| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Which of the following is your foremost priority? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Mario Chavez (X) 
Local time: 22:29
English to Spanish
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| Quality is overrated and a misnomer | Sep 18, 2015 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
My translation rate doesn't change, though the amount the client will disburse may vary, according to their choice of payment terms and methods.
My quality doesn't change either. If it did, this would mean that I was underqualified to do certain jobs, which I decline at the outset to stay clear of this variation altogether.
I schedule my work for 100% of timely deliveries. I prefer to deliver two days early than two hours late. So far, I have managed to deliver ALL my translation jobs on time, since 1973.
Hence my major concern is that the client feels satisfied from the bang they got for their buck with me. If instead of the bang they just wanted a click for their peanuts, I wouldn't have been chosen to do it anyway.
Client relationship, aka 'trust', is an outcome of client satisfaction repeated over and over again.
I lean on José's comment because 1) quality shouldn't change, whether it's a new client asking us for a small 70-word job or a long-term, high-income customer retaining us for 3 months.
Plus I do hate the use of the word quality in translation, as if words were links in long chains being made at assembly lines, where the main concern is how fast you can hook them together and out the door.
I prefer excellence in writing.
And, as José wisely put it, the trust being built and renewed in a relationship with a customer is the sails that keep us going.
| | | | Gudrun Maydorn (X)
Germany
Local time: 04:29
English to German
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Teresa Borges wrote: Marjolein Snippe wrote:
All are important of course, but my reference point is the quality of the translation I deliver. Customer satisfaction will come with high quality (at least the customers I care about...); quality dictates the time I need so I will not accept work with a tighter deadline and if we can't agree on a rate I will simply not accept the job to start with.
I couldn't agree more.
| | | | | It is from a book and a movie. | Sep 18, 2015 |
Mario Chavez wrote: LilianNekipelov wrote:
Still, I would say quality definitely at the right rate. The wrong rate, no quality and no translation, at all. Other than working pro bono, of course.
As they say in Russian: "first the money, then the chairs".
[Edited at 2015-09-18 09:24 GMT] Now you got me curiouser and curiouser. Please share what the Russian saying says 
Someone was trying to buy some chairs (in which some diamonds had allegedly been hidden), and the seller told them "first the money, then the chairs". The buyer wanted to take the chairs first and pay later. He kept saying: "The chairs in the morning and the money in the evening", to which the seller kept answering "the money in the morning and the chairs in the evening', and it went on for a few minutes. It is very funny. The movie "Twelve Chairs" In fact, I am not sure how they translated the title into English, I would have to check. This is a word for word translation. It became proverbial, the phrase.
| | | | | quality and client satisfaction | Sep 18, 2015 |
The buttons did not permit a double choice.
"Rate" and "deadline" are determined by the translator, so they don't really count.
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| OFF-TOPIC: The movie | Sep 18, 2015 |
LilianNekipelov wrote:
Someone was trying to buy some chairs (in which some diamonds had allegedly been hidden), and the seller told them "first the money, then the chairs". The buyer wanted to take the chairs first and pay later. He kept saying: "The chairs in the morning and the money in the evening", to which the seller kept answering "the money in the morning and the chairs in the evening', and it went on for a few minutes. It is very funny. The movie "Twelve Chairs" In fact, I am not sure how they translated the title into English, I would have to check. This is a word for word translation. It became proverbial, the phrase.
Apparently this is the (first part of the) Russian movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNZkUt0ePas
You may turn on subtitles in English, apparently man-made, not that gibberish from voice recognition and machine translation.
There is also the American version, by Mel Brooks:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066495/?ref_=nv_sr_1
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 23:29
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Mario Freitas wrote:
The rate may not be the top priority, but I voted for rate because, of course, it is the first thing that determines if you will accept the job or not. So all the others come after that decision. I don't "accept" rates; I state my rates, and then it will be up to the prospect to either accept them or not.
Something very cute to state publicly, but either you don't have clients in Brazil or you are showing off. I have fixed rates for clients in Europe and North America, but sometimes I still have to negotiate. Now, regarding Brazilian clients, it's always a nightmare to come to a rate. It depends if it will be with "nota fiscal", RPA or a simple receipt, it depends on the term they ask to pay you, and if you are really Brazilian, you know well the "pechincha" mentality we have to struggle against.
