By Fernando Feldman*
In our profession, we all know those “demanding” customers, the ones who systematically want to “correct” texts or question the quality of the work done. Irrespective of whether they are right or not, the real issue is to understand the nature of their objections so as to earn their trust.
Taking into account the fact that we all have our better days and that we provide an intellectual service where quality cannot be measured as objectively as in industrial manufacturing, it is not surprising that our work is sometimes commented on or criticized by certain customers. But it is precisely because of the subjective nature of our work that it is indispensable to implement a procedure based on systematic proofreading so as to reduce quality-related uncertainties. Our objective is to ensure that the translations delivered always benefit from a second critical examination and are able to usefully serve their purpose, even if they are not always as “perfect” as we might hope.
For a multilingual digital production agency, there is nothing as maddening as losing a customer because of a language that is not translated in-house. Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that can happen when you don’t have the skills to manage objections internally.
The reasons for difficult relations with certain customers can be explained by very diverse factors. To mention but a few:
1) “Subjective” reasons (more related to human relations than to linguistic issues):
- where the customer has had a previous “negative experience” with another agency;
- a comment from someone in the company (a sales representative, an executive secretary who claims to be “trilingual”, etc.) questioning the quality of the work in an attempt to impress a manager.
2) “Objective” reasons (related to linguistic issues):
- differences between the vocabulary used by the subsidiaries and the vocabulary used in the translations (regional expressions, specific wording);
- very specific company jargon;
- the price offered to the translators does not match the difficulty of the text (some texts require double proofeading!)
Whatever the reason, experience has taught us that the most important thing in this type of situation is the relationship you have established with the customer. The customer must be convinced that the team in charge of his translations has all the necessary skills and that it would be difficult for him to find better quality on the market for the same price. It is sometimes worthwhile to put the customer in contact with a person in your agency who has the necessary linguistic authority to clear up any doubts and abate mistrust.
This is particularly true of unjustified or “bad faith” criticism. But it is also true where there are linguistic issues linked to the objective reasons mentioned above. In fact, any objection can be an opportunity to win the trust of the end customer and reassure him about our methods. If the problem comes from lack of command of their corporate vocabulary, for example, this provides an opportunity to propose a method for validation by subsidiaries. Among competent people working together in good faith, there is no reason why we should not come to an understanding.
Ideally, of course, your agency could have someone in-house capable of serving as an interface for Spanish with respect to the client. But even if you do not have someone in-house, there are other solutions…
By the way, have you heard of our My Spanish division partnership?
* Fernando has been a translator and conference interpreter since 1994. He is the coordinator and distributor of tasks within the team. As a proofreader, he has one major flaw, according to his colleagues: He is never entirely satisfied with the quality of the work. The same colleagues, however, acknowledge that he has at least two qualities: His aptitude to choose a competent team to support him and his eagle eye to spot whatever is wrong with a text!