present airline, departure time, arrival time, duration, cost in a spreadsheet, ordered by departure time earliest to latest. CoPilot (very politely) told me it can’t access all that information. Interestingly, it did tell me how it could help.

Because CoPilot cannot access the scale of information that ChatGPT and Claude can, you must feed it information. To be honest, I quite like this method of working. I felt more in control knowing what information CoPilot had access to. As a first step, from a screenshot of an airline’s website, CoPilot produced a spreadsheet with two worksheets. One worksheet showed outbound flights and the second showed return flights.

Step by step

Having successfully completed this first stage, I then asked CoPilot to update the spreadsheet from screenshots from Skyscanner. CoPilot told me it needed me to upload the original spreadsheet again, which I did. I also asked CoPilot to ignore duplicate flights so that none were entered onto the spreadsheet twice, which it also did.

“Drip” feeding CoPilot produced a spreadsheet that I was able to send to my client to easily choose their preferred flight .

Time savings

This task took half-an-hour to complete with the help of CoPilot. Ordinarily, it might have taken nearer to an hour. On another occasion, the task would likely take less time as I have learnt how to prompt CoPilot to help with it. AI works from prompts, so the better you can prompt it, the better it will work for you. My client was busy today, so greater efficiency with this task has allowed us to focus more on others.

Why this is good use of AI - the nature of the task

This was very much a simple extension of a common research task. The information presented could very quickly and easily be verified by a human. There was no analysis of the information involved – CoPilot did not give an opinion on which option was “best.” That decision still rests with the client. Tickets will not be booked until the client has approved and AI will not make the booking.

To summarise, CoPilot did not do any decision-making or judging. It did not work with or have access to any personal or sensitive information, only that which is publicly available. The task was very much completed with human oversight. However, the benefit of using CoPilot was a definite time saving and identification of further time saving.

Integrate not replace

Using AI does not have to mean the drastic outsourcing of big tasks to a robot! If AI can support with these kinds of tasks, surely this is a beneficial use? What time-consuming, common or day-to-day tasks can you think of where integrating some AI deployment could lead to greater efficiency in your business?

Using Human Ingenuity

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 20:13:48 GMT

Loving the "Transcribed using Human Ingenuity" badge, courtesy of Hi from a Human!

The Hi from a Human initiative celebrates the ". ..endless curiosity and creativity borne of that intangible, inimitable and irreplaceable essence that we call the human spirit . " The Mark of Human ingenuity " ...signifies that your work has been given the care and attention that makes your creativity unique to you. " Please visit their website at www.hifromahuman.com to find out more, sign the Human Ingenuity Declaration and download the mark most appropriate to you if you would also like to say, " HI! My work has been Created using Human Ingenuity ."

The interview transcripts that I produce are fully human. AI systems might be able to tell you WHAT was said (or close enough), but they cannot tell you HOW it was said, an element which is essential to provide full context when representing the spoken word as text. AI systems cannot and should not try to infer human emotion simply because they are not human - they lack the human spirit .

From August 2026, my interview transcripts will be returned to clients bearing the "Transcribed by Human Ingenuity" mark, to celebrate the human listening, understanding, interpretation and translation that captures the human spirit of a spoken interview in text.

You can find out more about our human interview transcription service here .

The BEST Way to Boost Your Conversion Rate

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:52:00 GMT

It’s an uncomfortable truth that, in private healthcare, a treatment plan is also a sales pitch.

It’s an uncomfortable truth that in private healthcare, a treatment plan is also a sales pitch. Clinicians are keen to improve their conversion rates – percentage of consultations that accept treatment – and look for strategies and tools that can facilitate this process.

We researched an assortment of products – Practi, Gamma, Heidi, Cliniko, PipeDrive, video consent software, e-signing software and so on. It seems like there is an infinite choice!

There are patients who are already sold when they leave the consultation, and these tools make it easier for them to accept. They can also make administration on the clinic side more efficient, especially by sending reminders to staff and patients.

There are other patients who have questions and concerns about the treatment.

The delay for any product is the human factor. How promptly can you, as clinician, approve and amend AI-generated content – or even typed dictation? How do you see, track, book, take payment from those patients who accept treatment? How do you respond to those patients who do not accept treatment? How do you reassure those who are silent – or are you assuming that silence is informed non-acceptance?

