Poll: In general, how would you rate your clients' communication skills? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In general, how would you rate your clients' communication skills?".
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| | | | Marjolein Snippe 
Netherlands
Local time: 07:25
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
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| selection process | Mar 1, 2019 |
It varies wildly, but because I enjoy working with people with good communication skills a lot more, I tend to drive clients with poor communication skills away by not accepting their jobs unless I really have no other jobs lined up. As a result, I am very happy with the communication skills of most of my current clients.
| | | | | Between excellent and very good | Mar 1, 2019 |
My client’s communication skills vary from excellent to very good. I have been working with some of them for so long that our communication is limited to a typical: “Are you available?”,“When will you deliver”? “Thanks very much”…
Last year I had a few problems with a British agency (conflicting emails, late POs, etc.), fortunately over time things changed for better and are fine now…
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:25
Spanish to English
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Initially, I couldn't make my mind up whether this referred to clients communicating about assigning translation jobs, or the authors/creators of the texts and their ability to communicate their ideas succinctly and in a manner fit for purpose.
In the former case, I'd say their communication skills are not bad. And in the latter, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them aren't exactly luminaries when writing in their own language either.
[Edited at 2019-03-01 09:26 GMT]
[Edite... See more Initially, I couldn't make my mind up whether this referred to clients communicating about assigning translation jobs, or the authors/creators of the texts and their ability to communicate their ideas succinctly and in a manner fit for purpose.
In the former case, I'd say their communication skills are not bad. And in the latter, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them aren't exactly luminaries when writing in their own language either.
[Edited at 2019-03-01 09:26 GMT]
[Edited at 2019-03-01 09:26 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| I can't make sense of the question | Mar 1, 2019 |
A client comes to you needing to have a translation done. They need to be able to at least communicate enough so they can tell you what they need to have done, answer relative questions, and indicate whether they agree with your fee and timeline. Some struggle, especially if they are new to translation or if all my working languages are a third language for them. I never thought to rate them on it. It doesn't seem important. I'd say I get all kinds of clients with all kinds of skills.
| | | | | Varies hugely | Mar 1, 2019 |
Most of my work is repeat work from clients I've worked with for more than a decade.
For me, then, the key question is how good they are at providing advance notice of upcoming jobs and, especially, delays.
Some are good and some are hopeless.
Luckily the hopeless ones tend to pay well.
| | | | Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 07:25
English to German
| Mostly very good | Mar 1, 2019 |
In fact, anywhere from "the communication skills of a medium-sized earthworm" to "excellent", but mostly very good.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 02:25
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Varies hugely II | Mar 1, 2019 |
Communication is mostly very good when you deal with the owner or top manager.
But its mostly bad or merely satisfactory when you deal with assistants, PMs, etc. These people are trained to do things almost like robots. They usually do not understand any adminitrative or marketing aspects of the business, so whenever something different happens, they usually don't know what to do, and sometimes are very irritating.
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| It varies, but not hugely | Mar 2, 2019 |
A few of them shine; the rest are good.
I have some clients in Japan who have difficulty expressing what they need in English, but they do their best. In one case, we correspond in Portuguese, which is one of my source languages.
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