With companies cutting costs across the board to keep up with today’s market, there may be a temptation to take shortcuts when hiring translation services, choosing a less reputable but lower priced service over a pricier but well established one. This will, almost always, prove to be a false economy and can not only harm your reputation and that of your client but, also, can sometimes result in costly legal fees…….or worse.
In 2009, HSBC Bank were subject to a devastatingly expensive re-branding campaign when it was discovered that its catch-phrase “Assume Nothing,’ had been translated to “Do Nothing” in a number of countries and, between 2006 and 2007, a translation error on medical packaging in Germany resulted in 47 people having to suffer painful knee replacement surgery for a second time.
Key points to choosing a translator:
- Choose a translator from the country whose language you are looking to translate to – a native of the country will be more familiar with words which may be offensive or may have more than one meaning than somebody for whom it is a second language.
- Before having the translator start work, establish how you want the work to be translated – do you need it, where possible, to be verbatim or would you prefer that the translator use his or her initiative to make slight amendments to make the work more suited to the host country’s audience?
- A good translation service will provide you with proof of its successes as well as details of their translation quality assurance and satisfaction guarantees – make sure that you have seen these before committing to working with the service.
Although most clients will understand that, occasionally, mistakes are made, no client will be willing to forgive shoddy or lazy work and, the fastest way to lose a client is to provide translated work which could cost them money or cause them embarrassment. Once you have the translated document, ask for it to be looked at at least two or three more times and, then, have it independently back-translated to ensure accuracy, readability and fluency ensuring professional, great quality work for your client.
At Future Trans we promise strict quality assurance policy and committed to producing fast and accurate translations that meet all your requirements:)
Our Team will take their time to explain all the steps of our cooperation.
Request A Free Consultation