The very best system for improving your conversion rate is follow-up. It’s not about the software; it’s how people feel about the software. You could implement any expensive software solution, but if you do not follow-up with patients – listen to them, reassure them, value their trust – you are unlikely to improve your conversion rate.

People do business with people.

Patients seek treatment from those who care.

"Small Vehicle Racism"

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 10:33:38 GMT

Patients can be fragile. Even those who are not “unwell” and may be living full lives around the condition they are seeking treatment for become vulnerable at point of care or point of accessing care. Looking after patients begins and ends in the administrative cycle. Systems and processes should make the journey as easy as possible.

**“Small Vehicle Racism” = borrowing and adapting the comedic expression “Small Person Racist” with which the socially inept Roy is labelled in The IT Crowd episode The Internet is Coming .**

Today I had an appointment for follow-up treatment at my local hospital. Hospital parking is, I suspect, hospital parking wherever you are in the UK. Acknowledging that arriving by public transport where possible is the ideal, my experience is that public transport from where I live is not the most reliable and not always appropriate.

We just acquired a second car, a black Hyundai i10, affectionately known as “The Blackbird.” I drove Blackbird to the multi-storey car park, leaving myself 1-hour leeway before my appointment – I know, not everyone has the luxury of being able to do this but arriving early saves so much stress.

The Parking Gods were on my side and I found a tight space on the second floor. The space was perfect for Blackbird, which is small and narrow. I reversed almost in one go, albeit tightly against a pillar on the driver’s side. Before I could even think whether I would wait or come forwards and realign myself again, an angry woman in a large SUV practically drove over me, shouting at me through her window.

I’m not sure if this is completely hospital parking related. Would she have behaved the same had I been driving my larger family car? Since my sons have been driving and I have been either passenger or driving instructor, I have experienced drivers behaving more aggressively whilst in Blackbird than when I am in a similar sized vehicle. Can we say it’s not hospital parking; it’s just small vehicle racism? Or is it hospital parking meets small vehicle racism?!

For a short while, this really threw me. This woman was SO angry! In a hospital car park, can we accept that everyone is there because they are dealing with their own stuff? Either they are a patient themselves, driving a loved one to an appointment or visiting a loved one as an in-patient. Circumstances may be routine but they may also be emergencies, the details of which I can’t even imagine.

I’m at a point in my life where I’m able to just feel thankful I could drive myself there. I hope that lady is okay. There is no point dwelling on times when I couldn’t drive myself, or was less far on in recovery, or reflecting that I couldn’t have driven Blackbird at one point in my own journey because it has a manual handbrake and I wouldn’t have had the strength to apply it, being an unsafe driver as a result. It would have been more upsetting at one time but I recognise that, in a hospital car park, emotions run high for everyone.

Being any kind of patient brings enough baggage with it. You may be reading this and rightly congratulating yourself on providing excellent person-centred care within your consulting room but the patient journey starts before then and continues afterwards. The hospital car park is not your problem. However, patient experience is not just about you. It’s the receptionist who remembered my name, the people who maintain the signage so I know where I’m going, your nurse who followed up after my appointment and it’s even the barista who gave me a little longer to place my drinks order when I was a bit flummoxed after the car park incident.

In terms of administration, it’s making it easy for people to be referred to you or to contact you for an appointment, managing expectations over waiting times, sending prompt communication after an appointment and following up on it, and so on.

A good patient experience is the whole journey.

We maybe can’t fix the hospital car park or drivers who behave aggressively to small vehicles in general, but we can add value to the patient experience by removing other obstacles so that the car park is the only gauntlet they will run on their way to see you.

If you noted a timeline of your patients’ journey, from point of contact to discharge, where could you identify bumps in the road?

Keeping You Compliant

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 09:07:45 GMT

10 ways a medical secretary virtual assistant can keep you compliant, avoiding litigation or legal issues.

Let's imagine you are a surgeon. Some of these points may seem trivial compared to severing a nerve, however they can cause you problems nevertheless. A data breach, for example, could see you fined up to 4% of your annual turnover, which could have a significant impact on your practice.

Your medical secretary, virtual assistant or personal assistant obviously can't directly help with the nerve severing, but here are 10 other ways in which we can...

