Translation is a rapidly growing industry: translation services can be hired from many translation agencies at often varying rates. Here the question arises that we have the option of quality translations and cheaper and cheaper translation agencies available all over the world… so the question is: why pay more for high quality translations or even “quality translations”? How does hiring cheap or relatively expensive translation services impact how our company is perceived by others, in markets whose language we don’t understand?
Quality and cost often go hand in hand. Most of us know how long a shirt, domestic appliances even a car will last according to the money we have paid for them. There are low-cost airlines and we all use them to to “get there”. The important thing is arriving at our destination, not how comfortable we felt at 10,000 feet high and if the sandwich was good. But settling for cheap translation services can cause considerable damage to your business –just as poor design does. With the availability of machine translation, professional translation services are now specifically being hired to provide quality translations that include human and machine.
Translation web apps come very handy and they come for free in most cases, but they cannot keep up with the quality of the translation that a professional translation company provides. They serve different purposes, although all contact with the translation industry for the majority of users will only be a Google Translate screen.
Effective, accurate and problem-free translations gain a fundamental importance when required for business, legal or medical purposes, and using cheap translation services can give rise to future problems that many people who only know about Google Translate learn too late.
For example, improper and inaccurate translation of an advertising campaign can lead to the failure of the entire campaign. Follow the previous link to find out more about some examples of translation mistakes that made users in a particular country uneasy about well-known products.
Imagine a scenario where you settle for an “economical”, cheap translation service, and are provided with a translated copy of your material which lacks the proper use of language and needs to be altered in many ways. Everyone has experienced the pain of not understanding or smiling at unnatural expressions in our language as output from a machine or, really, a human careless mistake. And we wondered that if someone pays that kind of attention to detail to a professional message, what kind of care and quality control procedures do they apply on their products and services? Are they serious in their approach to work?
A translated document should be effectively able to communicate the content of the original document fast and efficiently. Offer a poor translation and you are asking for customer complaints, wasting your time and energy resources in correcting the mistakes in translation, plus you have a made a mistake you will be remembered for – and all for trying to save a few dollars. German companies are well-known for adding 2 weeks at the end of their deliveries for “documentation and translation”. They know that with every machinery installation, software roll-out, new product launch, time must be planned for properly adding the language of the customer. So, a poor translation company can also prevent you from meeting deadlines.
So you need to know how to tell a good translation company from a bad one. Hiring cheap translation services for your marketing campaign can damage the entire campaign. Professional translation services are of even more importance when you are launching a promotional campaign for your product or services overseas. Improper translation can lead to your intended message being misunderstood by your consumers.
Nowadays, it is also advisable to facilitate your translation process with the use of computer-assisted translation tool and translation memory. Investing in computer-assisted translation tool and translation memory can considerably enhance the time efficiency of your translation process and permits you to keep up with the deadlines. Computer-assisted translation tool and translation memory also enhances the quality of translation by maintaining consistency and flow in the translated document.
A cheap translation company can appear appealing while hiring, but will produce inadequate results of poor quality translations. Remember the saying in the translation industry “the pleasure of having paid cheap for a translation is soon forgotten when the damage of the results settles in”.
The miscommunication, as a result of poor translation quality, can cause your consumers to form wrong impressions of your products or services. For instance, your product comes with an instruction guide which has been translation to suit the needs of local customers. Improper translation can lead to the improper use of the product and the consumer may feel dissatisfied with your product, considering that it has been unable to serve its intended purpose.
While hiring professional translation services for your business or legal or medical purposes it is advisable to approach a reputed translation agency. It would ensure that your content is being translated by able professional translators to provide you with quality results.
