What We Learn from Unhappy Translation Clients
Rarely do we have an unhappy customer. When we do (despite our best efforts) we try to address their concerns as clearly and quickly as possible.
Responses to concerns don’t necessarily occur immediately, though an acknowledgement of a concern comes quickly. “Dear customer, thank you for your message. We’re looking into the issue that you mention and will get back to you as soon as possible.” This type of email or something similar confirms to the client that we will respond will more substantive information once it’s available.
If there’s an issue with a client it tends to be:
- A question about a translation
- A document formatting issue
- Something to do with the schedule
Questions about translations usually come as a result of a third party comment. Lay translation reviewers are notorious for throwing up unwarranted red flags about translations. While it is possible for a professional translator to make an actual error, in our experience they’re rare. Formatting requests are usually simple to remedy once brought to our attention. We try to provide realistic project schedule from the beginning so customers have a realistic expectation for project completions.
A valid complaint from a customer highlights an area or aspect of our operations to improve on. Customers bringing these things to our attention are actually doing us a favor.
