Of course, by being translated we mean that you need to be fully understood. When you need linguistic help you should hire a professional translation company providing accurate translation services. This will be best for your business, because you want professionals to take care of it. There are some questions you should know before hiring a translation agency.
Every business expanding to the international market needs a professional translation company
Factors to consider when choosing the translation provider
If you are a new customer in the translation sector and are willing to choose a professional translation company, it is important for you to understand that this is a tough choice to make. There are numerous professional translation companies out there but can these all be trusted? The answer to this is simply No.
There are a number of factors that must be considered before choosing a professional translation company. What has been observed in people is that some people with a low budget think that money is the only decisive factor. But it is essential to understand that many factors collectively help in making this decision. Just money must not be the only factor. Quality matters a lot. All legal matters including immigration require high-quality translations. To help you in the selection process, here are the four most important questions that you must consider when choosing the perfect professional translation company.
Questions to ask
Many “self-proclaimed” translators represent themselves as professionals, so here are some questions you should ask:
- What Qualifications? You should ask if all the translators at the company are qualified. As mentioned above, you need professionals, not “self-proclaimed” translators. They should be able to show certificates, education level, number of years of experience, and their area(s) of the specialization. A translation company can provide all of this.
- Native Speakers? A very important question is do they have native speakers as translators? Inevitably, a translator who knows two languages is more proficient in one than the other. Because translators work in language pairs, it`s crucial to choose a translator who is a native speaker of the target language.
Price comes last
- Subjects of Expertise? You should also ask whether the professional translation company serves (i.e. have served) the target area of focus. If they don`t have experts for that area, or just can`t do the job, they should tell you. If they have previous experience, they should show you. An honest translator or company should admit if a task is above their ability and recommend someone else.
- What About the Money? Another important question is how they charge: per word, per hour, per page, etc. The most common charging practice is per word, but sometimes if it`s an uneditable file, for e.g. a .PDF. , then they can`t charge per word. Before settling on a price, there is one more thing you should know. If you`re going to pay per word, you need to know that some languages use more words than others to convey ideas. So it is in your interest to agree on the rate per source words and not on the number of target words – where it can be helped. Also it is very important that you never agree to pay by the hour (unless it is for review work)! You could end up overpaying! The project or document might look very simple to you, at first glance. But it could be extremely difficult and need more time. Even worse, the translator may be inexperienced (another reason that you should choose a professional translation company) and therefore very slow. Finally, to get your work done successfully, it is good to keep in mind a couple of good tips: 1) No one has time to waste! and 2) Time is money!
If translations are needed for anything where your reputation might be at stake the only way to get it is from a professional translation company.