Administrating your treatment plans, sending them for consent, checking they are signed and returned within your required timeframe
Responding to requests from partners for your professional documentation
Confirming any contractors such as technicians or locum nurses also have the correct documentation before you work with them
Reminding you of renewals due, such as your indemnity or ICO registration
Booking CPD courses for you to attend, along with travel and accommodation (if required)
Conducting analysis of the type of data your organisation processes and its flow into and out of your systems
Producing your privacy policy
Making you aware of the potential for data breach in your workflow and applying a "data puncture repair" to correct this
Ensuring your company information is correctly displayed on your documentation, along with your correct title and qualifications
Tolls! This one may seem insignificant... until you get a ticket or are delayed on your way to clinic but I can ensure your vehicle is correctly registered with any local toll operators and your account balance has sufficient funds

So, indirectly we also help with the nerve severing by allowing you greater focus on your clinical work .

Benefits to Patient Experience

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 14:28:31 GMT

How can engaging a medical secretary virtual assistant add value to your patients' experience?

Increasing levels of patient satisfaction will lead to increased patient uptake and expansion of your practice. The contribution of your virtual personal assistant or medical secretary VA can play a crucial role.

What do patients need from their experience?

We can break this down to 5 areas of need:

1. ACCESS

Patients need to be able to contact your business to find out what you offer and if you can help them. They need to know what to expect and they need to have their expectations managed.

For example, how do people know if you can help them? How can they get an appointment? Most patients understand there is a waiting list, however they need clarity around what that waiting list looks like. What can they expect in terms of emergency or routine wait times? Where can they be seen and when?

A medical secretary virtual assistant will respond promptly to enquiries, giving patients the information they need, reducing the volume of patient chase-ups. They can collect initial information from patients and maintai n lists, filling gaps in your diary in the event of cancellations.

2. COMMUNICATION

Once patients have accessed your service, good communication lets everyone know where they stand.

Communication is notable for its presence/absence, as well as how and when you communicate.

Prompt responses and clear information reduce patient anxiety.

Appointment reminders and follow-ups reduce cancellations, in turn reducing wait times.

Facilitating the consent process by sending out treatment plans and assisting patients to navigate your acceptance of treatment process improves patient understanding and uptake of treatment

3. JOURNEY

There are other components to a patient’s journey through your service, additional to their clinical time.

Do you have procedures in place to avoid losing notes/paperwork, scheduling appointments as appropriate and invoicing? Do your patients know where the various “stops” are along their journey? When will you invoice and how can they pay? Are there any adjustments or accommodations needed for a patient?

The ease with which a patient moves through your service can influence the satisfaction they feel with their experience.

4. PERSONALISATION

How do you feel when someone remembers your name? It is warming to feel you are a name, not a number, and that you are valued as a service user or client.

Ensuring the experience is tailored to individuals can increase engagement with a service. A medical secretary virtual assistant will prioritise delivery of a personalised experience by customising or tailoring communications to patients.

CLINICAL FOCUS

I f patients feel relaxed about their experience outside of their clinician-facing time, they have only clinical need to bring to their appointment.

Likewise, the clinician can have a greater focus on their patient.

The work of your medical secretary virtual assistant has removed obstacles from your delivery of exceptional patient care.

How a virtual personal assistant adds value to patient experience

Growth

Satisfied patients are a source of positive reviews and a driver of leads or referrals. Engaging a medical secretary virtual assistant will improve the experience of your current patients while growing your client base at the same time – retain and gain .

Final thoughts

Evolution in Transcription

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:30:39 GMT

Whilst we are seeing evolution in the way letters and reports are created, the skill of transcription is still providing best results in others

Broadly speaking, there are two "arms" of transcription

The creation of letters or reports from recorded dictation
The production of transcripts of recorded conversations

The creation of letters or reports has seen a definite evolution

It can be argued that rather than replacing secretaries and administrators, the advent of recording devices caused an evolution in their skills. I have never had to learn shorthand, however I am a skilled audiotypist.

We are seeing a similar situation now where, instead of audiotyping dictation, secretaries and administrators are proofing and editing the output of AI Scribes, writing prompts and training the technology to produce the letters and reports.

The evolution in our skillset follows a development in technology that improves the workflow of our clients.

