The benefits of a long-term relationship between clients and a translation agency are invaluable. For companies that have regular translation or interpreting needs, as well as for a translation agency, it is beneficial to develop a long-term relationship.
In this blog post, Cultures Connection discusses the subject of long-term relationships between clients –large corporations, SMEs, public bodies, NGOs– and translation agencies. We examine two key points:
– How can a translation company build trust with clients?
– What are the benefits to the client of a long-term relationship with their language service provider?
How can a translation company build trust with clients?
Some of the strategies that a reliable translation company follows in order to build customer loyalty and establish a long-term relationship are:
– Effective communication. You need to build trusting professional relationships, to analyze and adapt to the client’s behavior and therefore use the client’s preferred method of communication. Communicating effectively entails the right amount of information about translation or interpreting projects, clarity, and regular follow-up, from the quotation step to the completion or delivery step of the project.
– Availability and listening. Project managers must take the time to let clients speak in order to fully understand the stakes related to requested translations. This means being familiar with the client’s products or services, the markets or target audiences, as well as, for example, the marketing strategy or objectives.
– Responsiveness and solutions. Project managers must be responsive to urgent translation requests, or when clients have questions or doubts. Professionalism in all circumstances is essential. Clients must feel confident that they can trust their translation agency in any given situation.
– Dedicated team of translators. The translation company selects a specific team of translators dedicated to the client. These translators are professionals who continue to train in the client’s specialty area(s). The project manager can even share the selected profiles with the client, so that the latter can validate the team of linguists.
Building client loyalty brings a definite advantage to a translation agency: order anticipation. Indeed anticipation contributes to a more efficient scheduling for project managers and people involved at each stage: translators, proofreaders, graphic designers, quality assurance managers. Thus the LSP can call weeks or even months in advance on its network of translators so as to prepare and signal translation projects.
What are the benefits to the client of a long-term relationship with their language service provider?
The list of benefits of a long-term client-translation agency relationship is not short. Read our selection of some noteworthy advantages:
– Dedicated and customized project management. A dedicated project manager becomes a valuable contact whenever the client’s company or governmental institution needs translation, subtitling or interpreting services. The project management is customized with an individual tailor-made service: the translation agency shapes it to the company’s specificities, such as product features, languages, file type, certain requirements related to the target markets, the billing system, or time constraints.
– Easier and fast communication. A client who has regular interactions with their dedicated project manager benefits from an easier communication that respects their way of working. The communication is necessarily faster since the project manager will treat in priority the requests of a regular and faithful customer.
– Offers and solutions. Thanks to a professional relationship of many years, a translation agency that knows long-term clients well has the ability to make suitable offers. Proposals are used to refine or adapt the client’s requests, depending on the brand or the international approach. Similarly, a long-term relationship makes it easier to place last-minute orders for urgent projects. It also allows quite simply for change requests on translated documents already delivered because the original text has been modified and the changes need to be reflected in the other languages.
– Automation via the customer portal. When a translation agency provides its customers with a customer portal –as is the case with Cultures Connection– it makes it possible to create an automatic ordering process for regular customers that is based on their habits. The portal facilitates order and progress tracking, as well as billing, especially for companies or organizations with multiple entities.
– Good product or service knowledge. Dedicated team translators are familiar with the products and services when they translate for the same client every week or month. The dedicated team is familiar with the client’s glossary and style preferences. In addition, the linguistic team submits entries to update and improve the glossary.
– Quality assurance. A loyal customer is a valued customer who cannot be disappointed. Regular customers appreciate the special attention given to their projects at every stage. For instance, a reliable translation agency performs a strict quality control of the translations that takes into account requirements and preferences of the client’s company or institution. The delivered documents will be ready for publication without any verification or editing by the client.
Eventually a long-term relationship between clients and a translation company exists as long as the two collaborate regularly and when a good understanding has been created. A translation company has every interest in taking care of clients in order to establish a long-term relationship. Indeed it adds value to the translation agency because it proves that clients not only trust the agency, but also renew their trust each time they place a new order. As for clients who establish a long-term relationship with a translation company, they quickly become fond of customized services, effective communication with their dedicated project manager, and quality work of the dedicated team of translators and graphic designers.
It’s a win-win situation!
Read our brochure!
