10 tips to select the best translation agency

If you need translation services you’re probably looking for the best translation agency to deal with. Here are 10 tips to help you in your quest.

How to select the best translation agency

First Tip: Be aware of what you want

You will desire for a lot of emphasis to be on the advantages of using a product and an action call for the reader, if it is a promotional message. This is significantly different from what you will have in an operational manual, where you want the technical details to be perfectly conveyed. When you employ a translator, can they pass across the exact message, without losing some of the details? Being aware of your ideal audience can help the agency provide you with the best linguists for the project. Being unclear could lead to mixed results. Read translation samples when looking for an agency and find out if they are capable of accurately expressing the essence of your message.

Second Tip: Be aware of who you are dealing with

Identify the available resources the vendor has to work with. You should be aware if they have a computerized system that optimizes and aids the process or they just depend solely on their employed translators.

Translations that are aided with computers will have characteristics including terminology/glossary and translation memory management and can considerably enhance input methods by improving human efficiency and help to achieve a more accurate work with more consistency. Do they use computer-aided software to assist in the process?

Third Tip: Product quality

Not every translation service has the same quality. You should request for previous project samples. What measures of quality control have they put in place, is there a team that does quality checks? For example, are there extra editors that help in proofreading  and editing translations? Is the required message tone considered, depending on the target audience?

The facility to cater for all translation requirements, despite the type of translation, from advertising texts to legal documents and from websites to software apps is required in order to provide excellent and quality translation services for any document.

7 more tips to choose the best translation agency

Fourth Tip: Expertise Field

Your goals for communicating could be undermined by an approach that can be termed as one-size-fits-all. The best translation agency is expected to have adequate expertise for various industries. Some translation companies do not have the ability to properly translate medical information or legal documents. You will also need translators with deep knowledge and experience in finance and information technology related content, to be able to handle such tasks in the best way possible.

Find a translation agency that goes with translators that have an in-depth understanding of the matters at hand so that your documents resonate with the target audience.

Fifth Tip: Speed

Ask about how soon your job can be completed. You should also know if the company also works beyond the normal working hours. Some companies achieve this by employing translators in other countries. You should look out for premium translation companies if you want to hire a translator. These companies have international resources at their disposal, giving them more advantage.

The agency should be an expert translation provider, experienced in processing translation applications and able to reach all translation requirements in a short period, while, at the same time, ensuring the quality of the translations it delivers.

Sixth Tip: Confidentiality

The translation company should be able to assure you that your information will remain confidential and stored away from public eyes. They should have an agreement of confidentiality with their translators, especially when they have a lot of editors and translators, with some working from home or other countries. The company should be able to sign an NDA for confidential documents.

Ask about the procedures they take to ensure the confidentiality of your documents. Documents to be translated must be transmitted using a secure system; hence delivery systems must have this functionality and provide safe delivery.

Seventh Tip: Customer Service

Be careful to note every questions asked by the translation company, towards meeting your needs. You should also note their consistency. For example, will they be able to use the same translator for all your materials, so that the voice and tone remain constant. Do they allow you to re-send a translated work piece to be edited a second time.

This is a differentiation factor between translation companies and one which provides added value for clients. Appropriate customer service means fast response and excellent customer service, either by email or by phone.

Eighth Tip: Extra Services

A lot of value can be added to your business if the translation company offers complementary services. Such extra services could include cooperating with your public or advertising relations agent, offering professional proofreading, DTP services, localization, multilingual SEO services for your site as well as an effective globalization strategy if needed.

Complementary services provided by your company could add tremendous value to your business and should be a top criteria for choosing the best translation agency.

Ninth Tip: Value Vs Price

Your first requirement should not be affordability. You should first of all be sure of the quality you are getting, when you want to pick a translation company. You can consequently check the payment packages for the best translation companies you have shortlisted, in terms of quality.

If the price is too low to be true, don’t go for it. Nobody outside your finance department will thank you for buying poor-quality translations; they could severely damage your overseas reputation.

Tenth Tip: Technical Capabilities

Know about the system of the translation company. Are they using a cloud-based user-friendly platform that offers transparency for archiving and submitting documents, customer service interaction as well as billing information presentation? Do they have the ability for automated processes integration (API). You might need translation companies with these capabilities as time goes on.

The translation company must have quality translation technical capabilities to ensure optimum service.  Avoid agencies that only employ Google Translate as a translation tool. Translation tools must also be agreeable with various formats for the translation of texts.

Choosing the best translation service

Globalization and the internet may have helped us in many ways. The internet has not only brought us closer to each other, but it has also made it super easy to access all kinds of information from anywhere in the world. You can get help from the internet for your homework, you can cook a unique recipe by following an online tutorial, and you can even learn an instrument with the help of the internet. But there is one significant disadvantage of the internet, something that we think of as a great thing mostly, and that is the abundance of options. Trying to decide which movie to watch on Netflix often takes up to an hour of your time.

That’s why choosing the best translation service can be a bit hard. There are plenty of agencies that according to one website or another are the best translation companies in the world. But you will have to make some effort to sift through the abundance of data to find the right choice for you. Maybe that website is telling the truth, but you must do your research before choosing a service, so you don’t end up with any regrets.

If you need more on how to find the best translation agency, we’ve created a special page where you can find our checklist containing 15 more tips on how to select the best translation provider.