Products such as Heidi AI are now able to populate clinical notes within a consultation so reliably that they give clinicians more time to focus on their patients, facilitate the smooth running of clinics and reduce paperwork outside of the consultation.

Assessing workflow and cost-efficiency - where is your data?!

As a note, we would still carefully consider cost-benefits and workflow when a client considers adopting an AI Scribe. Payment is by subscription and there are different plan levels offering different levels of functionality. However, the plan that is right for one client may not be right for another and may cost them more when considered over a full year.

Before adopting an AI solution, you should consider where your data is being processed, where it is being stored and also who can access it ? It is essential to comply with GDPR and you may wish to protect your intellectual property (IP). Look for certification and compliance standards of any product.

Transcription of recorded conversations has not evolved to give the same level of results

AI Scribes do not need to work verbatim . They need to be fed very good prompts and given very good templates that tell them exactly which gaps we want them to fill. They can then pick up high level information and insert it into those gaps.

They are identifying facts, looking for what was said rather than how it was said . They have been given context already - a consultation - and as part of that, the clinician will also be asking questions of the patient looking to definitively establish facts on which they will base their decision making and advice.

AI transcription of recorded conversations is still disappointing, if what you want is a professionally-formatted, accurate representation of a conversation that does not require additional work on your part.

It does not cope well with:

Strong accents
Poor quality audio
Place names
People's names
Acronyms
Technical vocabulary.

It does not listen for the quiet person in a focus group trying to interject comments and it does not sensitively add punctuation - "Let's eat, Grandma" versus "Let's eat Grandma ." Essentially, it lacks emotional intelligence and so you lose the humanity from a conversation...between humans!

You can use this output as notes to refer back to, or from which to create meeting minutes, but you cannot give it a blank canvas and expect a perfect result.

Human-ear transcription is both evolving...and not!

So while the skillset for creating letters and reports is evolving in an exciting way, very best results for transcription of recorded conversations are still achieved by human-ear transcription.

Having previously worked in medical software development, I am genuinely impressed by some of the AI Scribes. Writing prompts and templates is like writing code - with actual words!

But, for now, I still staunchly defend human-ear transcription too. Providing you with an accurate, professional transcript takes time, skill and effort.

I do see projects using AI transcription for interviews where just notes is sufficient and then sending more detailed interviews to me for a full transcript but this needs to be done with care. The cost of AI transcription is attractive until it doesn't deliver what is needed. At this point, it becomes a costly mistake.

More expensive for a reason

This is the difficult bit. Having realised that you need a human-ear transcript, you also need to then understand you are paying for someone's skill and time.

Scissors and hair clippers can be purchased for about the cost of one haircut. But if you cut your hair yourself, could you expect a hairdresser to charge you less than their usual rate to put it right? You haven't helped them by cutting some of the hair off and have probably made their job harder.

Pharmacies now stock temporary self-fillings for teeth but could you expect a dentist to charge you less than their usual rate for a permanent solution?

Plan your project!

So, researchers, please plan transcription into your project carefully. All too often, I am asked to reduce my rate because teams have not understood the capabilities of AI transcription and have not budgeted enough for human-ear transcription. I simply cannot be expected to absorb the cost of that mistake.

Final thoughts

Research, understand the capabilities and plan the role in your workflow of an AI Scribe or AI transcription solution.

AI Scribes are driving an evolution of skills in terms of letter and report creation. Human-ear transcription still gives very best results for qualitative research analysis.

Plan your budget. Plan your project.

Half Term

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:03:58 GMT

Do you struggle to juggle during school holidays? Do you wish you could just handover to someone else?

Do you struggle to juggle during the school holidays? Do you wish you could handover to someone else?

There's probably no need!

There are more school holidays than parents can take annual leave for.

I have been working around school holidays for 16 years now and as my youngest child is 10, life is set to revolve around the school calendar for another eight years! That probably does sound daunting if you are in the early primary school days.

There are times as a business owner where you will need to work through a school holiday and others where you will want to be completely off. Then there are the in-between times where you need to have a lower input: Business-light holidays.

It’s okay to do that!

You can make low-input time work for you with Planning , Prioritisation and Follow-up .

