September 14th, 2024 – Should I Be Offering Free Trials/ Samples?

Recently, this became a source of controversy in some of the forums I follow and participate in. Is it still common practice, and is it still recommended for scopists to be scoping free pages for new clients? There were a lot of mixed opinions, however, it seemed that there was a lot of voices stating this should not be the norm. Free trials are free work, and you should not work for free.

On some points in this rhetoric, I agree, and in others, I do not. Let me explain.

Reporters don’t know who you are or what you’re capable of

I know we’d all love to think that we have been doing this work for X number of years, we’ve proven our worth and paid our dues. However, there are still a significant number of people in this industry who have no idea who you are or what you’re capable of. There are many different theories and styles that court reporters might use, and they want to ensure you are capable of completing a job to that specific standard.

Free trials are a no-risk way for the reporter to get answers to their questions, from your behaviour. They don’t know you. They can ask you a million questions and you can give a million answers but the truth will always be in your behaviour within that working relationship. These reporters need to know that there is a chance for a positive working relationship. A free trial not only lets them see what you can do with a transcript, but it lets them see how well you would work together in the long term.

These reporters want answers to these questions that can sometimes only be determined by your behaviour.

Reporters have their own clients to please

A court reporter is not answering strictly to themselves. They have to give these transcripts to lawyers, who also have specific needs and expectations. A court reporter is adding you to a team. They need to know if you can produce a transcript that will meet the expectations of the team. There are a lot of unknown variables when it comes to adding a new member to a team, and the onus lies on the one who brought that person in. The court reporter needs to make sure that you are not going to shift the dynamics of the team, or behave in a way that could cause disruption or unease. Free trials are a good way for them to get a look at how well you would fit in with the work they do, at the speed they do it, to the standard they do it.

Amount of pages is a key distinction

I absolutely agree with the people stating that you should not work for free. With the amount of effort you’ve put into educating yourself and being good at this job, no, you should not be offering to do full jobs for free. However, I think if doing pages for free results in a positive relationship with a court reporter, trust built in the relationship, and further opportunities for work, then I believe sacrificing a few pages in worth it.

The key point here is, “A FEW pages.” I’m not going to do a 100-page job for free. I’m not even going to do a 50-page job for free. That’s time and effort I can put into my paying clients. I will do ten pages free for new clients who are interested in my skill set but haven’t made up their mind. Ten pages is not such a significant number that I feel I’m losing too much if I don’t sign the client. It also isn’t so many pages that I feel I’m taking away my time and effort from paying clients.

Ten pages is a good number from my own standpoint. This number may seem too high or too low for you when asking yourself the same questions. Personally, I believe ten pages is enough for a reporter to see what I’m capable of and satisfy any of their other curiosities.

In Conclusion

You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. If you don’t feel comfortable with doing any number of pages for free, then don’t. I’m not trying to persuade you one way or the other. I wanted to share my opinion, and the reasons I believe free trials are more than just “free work.” They work for me, they have been instrumental to me finding clients whom I have managed to build great relationships with, and therefore, I will continue to do them. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did! If you liked this post or want to share your own experiences and tips, make sure to leave a comment down below. If you want to see more, check out the last post below or the previous posts on the blog. And if you’re interested in learning more scopist, proofreading, or transcription information, make sure to check back for a new post on the Next Step Scopist blog!

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