Rule 5

Communicate the desired level of quality, especially in the case of urgent projects

In this fast-paced age, translation companies often receive requests for very speedy delivery. Sometimes, clients are so concerned about shortening the delivery time that they say, "We don't care about quality; just deliver it to us as quickly as you can."

The truth is that we have noticed it is especially in the case of urgent translation requests that quality becomes more important than usual. A client may say, "We need to translate some materials because the company president is suddenly coming to Japan from headquarters," or, "We are going to be acquiring a company and need to ask headquarters for approval as quickly as possible." Such translations are related to items of major importance and actually require high quality.

In the case of a rush job, there is no choice but to skip some part of the normal quality assurance process in order to meet the delivery schedule. That is why you need to tell the translation company the quality that you desire for such translations-what you can allow and what you need ensured. Your satisfaction level will be higher if you are concrete in your requests. For example, you might say:

  • "We don't care if there is inconsistency between translators in the translation of the same terms"
  • "Technical terms can be left as is in English"
  • "We need you to ensure that no errors are made in numerical figures," or
  • "We need your usual level of quality in the summary found on the first three pages."

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