Holiday cover does not need to look like parachuting a replacement in for a week. Indeed, that sounds more like fire-fighting mode.

Plan

PLAN when you can be available for family and work during the holiday. Manage your customers’ expectations by giving them advance warning of what the service will look like during that time and deadlines for items requiring your attention beforehand.

Prioritise

PRIORITISE the tasks you are going to be available for. For example, have an autoresponder on enquiry emails or have “light” admin cover to monitor emails to ensure you don’t miss anything critical.

Follow-up

After the break and on resuming “normal” service, FOLLOW-UP . If you received enquiries, respond to them promptly. People need to see you do as you say you will. So, if your autoresponder said you will respond after X date, make sure that you do!

Final thoughts

My workload does not drastically increase because my clients are taking school holidays. It can’t. But by working methodically, planning, prioritising, following up – doing as I have said I will do - throughout the year, both my clients and I have been able to manage those business-light school holidays successfully.

Every client is different and the more I get to know them, the better able I am to judge if I do need to interrupt them for a response or if, with management of the customer’s expectations, it can wait until their return. That understanding comes from many weeks of working together, not parachuting in for one intense week.

Completing the BDIA Introduction to Dentistry Course

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:19:59 GMT

This course formed part of our CPD requirement for 2025-2026

Ciara completes CPD annually as part of AMSPAR membership requirements. Having worked with dentists for a number of years it was interesting to take this course and learn more about dentistry as an industry. Working with individuals or small teams, it is both easy and essential to see their work from their point of view but valuable to zoom out and look at the bigger picture within which they are operating.

The BDIA (British Dental Industries Association) Introduction to Dentistry Course is designed for non-clinical staff as a grounding in the industry. It covers 11 Modules, each with an end-of-module-test, followed by a final exam once all modules are complete.

Modules are:

Introduction to Dentistry
Oral and Dental Anatomy
Oral Health and Disease
Oral Hygiene
Diagnosis and Radiography
Restorative Dentistry
Dental Technology and Laboratory Procedures
The Dental Environment and Equipment
Infection Control in Dentistry
Minor Oral Surgery, Anaesthesia and Sedation
Implant Dentistry

Other CPD completed this year includes Skills 4 Health training in Information Governance, Remote Working and Consent.

The Power Automated Difference

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:57:51 GMT

Configure behind-the-scenes automation to enhance your workflows

Use Power Automate to Simplify and Notify

Power Automate allows the small business owner to introduce automation into their workflows, simplifying their role in the process by taking care of the background task and notifying when input is required. It consists of "connectors" - actions linking "components' within the microsoft environment - which can be strung together in simple or more complex configurations to carry out a seemingly endless possibility of tasks. Even the basic offering of Power Automate can introduce a significant amount of personalisation and versatility into your Microsoft 365 workspace.

In this post, as an introduction to the topic, we will explore how you can quickly and easily configure your own simple CRM system.

Establish your process

Receive an enquiry from a potential customer
Be notified of the enquiry in order to respond promptly
Gain consent to keep the potential customer updated with our services
Store the potential customer's details if they consented to receive news - and ensure details are NOT stored where consent was not given.

Gather necessary components

We need:

To make it easy for the potential customer to make contact - FORMS
A tool that makes it easy to respond to the enquiry - OUTLOOK
Somewhere to store and review the data - SHAREPOINT LISTS
A method of checking for and removing information that should not be stored - A PROCESS
A distribution list - OUTLOOK

Enquiry form

This can be created in Microsoft Forms . Importantly, a field requesting permission to "Keep in touch," or equivalent should be included.

SharePoint List

Create a list in your SharePoint site. This can be displayed in Teams, if required, with views set up to facilitate review of a subset of data. Views also allow you to restrict what data can be seen by which users. If needed, the list can be exported in Excel format.

The designated user receives an email with full details of the enquiry straight to their inbox, giving them all the information they need to promptly respond.

The details also populate the SharePoint list where they can be viewed according to whether they did or did not consent to keep in touch.

REMEMBER: only details of those who opted in - entered "Yes please," in the enquiry form can be saved as contacts and added to a distribution list.

To select contacts from a contact folder, click on the "To," "cc," or "bcc" button at the top of a new email message.

When sending a marketing email you should protect the email addresses by adding them to the "bcc" field.

