Once you choose to go multilingual, the most time consuming and difficult task is to trust an outside source to take care of your content which you might or might not be able to judge correctly depending on what languages you speak. It is easy to feel a little bit overwhelmed when you see a large number of services available.
An ideal translation agency has full-time professionals continually working on one project after another which keeps them up-to-date and skillful in their field. Your chances of being scammed are the lowest. An ideal translation agency can manage a team of several translators and thus a big project. They can handle e-commerce website translation projects, translating multiple pages of content in a short period. However, the opinion remains the same – do not choose someone who makes unreal promises.
Here are the main tips to help you choose the right partner. There are more of these which will ensure you are getting to work with the right people and completely answer on how to choose your translation service company.
10 Tips on How to Choose the Ideal Translation Agency
If you have used a translation service to connect the language gap, the odds are that you know how a difficult job it is to find an ideal translation agency. That said, it’s not as difficult as you might think if you know what to look for.
- Know what you need
For a professional translation, you might need higher stress on the benefits of the product or service and offer the reader with a call to action. When you entrust someone to translate, you need to make sure they fully express the essence of your message without losing something in the translation.
- Know who you’re dealing with
Find out what resources the agency has at its end, whether they are a traditional agency that depends entirely on the manual input of human translators, or they use modern technology that helps and optimize the process.
- Speed
Ask about turnaround times. Also, examine the agency‘s experience to have the translation job done outside of your usual working hours. Having global sources to pick from is a separate factor compared to a local nine-to-live translation service.
- Technical capabilities
Check out the systems an agency has at your disposal. Is it a user-friendly cloud-based platform that provides transparency for submitting and archiving documents, presenting billing information, and interacting with customer service? Is there room for system integration of the automated processes?
- Quality of product
Do they clear the tone what you want to use in another language in a way that the target audience appreciates and can relate to?
- Fields of expertise
Not all agencies can handle medical or legal documents. When it comes to IT and finance related content, experienced translators with in-depth knowledge on the subject matter are highly needed.
- Confidentiality
It’s important to understand how the translation agency ensures the privacy of your information.
- Price
Affordability should not be the overriding consideration. Your priority should be the overall solution for the amount paid.
- Customer services
Take note of the questions the agency asks you to clarify your requirements. It’s also worth considering how consistent they are servicing you.
- Additional services
Complementary services provided by your translation agency could also add tremendous value to your business. These include SEO, localization, advertising and many more.