Translation Honesty & Trust [3 tips]

Note: The original article can be seen at https://blog.paragonls.com

Honesty and trust are the peanut butter and jelly of translation success. We believe that this is universal to collaborating with anyone on anything, but when foreign language is involved, integrity is particularly indispensable.

Language Services Providers (LSPs) earn their clients' trust through honest translation practices. Here are 3 tips for LSPs interested in building trust. How much trust is built up in your client - LSP relationship? Read on to find out... 

#1 Respond quickly.

Rapid response to your client is fundamental to building trust. In language services, we are accustomed to being contacted in the middle of a huge rush to meet an impending deadline.

Even if your client is NOT in a rush, fast response is equally important. Why? Eventually they will be in a rush and they will turn to partners like you who they know will respond quickly with solutions.  

#2 Provide solutions.

Quite simply, a translation requirement is a problem. The content is in one language and it needs to be in at least one other language. This problem needs to be solved on time, on budget and up to quality expectations. The path to solving this problem is truth and trust with a language partner. When you really solve your clients' problems you align with them in every way.

Last week a client who trusts me had this problem to solve on a pre-agreed budget and deadline:

I have the documents already translated to Arabic as attached. However, I would like to know the cost of having them placed in InDesign. Kindly find the documents attached in Arabic, as well as the documents in English. I would like the Arabic texts to be placed exactly as the English.

As for the solution, this is an easy one. It is actually in the problem, if you read it carefully:

I would like the Arabic texts to be placed exactly as the English [on time and on budget].

I replied affirmatively to my client almost immediately that we can solve this problem. How was I able to respond so quickly and confidently? I knew that there were at least 3 trusted partners with whom I could get this work done. These are providers that have always been quick to respond to me and solve my translation-related problems. 

#3 Be proactive.

We strive for perfection in translation, and we can get pretty close. Nonetheless, we don't live in an ideal world and translation errors occasionally happen, budgets don't always fit and deadlines are sometimes blown.

Integral to being honest and maintaining that critical level of trust is proactively informing your client of the situation as it develops. If something in your process is going to affect the delivery time, quality or budget, your client will trust you if you warn them ahead of time and they will lose trust if they find out after the fact. 

Trust in language services needs to travel up and down the services chain, so I hope that these three tips are useful for LSPs as well as clients. They are initial guidelines, though certainly just the tip of the trust iceberg. 

So how can you start building that foundation? Download our 1-page "Amazing Translation Partner Checklist" to lay the first bricks.

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