So you can state to everyone else here you determine your rates, but not to me, my dear. I'm Brazilian too.
| | | | | One in a minority, trying to build a trend | Sep 19, 2015 |
Mario Freitas wrote: José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Mario Freitas wrote:
The rate may not be the top priority, but I voted for rate because, of course, it is the first thing that determines if you will accept the job or not. So all the others come after that decision. I don't "accept" rates; I state my rates, and then it will be up to the prospect to either accept them or not. Something very cute to state publicly, but either you don't have clients in Brazil or you are showing off. I have fixed rates for clients in Europe and North America, but sometimes I still have to negotiate. Now, regarding Brazilian clients, it's always a nightmare to come to a rate. It depends if it will be with "nota fiscal", RPA or a simple receipt, it depends on the term they ask to pay you, and if you are really Brazilian, you know well the "pechincha" mentality we have to struggle against. So you can state to everyone else here you determine your rates, but not to me, my dear. I'm Brazilian too.
My rate is the same adopted by about one or two dozen colleagues, most located in the Sao Paulo area, who keep the same uncompromisingly high work standards. Now and then we informally check if we are still at the same level, pricewise. Each one has his/her own different specialty area(s) and, when it's highly specialized work, we usually refer to each other.
Indeed, I serve comparatively few translation agencies in Brazil.
For some of them, I only do video (i.e. subtitling, dubbing) work; we've agreed that I'm too expensive for their run-of-the-mill text translation. Their standard delivery often features some, all, or more of the undesirable items that I've described on this post.
One of my tenets is that, assuming that both should walk hand in hand, I don't compromise... neither on quality nor on price, and I make sure all my clients/prospects are made aware of it. Another tenet is no late delivery since 1973; I prefer to deliver two days early than two hours late.
This attracts prospects/clients who demand reliability, and make quick-buck-seeking bottom feeders go elsewhere. Now and then a member of the second group has their delivery rejected by an end-client, and then they ask me to fix/redo it in an attempt to retain that client. When this happens, I see the sloppiness I'd be competing against if I adopted lower rates.
Years ago, I did some testing. Maybe some of these cheapster agencies had never seen decent translation work in their lives. So I took ONE moderately low-paying job per month, telling them it was a one-off promo. If they liked the difference, we'd continue on my rates. All of them simply loved my work, however they kept insisting for years (really!) for me to stoop to their rates, which I didn't. Conclusion was that their marketing strategy was not suitable for attracting high quality-demanding clients.
Many translators consider direct clients as another type of game. I don't. I give all clients royal customer service, making sure they get their money's worth on all aspects. Some of them find it strange when I suggest them ways to save money by not doing things that are not really necessary for the process, but I do it anyway.
This is natural. The market has room for all levels. If both B&O and nameless "made in China" manufacturers keep selling their electronics, why should it be different in translation?
You may be pampered all the time you stay at the Ritz, and will probably have to clean your own room (and perhaps the shared bathroom too) at the Ratz, but you DO have a choice. The Ritz won't lower their rates if you offer to clean up after yourself. That's how I see it.
[Edited at 2015-09-19 13:54 GMT]
| | | | Suzan Hamer
Netherlands
Local time: 04:29
English
+ ...
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: LilianNekipelov wrote:
Someone was trying to buy some chairs (in which some diamonds had allegedly been hidden), and the seller told them "first the money, then the chairs". The buyer wanted to take the chairs first and pay later. He kept saying: "The chairs in the morning and the money in the evening", to which the seller kept answering "the money in the morning and the chairs in the evening', and it went on for a few minutes. It is very funny. The movie "Twelve Chairs" In fact, I am not sure how they translated the title into English, I would have to check. This is a word for word translation. It became proverbial, the phrase. Apparently this is the (first part of the) Russian movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNZkUt0ePas You may turn on subtitles in English, apparently man-made, not that gibberish from voice recognition and machine translation. There is also the American version, by Mel Brooks: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066495/?ref_=nv_sr_1
One of my favorite quotations is from a song in the Mel Brooks movie:
"Live while you're alive.
No one will survive." [Hey!]
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