How to spot a bad translation agency

How to spot a bad translation agency

You own a business and you need translation services? You probably wonder how you can find the perfect translation agency. This article might really help you. As they are so many translation agencies to choose from, deciding which ones are good and which ones are bad has become a very difficult task. Nevertheless, there are some obvious signs that should make you say NO to some agencies.

Price

If the price for the services they offer is too low, you have to start automatically wondering why. Quality and price are direct-proportionate, so you can expect some disappointment in terms of quality. Of course, there can be exceptions, but to make sure that your business will benefit from the best translations, you should choose a more expensive translation company. If your budget is lower, it is a good idea to do a lot of research before choosing a rather cheap translation service.

Opinions

If you hear some critics about a certain translation agency, it is obviously better to avoid it, even if you cannot be sure about the information you received. There is always a grain of truth in this type of statements. Try to check the reputation of the agencies you have chosen: check for awards they have won or for positive feedback from big companies that needed their services. If none of these things apply to the certain agency, you should probably forget about it and keep searching. Patience is the key!

Communication

Test the agency you consider hiring by emailing them or calling them. Ask them a lot of information and analyse the way they respond to your needs. If they are not willing to give you the explanations you need, it means they are not true professionals. Also, if they reply to your emails too late, it means they do not care enough about the needs of their clients or potential clients. As communication is vital before and while working with a translation agency, you should avoid those who don’t realize the importance of this fact.

Too many fields

Try to avoid the translation agencies who claim that they specialize in absolutely all fields. This often shows that they actually don’t have special knowledge about anything. It is, of course, impossible to be specialized in absolutely all fields. In this case, we are talking about a mediocre company that uses this type of exaggerated sentences in their advertising in order to attract more clients.
Avoid also those who say that instead of translators they use engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. This shows that they have no idea what type of knowledge being a translator requires. A doctor is not a linguist. Is like saying the linguist can treat patients. This is an obvious sign of a weak translation agency, which should be avoided.

All in all, you need to have a lot of attention for details in order to spot a bad translation agency. Look at all the signs before hiring them if you want the best for your business.