TransAction was at the Association of Translation Companies’ (ATC) Annual Conference recently (hello to everyone we met there!), and perhaps the most interesting presentation was given by Nataly Kelly of the Common Sense Advisory (CSA), on the state of the language industry. Nataly commented on the translation industry’s robust ability to not only withstand but thrive in the current economic climate.

Nataly also commented on trends within the industry, and what stood out was her statement that, when purchasing translations, a client's primary concern is increasingly likely to be turnaround time, followed by cost, with the actual quality of the translation a distant third. For a company that prides itself on its translation quality, this set us thinking:

It is not uncommon for a client to come to us request a retranslation of their text, as the first translation they had done was not fit for purpose. This can be for a number of reasons, but it is often the case that clients, companies or translators will favour a quick, cheap translation over one of high quality, leading to an ineffective translation.  An ineffective translation - one which is not of a sufficient quality to fulfil its purpose – will usually need to be revised or redone entirely. Needless to say, this costs the client time and money. So, quality may initially be relegated to prioritise speed or cost, but in doing so translation becomes a more expensive and time-consuming outlay in the long run.

Of course, any translation company will tell you that they translate for a variety of clients with a variety of purposes. Therefore there will be clients who require their documents translating quickly and will only need a gist-translation, in which linguistic quality is not of primary importance. However, consider the care with which your highly detailed legal contract, your carefully constructed copy or your intricate technical documents have been written; how can they be expected to have the same effect in a foreign language if translation quality is not a primary concern?

At TransAction we pride ourselves on our rapid turnaround times and competitive rates, which are a match for any in the industry, but what we really like to shout about are the quality of our translations. All our project managers are linguists who take pride in producing flawless work. After all, we entered into this industry because of our love of languages, and there is little that gives us more satisfaction than delivering a well-produced translation. All our translations are proofread twice in-house, a service for which some other companies may charge extra, meaning that there is a high level of quality and assurance as standard. From the regular feedback we receive we know that this is something that our clients appreciate. Perhaps our clients are anomalies in that respect, but we hope not. This is a fast-paced industry, and we love it for that, but we hope that it will also continue to be one in which quality counts.