When you’re looking to have documents translated, you want to make sure you hire the best translation service possible. But how do you find the best service out of everything available? While some might tell you to just pick one, such as the services you would find through inlingua Utah, there are also a few important things to remember so that you can hire the right service for your translation needs. Keep reading to find out some of these tips.
The most obvious guideline of all should be to research several translation agencies. Chances are, you’re not going to find the translator to fit your need on the first try. Maybe you have someone in your network who has worked with a translator before. Ask that person what their experience was and what the translator offered, and how much it cost. References and reviews are a great way to check around for varying degrees of satisfaction regarding any service, and translation services are no exception.
Review the translator’s previous work. It doesn’t necessarily have to be translated work, although this would score bonus points. Just by looking at the website of a translation service, you can learn a lot. Is the website written fluently? Does it have any spelling, grammatical errors, or punctuation errors? While these may seem pretty basic, you would be surprised at how often these can be missed. These are some of the things you want to be looking for. If they have errors on their website, there’s a good chance that there’s going to be errors in their work as well.
Discussing your needs with the translator isn’t only in your best interest, but also in the translator’s. There are times when the translator simply can’t take on any new jobs because they wouldn’t be able to finish before the deadline. At inlingua Utah, we like to make sure that the communication between company and client is as detailed and thorough as possible. This leaves much less room for accidental error or misunderstanding.
Ask for details regarding what the translation services entails. Be specific about what you need as well, for the best communication. Tell them exactly what you need, how you need it, and when you need it. You might come across as high maintenance by asking a lot of questions, but this is all part of seeing if they can guarantee you a high quality product. Also, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on their response rate. Do they take minutes to respond, or hours, or a few days? Assess how much time you’re willing to give the translator to respond, and act accordingly.
Try to get a professional translator if you can, preferably one fitting your niche. There are a lot of amateur translators out there who can do the job, but it is highly likely that it won’t be done as well as if it were by a professional translator. You don’t want to take any chances with important or sensitive documents. Professional translators can usually guarantee you the quality you want in the timeframe specified and without any errors. Professional translators will be a bit more expensive, but the quality of your translated document should be worth the money.