9 Steps to Choosing the Right Language Service Provider (LSP)
If your company wants to grow and enter new markets, you should communicate with your customers and partners in a language they understand, ideally in their mother tongue. Even if you offer services in English, you are no exception. Indeed, English is the global language. However, you cannot expect every individual to understand English.??
According to numerous studies, customers are more likely to buy a product or service in their native language. This is because it creates a more sincere and strong relationship with the company and its customers. In some cases, the law may also require texts such as manuals or operating instructions to be translated into the national language.?
Only a professional language service provider can help you transfer your product, service, or content to international customers properly, providing invaluable support, minimizing your workload as well as ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. ?
In this article, you’ll find a guide to choosing the right language service provider.?
You can also check out our article to find out how to adapt your product to a new market .?
What Does A Language Service Provider (LSP) Do??
Thanks to technology and the internet, it is possible to address a global audience, expand your business, and operate internationally. This path to growing out of your local market, however, requires professional assistance in language operations. These operations include translation, localization , transcreation, and much more. You especially need an LSP for continuous localization. You might think of this process as the core of international language operations.?
We cannot limit language operations to translation. And just because someone speaks a specific language does not mean that they are a translator or able to provide language services. Adapting content from one language to another is a science. It requires exceptional language skills and an in-depth understanding of the target country, culture, and industry. Language service providers are experts in the correct use of language and are familiar with the respective country's culture. Your LSP is a vital supporter in successfully reaching your long and short-term goals.?
Why Should You Work With an LSP??
When you work with a professional language service provider, you can rest assured that your content will only be assigned to experienced, trained linguists who have mastered the profession and are supplied with the necessary automation. They use CAT tools, AI, machine translation, and TMS, controlling workflow and guaranteeing the highest quality.?
By choosing a language service provider instead of operating language-related processes within your company, you avoid delays and errors in your projects. These activities take time and demand utmost attention.??
LSPs are experienced in handling large volumes of content and having short delivery times. They adapt your product and services without losing the content value to introduce your products to the target markets faster and impeccably.?
What to Look For In an LSP??
We can roughly characterize the quality of an LSP by:?
These are the essential qualities that you should look for in an LSP. However, the right language service provider is the one that answers your industry specifications, goals, target customer profiles, and budget.?
How to Choose the Right Language Service Provider (LSP)??
When looking for a language service provider, you will see that there are so many agencies. It may be difficult for you to define what differentiates an agency from another.?
The decision depends on your requirements and goals as well as other criteria. For example, suppose you only want a text translated once for regional markets, where accuracy and quality are easily achieved. In that case, your budget is probably the decisive criterion for this purpose.?
However, if you want your content adapted for international customers or partners, you should choose a provider who delivers the highest quality. A poor operation in such a case can have catastrophic consequences for your company's reputation and reduce the potential value of your product in the new market. Just imagine the severe consequences of incorrectly translated operating instructions or a website that makes your company look unprofessional.?
Most LSPs advertise the same points about themselves: Highly-qualified translators, lower prices than the competitors, fast delivery, and first-class service.?
The following nine tips serve as a guide in the labyrinth of language service providers and help you find the right partner for your requirements and goals.?
1. Are There References??
The most important reason for looking at references is to understand what kind of company you are contacting. Do their work ethics, operations or strategies align with yours? That's why you need to be careful when choosing an LSP as it will represent your business. References give you invaluable insights; knowing its quality and capabilities to adapt your workload presents an overall picture.?
\The best method is to ask around for a reliable provider. You may know someone who has worked with a language service provider that they can recommend. Then you can ask further questions, for example, whether the agency was reliable and conscientious and the translation quality was good. You can also check the website for success stories and references or check with the reference clients whom you can contact directly.??
2. How does the LSP Operate??
Professional language service providers adopt effective methods for handling their customers' language tasks so that every project and all linguists involved can be tracked. Here TMSs are essential for smooth management. With the help of such automation, the provider ensures that all tasks are completed as quickly as possible.??
Often, clients can monitor the progress of their job and view any current or completed adaptations. Therefore, ask for a translation management system from a leading provider on the market, for example, Tarjama’s CleverSo .?