Final thoughts

This example of a very simple CRM system was very easily and quickly put together. Despite its simplicity, it definitely enhances the process of ensuring you receive and respond to your enquiries.

Power Automate can supply automation to your workspace in simple and more complex ways. It is well worth exploring the possibilities on offer - especially if you already have a Microsoft 365 licence.

Un-Deck the Halls

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 19:40:45 GMT

January is here but are you facing or embracing the new year?

Tuesday 6 January 2026, the day after Twelfth Night and second day of the first full working week of January. The decorations are down and we probably have a feel for how kind this first week back is going to be to us.

At this point it’s easy to feel disheartened if the week is hitting hard. Maybe you are reflecting on what has or is not going so well in your business. Whilst I support others with the running of their businesses, I am also a business owner myself. With over 7 years’ experience, similarly I can identify things that have both gone well and not so well.

Choosing the weight

The things that haven’t gone so well can feel heavy. This is maybe a good time to consider those things as suitcases, meaning you can choose to put them down or transport them in a different way. Lightening your load is a choice you get to make.

Reflecting on last year for myself, I would name my suitcases PAIN, REHABILITATION, LEARNING and HELP. HELP is a key one that you might think isn’t heavy, but accepting I needed it and what I needed it for was. Likewise LEARNING, until you consider that some lessons are easier to accept than others.

This year, I choose to put those suitcases down. Those I will carry instead are NEW, HEALING, COMPASSION and GROWTH. My family bought me a shopping trolley for Christmas (picture below) to help me carry physical loads – moving me forwards – and I will use the metaphorical equivalent for the less tangible things!

One of the greatest things I think having a PA gives to a client is someone in their corner. Our job is to act in the interests of our client, meaning a lot of noise from situa tions falls away immediately. We’re good sounding boards, we just get administrative tasks done for you – instantly creating headspace – and look for ways we can help your business run more efficiently, even and especially when that may mean ultimately you require less of our time.

Brighter times

It may feel like a long time to summer but January is a fantastic time to embrace change and accept help. I am mum to a January baby, born at the end of the month. Once Christmas is out of the way, we start looking forward to his birthday. It’s really helped January feel less bleak as I know by the time his celebration comes around there will be a sizeable increase in daylight hours. This year, with cold crisp weather in Devon, I’m noticing the stretch already.

January is about brightening and renewal, not continuing darkness.

A One Diary Mindset

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:02:49 GMT

Your time is precious, guard it by adopting a “Master Diary” mindset.

Ensure your time is accessible only to those you need to see, for booking at events you need to attend.

When juggling multiple diaries, I am reminded of the verse from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, One Ring…

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Substitute “Diary” for “Ring” and this is how I see efficient diary management working for you. There has to be a hierarchy, with your master diary sitting at the top.

Why have a Master Diary?

Where your working life spreads across multiple organisations, you can find yourself in a situation where multiple calendars are competing with each other. Ultimately, you can only be in one place at one time so you need to be in control.

A master diary can give you back a feeling of ownership over your time. There will still be the individual organisations’ diaries but you will decide or agree which portion of your time to allocate to each. Your diary is your time. The organisation diary is the granularity of a pocket of time. If it’s not in your diary, it’s not happening.

Implementation of a master diary can be an educational exercise, as organisations learn that booking your time is a conversation , not a given, a request, not a demand. It can feel confronting, however at the other side of those conversations awaits greater freedom and peace. While it may feel difficult for you to have those discussions yourself, they are the bread and butter of a PA!

Paper Diary

Are you already working to a digital diary or do you prefer a paper diary or wall calendar? There is still a place for paper diaries. For example, my family has a wall calendar displaying the academic year. This helps us plan work and family life over the school year around our children’s commitments. Some small businesses opt for a wall calendar where they and staff can view holiday leave at a glance.

While there may still be a role for paper diaries, great care should be taken as their loss could be an instant data breach. The loss of a phone does not necessarily lead to a data breach if the device is encrypted.

Remember… If you are relying on both paper and digital diaries then you will need to remember to transpose into the paper diary from the digital diary, or vice versa! And if your master diary is a notebook clutched firmly to your side, it is harder for someone to help you with its management.

