• Resources:
• FAQ |
• Tutorials |
• Case Studies |
• White Papers |
• Articles
•  

Translation Services: Dialogues - Competition 3

Below are parts of dialogues we gleaned from online dialogues. This information was used in our 2008 state of the industry research. ABC Translationss is NOT one of the companies involved in or mentioned in the dialogues; these messages were posted on the open Internet. These dialogues are provided in order to promote transparency in the translation industry; however, to protect the identities of the companies involved, we have chosen to replace their names with "The Company" and "Our Company."

---

1) I think it is unreasonable for any company to make a judgement about the quality offered by Our Company without checking our references or testing a sample of our translations.

2) Our Company has been in business since 1998. We are a small company dedicated to delivering excellent quality and service to our long-term client base. We are not a "hobbyist" company.

3) Our Company has an excellent quality control system. One native speaker translates the documents and another native speaker proofreads the translations to ensure accuracy of interpretation. You will not need The Company as a double check. Our Company Translations delivers accurate, responsible translations. In general, I would agree with your contact at The Company. There are many translation companies in the market that deliver poor translations, and unfortunately the clients are not able to determine the level of quality. This is exactly why I opened Our Company 7 years ago.

After I finished my MBA, I was working for a multi-billion dollar firm in Marketing. We needed to translate some materials into Spanish and French. Luckily, I do speak both Spanish and French. So when the translations came back, I could judge their quality. It was awful! And it was expensive.

At that moment, I saw a business opportunity to provide high quality translations to large multi-national companies. I started the company with several of my colleagues from business school. We hire the best talent and deliver excellent quality. It is my company, with my name, and I have a vested interest in providing superior service. In summary, I want to point out that your contact at The Company is not incorrect. There are many companies in the market that deliver lousy translations. However, Our Company is not one of them.

---

I am not surprised and a little amused at The Company's comments. What they say has elements of truth because there is very little in the way of standardization of credentials for translators, interpreters, language instruction, language services companies, and linguists in the United States. Some European countries are ahead of the USA. There was a convocation at the University of Maryland 3 weeks ago dealing with this subject. Attending the convocation were representatives from the White House, all branches of the military, academia, and federal and state agencies. I was not present, but the head of the Joint Language Training Center (Navy), Ogden, UT, was there. He and I have had several conversations about these issues. However, there are both large and small companies doing excellent translation work and others doing mediocre or poor work.

I am not in the office today but will be back on Monday. You mentioned about having problems with the Spanish or Japanese translations. I would like to better address your concerns and those of ESPN. So, I ask that you be a little more specific. For example, are you concerned about message accuracy as English is translated into Spanish or Japanese or other languages you may select? Are there concerns about the technical aspects of web site translation such as translating directly using HTML or MLA?

Whichever company you choose, my goal is to have to feel confident that you will receive the best results for the money and effort put into your project. When I get back into the office, I will address your concerns and give you information about The Company from our perspective. In the end, it will be our word against theirs.

I would suggest that you check references from both The Company and Our Company Co. I am confident with the references given you in our proposal. Both MAXIMUS and FMC Corporation previously used large translation companies and switched to us. Their reason for switching was they found that our small company was considerably more responsive then their previous large translation company suppliers. When we were obtaining our GSA Contract, GSA requires each company to receive a Duennas and Bradstreet rating from references through Open Ratings. The translation companies are scored using several service criteria and must supply 20 references to be scored. Our company received one of the highest ratings received by GSA as there was no negative feedback from a reference. I can supply you with our reference score sheet if you desire.

---

 

Receive your free quote for technical translation or interpreting services today.

Quick Menu:

Get specialized help for documents:

Document Translation Services