Analysis of current consumer behavior when it comes to buying services

Consumer Behavior and Translation Services

What should you expect from your chosen translation vendor

Consumer behavior changes like the weather. The customers of today demand more from their chosen vendors and with the plethora of technological advancements available to them they will always scrutinize first and ask questions later. When you buy a brand new television set from a famous brand, you expect it to work when you install it. In other words after you have spent your hard earned money on a specific product, you expect that product to work just like the brand says it will. However, not every type of service can come up to such expectations. Such consumer perceptions set the wrong tone for services that specialize in “consumer based products” when it comes to the strictest sense of the word. Translation services are a case in point. Let us analyze this a bit further.

It is the Product that Matters
It doesn’t matter whether the client and vendor relationship refers to a B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Customers) scenario. It is the integrity and functionality of the product that an end user is concerned with. Unfortunately, most customers also have the same expectations when the product in question happens to be the translated version of a document.

Is the Client always right? No
Why does this happen?
Because when it comes to consumer behaviors –  A service or product has to work according to what the vendor promised

Unfortunately, your chosen translation vendor may not always be able to evaluate the targeted language according to your exact hopes/desires or your definition of good quality. For example, a high quality document produced by a reputable translation service provider, free of errors and capture the intended message may not meet the client’s criteria of good product. Why? Many times it’s due to the difference between the translators translating correctly according to the target language rules etc…and the client who prefer simpler way of expressing things. Other times is due to the fact and I heard this many times: I ran the translation by one of our staff who speaks (let's say Spanish) and they said this not correct. Let's look into this a bit deeper shall we, when a professional translator with BA/Master degree in Translation perform translation services which then evaluated by someone with no linguistic background other than (they speak the language) this is not a fair assessment to the correctness of the said translated document.

The service should have bargain prices 
Dear client, I love you and respect you dearly but when it comes to services and translation is one of them, you have 3 items, and you can choose 2 out of 3 only, the choices are:
1- Low price  or cheap
2- High Quality
3- Fast Turn around

The evaluation of a translated document is done by certified translators or people who are native speakers of the language in question. This plays a major role in setting the price. Sometimes a customer’s true intent gets lost in translation and the service either has to recreate the entire product or spend more time in correspondence with clients.

The client should always be right? Not always
This means that once a client makes a complaint about a certain product, the claim is generally warranted. The reason can range from everything from product defects or some other reason for the client’s chagrin. This can be a problematic prospect when it comes to the services of translation vendors. It is perfectly understandable why clients bring the same mentality to such services as well. However, this also puts the client in a tough situation since they rarely know what makes a good translation and often doubt a service’s expertise or knowledge in creating the finished product as a result.

The Fix:  We aim (regardless of the situation) to provide 100% Satisfaction to clients, how? by providing and allowing for a client review process this gives the translation  company the feedback and signals required to adjust the text according to client's expectation. This is normal, this also doesn't mean that in many cases that the original translation was bad, it just needed to be put in a tone that the client is happy with. which is fine.

Therefore it’s best that clients always hire translation services that are certified. Such services are not a one way street. They need to be fostered and nurtured until both parties figure out what makes the other tick. Eventually, clients will get what they want however they also need to understand that the services rendered by such vendors are a gradual process. In other words, it is all about creating balance.

Until next time...if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me

Sincerely

Robin