We live in a world where everything seems to be moving faster and faster. Companies are expected to grow, improve their margins and reduce costs, preferably all at the same time. And while there is nothing wrong with trying to become more efficient, I sometimes wonder whether, in our pursuit of short-term results, we are forgetting a few things that used to be taken for granted. Things like trust, fairness and loyalty. These may sound like old-fashioned values, but I believe they still have an important role to play in business, particularly in the translation industry.
Companies operating internationally need translations. Whether they are selling industrial equipment, developing software or marketing consumer products, they need to communicate with customers in different languages. And, naturally, they want to obtain these services at the best possible price. The problem begins when price becomes the only consideration. Over the years, translation services have increasingly come under the responsibility of purchasing departments. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to a rather simplistic view of what we do. If one translation company charges 12 cents per word and another offers to do the same job for 8 cents, why should anyone pay the higher price? After all, a translation is a translation, isn't it?
Well, not quite. Anyone who has worked in this industry for a few years knows that translating a text involves much more than replacing words in one language with their equivalents in another. This is particularly true when dealing with specialized subjects. Take technical documentation, for example. A translator may have excellent language skills and considerable experience, but that does not mean that he or she will immediately understand the terminology used by a particular manufacturer. Every company has its own products, its own terminology and often its own way of expressing things. Even within the same industry, two companies may prefer different terms for exactly the same concept. Learning these preferences takes time.
A translator working regularly for the same customer gradually becomes familiar with the products, the technical vocabulary and the company's style. Questions that initially required lengthy research become easier to resolve. Feedback from the customer is incorporated into future work, and the overall quality and consistency of the translations improve. This knowledge has real value, even if it is difficult to express in euros per word. Now imagine that, after several years of working successfully with a translation supplier, a company decides to organize a new tender and awards the contract to another provider offering a slightly lower price. The people who have spent years learning the customer's terminology and preferences are no longer involved, and much of that accumulated knowledge may be lost. The learning process starts again. Was changing suppliers really such a good deal?
Perhaps. But I think it is worth asking the question. The consequences of choosing the wrong supplier are not always immediately apparent. Sometimes they emerge when a local sales office complains about the quality of a brochure, when an engineer struggles to understand a translated manual, or when someone in the marketing department has to spend an afternoon rewriting a document that was supposedly ready for publication. And who pays for all that additional work? More often than not, it is not the purchasing department. What initially appeared to be a saving may end up costing considerably more than expected.
This is why I believe loyalty deserves a place in the relationship between customers and translation companies. I am not suggesting that customers should remain loyal to suppliers who consistently fail to meet their expectations. Nor do I believe that a long-standing relationship gives any company the right to charge unreasonable prices. Loyalty has to be earned, and it should work both ways. A customer who has found a reliable translation partner should recognize the value of that relationship and the knowledge that has been built over time. In return, the translation company must continue to provide good service, remain competitive and make every effort to understand the customer's changing needs.
But there is another side to loyalty that I consider equally important: the relationship between translation companies and their translators. As an agency, we depend on the work of professional linguists. Some of them have spent many years developing expertise in highly specialized fields. They know their customers' terminology, pay attention to details and genuinely care about the quality of the texts they produce. These are the people we should be looking after. It would be rather contradictory to ask our customers to appreciate the value of long-term relationships while treating our own translators as interchangeable suppliers, replacing them whenever someone else offers a lower rate. Good translators deserve fair compensation, realistic deadlines and, above all, respect for their work. And when translators feel that their work is appreciated, they are more likely to remain committed to the customers and projects they know so well. In the end, everybody benefits.
I realize that this may sound somewhat idealistic. I also know from experience that business does not always work this way. Budgets are tight, competition is fierce and there will always be someone willing to offer a lower price. But I cannot help thinking that something is lost when every business relationship is reduced to a negotiation over the lowest possible cost. In translation, as in many other professions, doing a good job requires knowledge, experience, commitment and cooperation. None of these things develops overnight. A good translation partner is not merely a supplier who delivers words in another language, but a team of professionals who gradually come to understand a customer's business, products and expectations.
Perhaps loyalty, fairness and taking pride in a job well done are indeed old-fashioned ideas. If that is the case, I think we could do with a little more old-fashioned thinking. After all, wouldn't the business world be a better place if we all gave these values a little more importance?
Eloy Ferrer
ASSERTIO Language Services