Within past years modern
electronic communication has
created extensive business
opportunities for freelance
translators. They are able
to reach clients from all
over the world and perform
their jobs at their own convenience.
It appears to be a dream profession,
but yet so many translators
report that it’s challenging
to keep their previous clients,
and that the number of clients
they served has diminished.
One would like to know why
this takes place.
First of all, one need to
be aware that nowadays there
is a great competition on
the market, and clients are
very selective. So how do
I make sure that clients will
return to me, not to my competitor?
There are clients who constantly
need translation services,
and they actually prefer to
use the same translator for
many different projects. They
will only cooperate with you
again if they were satisfied
with your previous services.
It is also to your advantage
to be familiar with complains
the clients have made about
translation services in the
past. The most common ones
are:
1. The project was not finished
on time.
2. The translator demonstrated
poor language skills: grammar,
spelling, punctuation, omitted
words, etc.
3. The translator misunderstood
the formation of the translation
project. He/she used different
font, style. He/she did not
translate the images. He/she
did not include tables, etc.
4. The translator showed poor
communication skills. He/she
was not flexible enough. He/she
has never notified when a
problem occurred during the
translation process.
5. The translator was hard
to reach at his/her office.
He/she did not provide adequate
mailing address and all the
documents kept returning to
the sender.
6. The translator turned out
to be not reliable. He/she
assured he/she knew the dialect
of the language but did not
demonstrate this skill. He/she
advertised himself/herself
as a legal translator but
never certified his/her work.
When returning the project
he/she did not include the
original seal. He/she never
corrected his/her previous
mistakes even though he/she
promised to do so.
7. The translator was not
culturally sensitive. He/she
presented himself/herself
as a native speaker but did
not know all the aspects of
the culture.
8. The translator never returned
money. He/she admitted that
the translation was poorly
done and promised to recompense
but never did.
9. The translator did not
respond well to constrictive
criticism.
In order to stand out from
the competition, and have
your previous clients come
back to you, one ought to
perform self –evaluation
after each translation project.
Be critical about your skills
and ask your clients for feedbacks.
Even the negative ones might
provide you with another perspectives
and ideas on how to improve
your skills and develop your
professional growth. Sometimes
constrictive criticism leads
to a positive change. And
positive feedbacks guarantee
good promotion, trust among
clients, and more projects.
Good luck.
The author Marian Marcinkowski
is the President of VerbumSoft.
He is the owner of http://www.translatorsbase.com
and http://www.directfreelance.com
Translatorsbase.com it is
a global provider in translation
solutions, providing translation
services via network of professional
freelance translators and
translation agencies located
around the world. Directfreelance.com
it is a directory of freelance
professionals searchable by
category, specialization and
location. Freelancers can
find here jobs posted on daily
basis.
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