In the current reality of the business world, there is a principle that is tied to success: being prepared to be agile. These two keywords are joined by another essential characteristic in B2B relationships: mutual trust.
Hello, do you know what would be important for our relationship? Turning words into actions, by which we mean embracing the concept of agile transformation with all our strength. The method is effective, and companies all over the world are able to demonstrate this with case studies.
Being agile costs nothing, especially since you have certainly outlined the deadline and cost as priorities at the beginning of any translation project. Within this limit, you have produced a map so that everything works towards the final goal of satisfying your end client. Now, if we all know the advantages of good planning, it's time to highlight the importance of agility.
Let's turn words into actions. If it's vital to always be prepared to meet your clients' needs, the speed that you accomplish a task is essential. As such, focus on the advantage of this simple sentence at the centre of a relationship between language services companies united by a partnership: “If you have the opportunity to share the ideal quote with me, I will be happy to concentrate all my efforts into completing the requested quote”. Fast, demonstrates a level of mutual trust and, above all, agile. There it is, speed + effectiveness = agility.
All of this is especially important in the relationship between translation and language services companies, which have always been committed to permanent or occasional partnerships [in portuguese] to completely satisfy client expectations.
We have highlighted two ideas - being agile and effective - but there's something else we recommend. B2B (business to business) partners must, from the get go, put all their cards on the table, ensuring the honesty they hope to achieve prevails. If this principle is respected, if your relationship has complete transparency, success is guaranteed.
This principle is important when you resort to a partner to complete a job requested by a client. Trust, in this case, is expressed through gaining time, which is achieved when one of the B2B parties treats the other as a partner and not as a supplier. In other words, “as the client is sharing information with you directly, we believe that you have more sensitivity to understand what the most appropriate quote would be for this project”. Makes sense, right?
To summarise:
| ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
| More control over expenses | Increased bureaucracy |
| More transparent process | Loss of valuable time |
| Strengthens your B2B relationship | Reduced efficiency, if any |
| More agile | Extended deadlines |
| Greater speed | Longer planning |
| Price adapted to the available budget | Excessively low quote per word |
| Access to special prices |
Partner without a quote or unwilling to share it |
| Discounts on the price per word | Loss of trust in the partnership |
Shall we look at a practical example? It's possible to gain time - and nowadays time is decisive in the business world - if a translation company resorting to a partnership understands that, by being the only one that knows the end client, they know their expectations the best. Acknowledging boundaries from the outset is the best step you can take to avoid a back-and-forth of e-mails or other types of communication.
Trust, in this case, leads to speed. This can be summed up in a sentence that's easy to understand in the business world: “Your best price is our best price”.
Translating an official document, investing in localising your website's content, subtitling a video or just urgent audiovisual equipment rental, from the moment you're confronted with the need to resort to a translation company to acquire one of these, or other language services, this request is the first step in a journey that must lead to total client satisfaction.
But, as words and good intentions aren't enough, there are norms and procedures to be followed to the letter throughout this journey. As such, there is an essential seal of quality that should accompany your decision in choosing a translation company: the ISO 17100 Quality Standard.
Published by the International Organization for Standardization in 2015, ISO 17100 outlines quality requirements and certifies a variety of stages in the process of written translations. What does this mean? A translation company certified by this standard is committed to quality, from its human and technological resources, to registering projects, legal framework, procedures, added value services and defining terms. Always bear in mind that this certification represents national and international recognition of the quality of a company's work.
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This text was not written by a native English speaker, but by a language lover. However, all our language services are always provided by native speakers.
ABOUT US
AP PORTUGAL - Tech Language Solutions is a Portuguese translation company certified by the ISO 17100 International Quality Standard. The company offers a wide range of language services, which include translation (TEP), post-editing machine translation (PEMT), transcription, desktop publishing and subtitling, voice talent, software and website localisation technology, SEO and consulting. It invests enthusiastically in the development of partnerships and cooperation anywhere in the world where your organization may need a partner for the African, Brazilian and European Portuguese language.
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