Although it may feel contradictory, relinquishing complete control of your diary is an important step in guarding your time as you become one step removed from negotiations.

Tricks with Digital Diaries

With digital diaries, there are some tricks you can employ to help in management of your master diaries.

The mechanism of working will vary depending on the calendar application you are using, but consider sharing your calendar, perhaps with a partner or select colleague. Layering the shared calendars with your own provides a view of them all in one place. This can further reduce time spent negotiating over meetings.

Be mindful of sharing permissions! Consider data privacy and decide whether to share with just free and busy times viewable, or with full editing ability! Always have in mind that your diary is your time, so ultimately it must work for you .

Diary Gold

For greater impact and data security, move away from the calendar associated with a gmail.com, hotmail.com, iCal or similar and use one linked to your business name domain .

Remember: Look after your brand. Your brand is you!

Key Points

Diary management is a mindset. Your time is precious; guard it.

There is a hierarchy of diaries, with your diary on the top. (One Diary to bring them all…)

Consider data privacy in your choice of diary, the content of diary events and who you share your diary with.

Relinquishing complete control can (weirdly!) lead to greater overall control as you take a step back from negotiations.

For gold standard diary management, use the calendar associated with your business name domain as your master.

"I don't need an Assistant: I'll just use Copilot!"

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:25:58 GMT

Why relying on AI tools only is insufficient.

There have been many exciting advances in AI in recent years. We hear stories all the time that AI can or will almost entirely replace administrative workers or “entry-level,” jobs. Whilst businesses may feel inspired that AI is a huge opportunity to save on overheads yet simultaneously boost and streamline productivity, this isn’t the reality.

AI is another tool for you to master – do you have time to keep up with changes in functionality? Can you be aware of all the up-to-date risks and limitations surrounding it? Are you overly optimistic about what it can and cannot do? Misunderstanding the capabilities of AI, yet not investing in administrative or entry-level support, can prove costly when you end up spending far too much time working far too below your own pay grade.

AI tools and automated systems, used with sensitivity, can be valuable in making your processes run smoothly. They can also be of real disservice to your business when they cause frustration. The old adage that people will do business with people remains true. If people are paying for a service, they like to know they can access that service. Situations that could result in a complaint can sometimes be avoided entirely by a reply from a human being. Maintaining the personal touch could be what makes you stand out from the crowd.

AI is a tool for humanity, not a replacement.

A Day in the Life: How do you Work?

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:29:02 GMT

The most common question I am asked is “So how do you work?” Let me take you behind the scenes to describe the typical working day of a virtual assistant…

Wednesday 01 October 2025

08:45-09:00

The working day starts after the school run – or rather, “walk.” A walk first thing energises for the day ahead and is a useful time to ponder and reflect. It’s also an easy way to clock 12 miles of walking a week.

Back at my desk, after greeting the family guinea pigs, I power up PC and Mac. Most days start with checking my own and my clients’ inboxes for any urgent tasks. After that first look, I will decide in what order to do various tasks and plan my day ahead.

Today is slightly different as it is the first working day of the month meaning…

09:00-10:00

…my first job today is to invoice for the preceding month. I use Toggl to record the time spent on administrative work so I log in and generate a report for each client to be sent out with their invoice.

Interview or report-from-dictation transcription is charged according to the length of the audio and I keep an Excel timesheet detailing the audio file name and length.

Next, it’s a login to QuickBooks to generate and send those invoices and reconcile monthly outgoings.

10:00-12:30

Month end complete, it’s time to login to emails and prioritise the rest of the day.

There are some clinic lists to add to one client’s diary and a couple of short letters to type up. This client has approved some letters from the previous day so these are ready to be sent to their patients for e-signature.

Another client has a trip to an overseas conference coming up. I confirm flights and arrival times with their host.

I have received an enquiry about transcription work and I reply to this with my availability for next week.

12:30-13:00

Time for a short lunch break. Over lunch, I browse Skills for Health searching for and purchasing an Information Governance course. I am a registered member of AMSPAR - CPAdm MAMS AIPC as I have completed their Level 2 Certificate in Medical Terminology – so there is a CPD requirement to fulfil.

