The simplest and often most important comparison criterion is the price! With a wide range of service providers on offer, people want to buy everything as cheaply as possible. In the case of a translation, however, a one-sided consideration of costs can have serious consequences for the comprehension and accuracy of the text.
Buying translations
Translations are a sophisticated and individual service that cannot be compared with an industrially manufactured series product. Nevertheless, customer expectations are similar to all services and products:
- Best price
- High quality
- Fast delivery time
The challenge for translation service providers is to guarantee you an optimal implementation and the right balance of these requirements.
These competing objectives must always be optimized according to your specific requirements.
Service providers who only aim to optimize the offer price from the outset can have permanent disadvantages in the medium term compared to a quality-oriented service provider – also in terms of costs!
Price-oriented providers alone cannot afford the time and effort required to maintain translation memories and terminology, evaluate competent translators and proofread translations, which can lead to considerable disadvantages in terms of quality, price and delivery time in the medium term.
Here is a quote from the English social philosopher John Ruskin:
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s even worse to pay too little. If we pay too much, we lose some money, that’s all. If, on the other hand, we pay too little, we sometimes lose everything, as the purchased item cannot fulfill its intended purpose. The law of economics forbids getting a lot of value for little money.”
Differences between a price-oriented and a quality-oriented service provider:
Recommendations for practice – if you want quality
- Weighing up short-term and medium-term benefits with different service providers
- The selection of an efficient and development-oriented translation service provider.
- Feedback orientation of the service provider: Sustainable development is only possible in a feedback-oriented cooperation.
- Appropriate use of technology: Certain types of text (e.g. product sheets, Excel lists, operating instructions) have enormous potential for the use of modern translation technologies and thus the advantage of considerable price reductions and high quality.
