What with plummeting rates and ever-demanding clients, life can be a bit tough for translators at the moment. Lots of businesses think that computers can produce acceptable translations, so why bother employing someone to do it?
I sit here in my comfortable Western European economy, albeit one that’s struggling a bit, and it’s easy to see the arrival of low-fee translators working in emerging economies as a threat. Quite frankly, I don’t. So what’s the best way of surviving in this new world situation?
Be better than the others
Quality is paramount in any business, but even more so in translation. It’s the job par excellence where you’re only as good as your last piece of work. Deliver quality, the best you can, all the time. Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Have you you never been tempted to cut a corner or two. “Oh, that’ll do”, “I’ll make it up next time”, the best way to lose a client’s trust is to do it gradually. A big howler can often be forgiven, 5 mediocre jobs might not be. Which means you should
Cultivate your relationships
Your clients are all human beings. They have husbands, wives and partners. They have kids, they have interests and they have problems. Basically they all have lives. Just like you. Just talk to them, if you get the opportunity, meet with them, take them out to lunch. A strong personal relationship with your clients will help you weather the storm when things do go wrong (and they will).
Specialise
The best way of making yourself the best is to specialise in a limited number if subjects and turn down any job, however big, in a subject area you’re not too sure about. I was mad enough when I first started to take on almost everything that was offered to me. My first job was medical (how mad was that?), I did engineering, a 9,000 word construction job without a single punctuation mark and more than one tooling machine job. I learnt my lesson pretty quickly. Remember that there are two types of translator, the specialist ones and the hungry ones.
Read
In both source and target languages. Especially in the target. Read in your specialist areas because that will keep you up to date with modern language but also modern and classical literature because that will teach you style. Remember, you are first and foremost a writer in your mother tongue. You just happen to be able to translate from another language.
Target markets that you’re interested in
It’s just common sense to target areas you are interested in because the work you do will be better. You would be very lucky to only get interesting jobs, but a high proportion will be stimulating. Spreading your scope too much will mean you attract jobs that you’re not good at and you will invariably find boring.
Customer service
Rule one of customer service (in fact the only rule of customer service), create expectations and exceed them. So always deliver on time, and when you can, early. There is no excuse for not doing this. When life gets in the way and things do go wrong, you must communicate with your client. No-one likes being kept in the dark. And often you have more time than you think because the real deadline is further away than you’ve been told. Just pick up the phone and have the conversation.
Admit to your mistakes
No-one (not even you) is perfect. We all have bad days from time to time. Admitting to it and learning from the mistakes you made will drastically reduce the chances of it happening again. Failing to own up will only make things worse.
When your client is wrong, stand your ground.
I had a client last year that radically changed the text of a marketing brochure I’d translated (marketing agencies, always think they know better!). The modified text was riddled with errors. I wrote back listing them all and why they were wrong. They paid up.
Stay away from aggregator sites
Bidding for jobs on line may seen like a good idea. Unfortunately, you’ll get into a price war which will only end up with one result. You’ll perhaps make a living, but it won’t be a great one. Apply these other techniques with a few carefully targeted agencies or direct clients and you’ll be a fulfilled translator and a (slightly) richer one.
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What about the most important one – Market yourself. Never stop marketing your translation services to new and existing clients.
I’m working for http://www.tomedes.com and that’s what they do.