3. Which Language Pairs Do They Offer??
Even if your content can only be translated into one or a few languages, you should clarify whether the language service provider offers all languages. In this way, you can be sure that your company will not “outgrow” the language service provider, that it will support the future demands of your company, and that it will always meet your requirements.?
Along with language options, LSP should take on services for as many languages as possible and have experts who know terminologies of industries such as:?
4. What Qualification Does the LSP Require from Its Language Experts??
Professional language service providers work with experienced translators and language experts. Then, with the help of a network made up of a solid provider base, your content is adapted into multiple languages, even under tight deadlines.?
The qualifications LSPs expect from their experts can vary widely. To obtain the desired quality, you should make sure that it regularly evaluates the work of its linguists and their competence in the individual language combinations. In addition, LSPs should apply specific criteria for their language experts' training, experience, and skills.?
In addition to extensive expertise in various specialist areas, they also need a high degree of empathy, accuracy, and concentration for their work. They ensure that linguistic information is clearly understood and have all the necessary professional qualifications.?
Many LSPs work with freelance translators. You can choose such agencies if your task is on a small scale, requiring no more than two languages. However, globally known language service providers have a team of permanent translators. And a team of specialist translators offers clear advantages: These linguists ensure consistently high quality and understand the exact requirements of international projects.??
5. How Is The LSP’s Communication??
You can test how the agency reacts to your email requests or calls and whether it gives you the time you deserve as a (potential) customer.?
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Considering these, you can get an idea of how the cooperation with the agency would work and how you would be treated as a customer.?
You can also follow up with a few questions about how the agency works with clients.??
All of these questions and answers give you a first impression. You can determine if they can meet your needs and your specific expectations from a language service provider.?
6. How Are Rates And Delivery Times Determined??
As a customer, it is always valuable to know what costs are incurred for a product or service. Unfortunately, many language service providers do not provide a price until they inspect the text to be translated. How time-consuming a language project always depends on whether the content contains many technical terms, which topics are dealt with, which language combination is required, and more.??
If the LSP receives the files to be translated in advance, it can analyze them and give you a higher price even though there is recurring or already translated content. For this reason, we advise working with LSPs that have fixed prices.?
Also, you should keep in mind that an agency's price per word includes translation, project management, and proofreading costs. Therefore, if the offered price seems remarkably low to you, it could be that the agency lacks language service, which leads to a loss of quality in the result.?
7. What Other Services Does the LSP Offer??
Ideally, you should aim to find a language service provider that covers all the language services you need so that you can get everything from a single source. Furthermore, the entire process becomes simpler with significantly better results if a particular language service provider handles all of your projects, getting to know your company and its requirements.?
You should ask whether the agency offers:?
The range of services should also include professional interpreting - a highly complex process in which speeches or statements are orally translated into another language.?
8. Does the LSP Use CAT Tools and Other Language Technologies??
Professional language service providers use computer-aided translation (CAT tools) for translating your texts. CAT tools contribute to the quality of a translation, for example, by ensuring terminology uniform. At the same time, you benefit from a lower price, as you pay less or nothing for all previously translated units or repetitions.??
Suppose the LSP uses the latest technology services such as system integration and machine translation. In that case, this is a good sign that it is familiar with new industrial developments and can offer you solutions for more efficient, smarter processes. Some important language technologies of today include:?
9. How Is the LSP Positioned Financially??
Nobody wishes to suddenly lose an important business partner they have relied on because it quit providing services. Therefore, you should always ask how long the language service provider has been operating and determine its financial status. This way, you can be sure that your operations would not be interrupted.?
Conclusion?
If you consider these nine tips when choosing your language service provider, nothing can stand in your way of a good start. You must find the right partner right from the beginning so that you do not have to switch from one LSP to another, thus losing valuable time and resources.?
Your LSP is your business partner and should minimize your workload while offering constant quality assurance. It relieves you of tasks that are not in your profession, saving priceless time, effort, and cost.??
If you are interested in our professional language services , please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to work with you to develop tailor-made solutions for your goals and demands.?
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Professional into-English translator since 2007. Available, responsive, on time. Helping you go global and stay global.
1 年Basically, one has to be thorough and careful when choosing one's LSP. Perhaps the most important decision to make in one's localisation journey . . . .