How to maximize your relationship with your translator

How to maximize your relationship with your translator

The relationship you have with your translator is perhaps one of the most important factors in the success of your translation. It has a direct impact on the quality of work you receive, how efficient your project is, and how quickly it reaches completion.

Choosing the right person to fill the role is the first step toward optimizing your translation project. Once you’ve found a good match, you must continue to manage your translator to achieve the best outcome in your project.

No matter which industry you’re in, there are four main steps that your relationship with your translator will go through during the life cycle of your project.

No matter which industry you’re in, Common Sense Advisory outlines four main steps that your relationship with your translator will go through during the life cycle of your project. These include:

1. Competencies

The first step in any translation project is finding the right person to work with you. This is known as the “competencies” stage because it involves evaluating each potential translator’s ability to meet the requirements for your business and translation.

During this stage you will determine the capabilities and capacity of your translator. Your project has unique needs. You need to find the right person or company who has the experience, expertise, and skillset to fulfill your expectations. With the capabilities in mind, you must also determine the rate of productivity. How fast can the translator deliver a quality product? As the volume of your translation project grows, you need a language service provider that can keep up with your workflow.

The goal of the competency stage of the life cycle is to determine a benchmark the person or provider you choose to hire. This ensures you get the best service for your investment.

2. Reliability

Once hired, the on-boarding process begins. During this process, it is natural for there to be a small learning curve. Usually this process is complete in a matter of six to nine months.

The on-boarding phase is the opportunity for you to determine how reliable the person you hired is in producing what was promised during the competency phase. You will establish metrics, such as turn around time, quality assurance guarantees, and overall management expectations of the project.

The reliability phase offers you a chance to look for any red flags. Did the supplier provide a far inferior service? Did the supplier miss deadlines? Watch out for concerns throughout this stage to avoid getting burned later on in the relationship.

3. Convenience

Once you’ve moved past the learning phase of your relationship, you may start to see new concerns or requirements that were not initially agreed upon on the first service agreement. How the supplier reacts to these unforeseen circumstances will have a direct impact on the quality of your relationship.

An example of unanticipated events includes expectations for the supplier to provide creativity or customization above and beyond the scope of work. Another example includes faster expectations in terms of turnaround times.

No matter what the unforeseen circumstance, it is up to both the buyer (you) and supplier (translator) to keep the focus and interests of the project in line with expectations. This will minimize any friction while maintaining a high level of output and quality.

4. Improvement

As your relationship goes through ups, downs, and details, you must determine how your translator is improving. During this final stage, watch to discover whether or not your business relationship is moving in the right direction.

Are you continuously getting better work from your supplier? Is the supplier responding positively to new changes and processes during your project? Are your expectations of improvement reasonable and realistic?

Optimizing your relationship with a language service provider is a crucial part of your global success. The relationship with your supplier relies on this forward movement. To stimulate growth across all stages of the life cycle, both the buyer and the supplier must stay in constant communication about expectations and what is needed to improve.

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