The Biggest Translation Mistake Ever

The “biggest translation mistake ever” may not be what you think.

Professional translation services routinely implement quality assurance protocols in their processes so that actual mistranslations are rare. Even when a client reports discovery of a “mistake’ in a translation deliverable it’s usually not a case of an actual error. More often it’s a case of a translator selecting a word or phrase that differs from the preference of a lay translation reviewer. Alternate translations are abundant.

So what is the biggest translation mistake ever? In our experience it’s:

Failing To Establish A Relationship With Your Translation Provider.

 

Strong relationships have advantages not only personally but professionally. For translation clients, building a relationship with their translation provider can bring numerous benefits including the following:

1) Preferential Scheduling. For regular consumers of translation services, sooner or later a project will come up that requires urgent attention. While completing and delivering a project ‘yesterday’ might not be possible, sometimes translation services can expedite delivery schedules by making special arrangements. Project managers are much more likely to make the extra effort for long time clients and for those clients they work with regularly.

2) Confidence and Trust. Trust is most often developed over time. A successful first project leads to a second, then a third, and so on. Clients having confidence that a translation project will be performed professionally frees up mental capacity to focus on other tasks. Most translation clients would like to hand off responsibility for a translation project, trust that their language services provider will handle it professionally, and move on to other things.

3) Specialized Project Consulting. Translation services, strictly speaking, might sometimes be only a part of a larger client need. For example, an eLearning translation project might have several components and require skills in addition to translation. There might also be a voice-over component, editing of screen graphics, and overall integration of all inputs. A trusted translation provider clients have established a relationship with will want to go the extra mile to bring all related skills together to produce the desired final output.

Are there other reasons and benefits to establish a relationship? Feel free to leave your comments below.