A client receives a translation, has it read by a colleague in the target market and comes back with a list. The tone is inconsistent, two product names have been translated when they should not have been, and one sentence says the opposite of the source.
The translator was competent. Nobody checked the work, because nobody was paid to, and the client did not know that was an option.
1. Name the stages explicitly
Translation, revision against the source, proofreading of the target, and a final check in context. Clients who see four stages understand what they are buying.
2. Explain revision properly
A second qualified linguist comparing the translation against the source. This is the stage that catches reversed meanings and omissions, and it is the one most often absent.
3. Distinguish proofreading from revision
Proofreading reads the target text alone for fluency and errors. Useful, cheaper and it cannot catch a sentence that is fluent and wrong.
4. Describe the final check in context
Reading the text where it will appear, whether that is a layout, a website or a product interface. Errors appear here that are invisible in a document.
5. Say who does each stage
A second linguist with the right specialism, not a colleague with the language. Being specific about qualifications is what makes the price defensible.
6. Explain what a translator cannot catch in their own work
Anybody revising their own translation reads what they meant rather than what they wrote. This is a fact about people rather than a criticism of translators.
7. Offer tiers rather than one standard
A single pass service for internal comprehension and a full process for anything published. Both are legitimate and the client should choose knowingly.
8. Build in a terminology check
Consistency against an agreed glossary, verified rather than assumed. On technical work this is a distinct stage with real value.
9. Use automated checks alongside human ones
Number consistency, untranslated segments, terminology matches and formatting. These catch a category of error that people miss reliably.
10. Explain the client review stage
What you need from their in market reviewer, by when, and what kind of feedback helps. Unmanaged client review is where projects stall.
11. Handle the feedback professionally
A reviewer's preference and an actual error are different, and a process that distinguishes them saves everybody a difficult exchange.
12. Say what happens if something is wrong
How corrections are handled, at what cost and how quickly. A clear position is more reassuring than a claim that it will not happen.
13. Keep the pricing consistent with the stages
The whole point is that a higher quote includes more work, which is the itemising argued for in pricing questions and what a word rate includes.
14. Apply the highest standard to certified work
Official translations carry personal responsibility, as set out in certified and urgent translation questions.
15. Publish the process openly
A page describing exactly who checks what. Clients comparing quotes can then see why yours differs, in the same way the practical detail in parking, breakfast and check in questions every hotel gets removes uncertainty in another trade.
16. Qualify the enquiry against the right tier
An assistant that asks what the text is for, who will read it and whether it will be published can recommend a service level rather than quoting a rate. That qualifying is what the best chatbot questions for capturing high quality leads describes. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under agencies.