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After reading an attention-grabbing study from Common Sense Advisory, Inc. on how manufacturing companies buytranslations and select language service providers, we believe it would be of interest to our readers.
Quality of Service and Relationship matter most
| What buyers want | What they mean when they say this |
| Subject matter expertise | Translators who are familiar with the terminology and style required by their industry for specific types of content. Ideally, reviewers with the same expertise. |
| Linguistic quality | Accuracy – in particular, vendors who follow their style guides and instructions. |
| Flexibility | Ability to meet required deadlines. Local time zone support. Availability outside office hours and on weekends. |
| Relationship quality | Two-way communication between buyer and supplier, LSP and contracted providers, and between buyer and translators and reviewers (if requested). Good institutional knowledge of the client’s company so that translators do not have to ask the same question twice. Robust processes as well as process improvement capabilities. |
| Price | Awareness by providers that price is definitely important, but only after more essential criteria has been met. |
| Technology and workflow | Willingness of suppliers to adapt to buyer workflow. Commitment to use the tools that buyers use, and to update them on a timely basis. Open platforms that are accessible to multiple vendors. |
| Vendor collaboration | An understanding by LSPs up-front that they will be working side-by-side with competitors, rather than replacing them. |
| Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc., Table1: Vendor Selection Criteria for Manufacturing Buyers | |
Price plays a role, but not a starring one
According to the study, the price of services do influence buyers’ decisions, but less so than factors like subject matter expertise, flexibility, and the quality of the business relationship.
A buyer states: “Pricing is one of the last issues we talk about. We try to figure out first if we have the same understanding of workflow processes and communication issues.”
At TrueLanguage, we typically experience a similar buying/selling process with our clients. At the beginning of any project or new client relationship we try to learn and as much as possible about our clients’ processes so we can accurately assign the best translators and SMEs to the project.
What about sample translations?
This is an interesting question. Buyers often think that when they receive a sample translation, it will provide insight into the vendor’s translation quality and, to some extent, it may. However, taking a text sample out of context and often without any knowledge on terminology or references will not always reflect the true quality of the translation. Therefore, we recommend that if you require a sample translation, you should request a snippet from an existing translation along with the corresponding source material.
For additional information and guidance on what makes a LSP a good translation provider, we invite you to check out our blog – Risk Management – Warranty in Translations
https://www.truelanguage.com/2012/11/risk-management-warranty-in-translations/
Hi Uli, thanks for the e-mail, is very informative. I’m going to checkout the web pages.
Thanks for the article. Is very informative. I’m going to check out the web pages.
Greetings Uli. Thank you for the new email flier and this article. How exciting you are a new federal government GSA Schedule contractor to sell translation and interpretation servies to federal agencies. Congratulations!