13:00 – 15:00

Another check for client administrative tasks and then head down transcribing until…

15:00 – 16:30

…it’s time for school pick-up. Being freelance, I work mostly within office hours but also flexibly. Knowing my children are happy has always been my own baseline for happiness and productivity at work. I collect my son from school and, as it’s a club day, after a quick turnaround drop him off for today’s activity.

16:30 – 18:00

To wrap the day up, I finish off some transcription and type another couple of short letters. There are some more enquiries to deal with for my clients and some filing.

I’ll finish responding to and for clients at around 18:00. I check Toggl and my transcription timesheets. Although my day is spent dipping in and out of different “pots” of work, I keep an eye on how much time is clocked up overall. This helps me plan, quote and set deadlines better.

I notice that I have accrued one hour of chargeable work to one particular client today. Knowing the work I have done today, I feel pleased about this. My client will only be charged for one hour of my time today, however the experience of their customers is that their queries have been answered as if the enquiry email was manned 09:00 to 18:00. An eight hour day for the cost of one hour of chargeable time.

Key Points

There are different “pots” of work, which I dip in and out of throughout my working hours.

Administrative work is charged by my time spent completing the work.

Transcription work is charged by the length of the audio.

I work flexibly, planning and structuring my own workday. However...

...you only pay for the time I spend working for you.

Invoices are sent out at month end, this being the first working day of the new month.

Ciara Ferrier

Sharing Calendars - Google and Outlook

How do you share calendars between Google and Outlook?

At first, it looks like they don't talk to each other but a fix is available.

Outlook to Google

"Publishing" actions within Outlook

"Accepting" actions within Google

Google to Outlook

"Publishing" actions within Google

Revoking Access

My First Administration Role

What you learn when people are allowed to call you out on being wrong. ﻿

My first administration role...

There was an "old" way of doing customer service that might have been better

﻿

The kinds of "enquiries" we dealt with

﻿

You learnt to anticipate and mitigate

When I got it completely wrong

Customer service became about server, not served

﻿

Customer service applies to professions

﻿ Respect is a two-way street and deference is no longer a thing

What is good customer service?

My MO to customer service

It is really hard

Volunteering - National Trust

You gain by giving.

Landslide

"A Landslide will bring you down."

Human Transcription - Objections and Benefits

I'm sorry there wasn't much to write in the first column.

We may think of more for the second.

Data Protection is NOT the (Only) Issue

When we talk about standards and regulations for AI, we do not mean just data protection. We must also consider the safety around how we think about that data .

CoPilot to your Captain

﻿ An example task

CoPilot

Step by step

Time savings

Why this is good use of AI - the nature of the task

Integrate not replace

Using Human Ingenuity

Loving the "Transcribed using Human Ingenuity" badge, courtesy of Hi from a Human!

The BEST Way to Boost Your Conversion Rate

It’s an uncomfortable truth that, in private healthcare, a treatment plan is also a sales pitch.

"Small Vehicle Racism"

Keeping You Compliant

10 ways a medical secretary virtual assistant can keep you compliant, avoiding litigation or legal issues.

Benefits to Patient Experience

How can engaging a medical secretary virtual assistant add value to your patients' experience?

What do patients need from their experience?

1. ACCESS

2. COMMUNICATION

3. JOURNEY

4. PERSONALISATION

CLINICAL FOCUS

How a virtual personal assistant adds value to patient experience

Growth

Final thoughts

Evolution in Transcription

Whilst we are seeing evolution in the way letters and reports are created, the skill of transcription is still providing best results in others

Broadly speaking, there are two "arms" of transcription

The creation of letters or reports has seen a definite evolution

Assessing workflow and cost-efficiency - where is your data?!

Transcription of recorded conversations has not evolved to give the same level of results

Human-ear transcription is both evolving...and not!

More expensive for a reason

Plan your project!

Final thoughts

Half Term

Do you struggle to juggle during school holidays? Do you wish you could just handover to someone else?

Plan

Prioritise

Follow-up

Final thoughts

Completing the BDIA Introduction to Dentistry Course

This course formed part of our CPD requirement for 2025-2026

The Power Automated Difference

Configure behind-the-scenes automation to enhance your workflows

What you learn when people are allowed to call you out on being wrong.

Respect is a two-way street and deference is no longer a thing

An example task

Use Power Automate to Simplify and Notify

January is here but are you facing or embracing the new year?