STARTING WORK AS A TRANSLATOR OR INTERPRETER

An event arranged jointly by the University of Westminster and ITI, with support from the National Networks for Translation and for Interpreting within the Routes into Languages initiative. Saturday 9th June 2012, 09.30-16.30 Are you interested in working as a translator or interpreter, but unsure how to start? This one-day seminar should answer questions for new translators / interpreters on: • Training • Generalist or specialist translating & different types of interpreting • Building a portfolio of clients • Working for translation companies • Marketing • Pricing Fees: • Undergraduate students - free of charge • Postgraduate students - £20 including VAT • ITI/ FIT organisation members - £35 including VAT • Nonmembers - £45 including VAT To register please complete the booking form below.

Full address University of Westminster London United Kingdom

Additional informationBooking Form - SWATI Westminster

What is customer care in the translation industry?

A friend of mine recently started a new job, and was asked by his employer to call existing customers for testimonials for the company website, only to find that they had many unhappy customers. He had recorded the complaints and passed them on to the orders department following his manager's advice. His manager also told him to copy messages to number of others so that he could prove he had passed them on. As the unhappy customers would not give him any testimonials, he had to continue calling his other customers in hope of a positive testimonial.

I asked my friend whether he would follow up the complaints he received. He said he wouldn't because it was "not his job". I then asked if he was going to check with the department in question if they have dealt with the complaints: the answer was "no" as he did not want to make his colleagues uncomfortable. This made me wonder if the complaint would ever be resolved.

Wikipedia describes customer care as "the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase": any responsible company would of course agree with this statement, but as we can clearly see from my friend's example, some companies are not very keen on the after sales phase of customer service process.

If we accept Wikipedia's description, then what is the implication of this in terms of the translation services we provide to our customers? The translation industry is not any different to any other service industry and customer satisfaction is the key to any company's success.

The key to preventing customers becoming unhappy with our services is focusing on delivering benefits to our customers at all times: all employees need to see this as their responsibility. Delivering benefits to our customers however is not as easy as it sounds, it requires total commitment to customer care, which needs to be incorporated into the translation company's culture and organisation structure. Only this will provide total customer satisfaction.

Translation company managers/owners need to find ways to measure the progress and make 'delivering benefits' their top priority. 

Levent Yildizgoren

How to protect your online reputation

Our online reputation is becoming more and more important every day. What is said and posted online stays online, having effects on how other people see and perceive us. People and businesses often make their choices following online searches. Another aspect of this is of course protecting our online reputation making sure that what is out there is actually belongs to us and we are not a victim of any identity fraud or malicious activity.

There are commercial products out there such as Garlik.com for identity protection. We can also take simple precautions that will not cost anything. It goes without saying that being cautious and sensible online is very important for not becoming a victim of a phishing attack, or ghost sites etc.

Probably the best tool to use is Google's 'Me on the Web' tool which was introduced last year.

'Me on the Web,” is now included on the Google dashboard. This is easy to setup and can used for managing online identity and  removing unwanted content. You can also setup Google Alerts that inform you should your name appear in any blogs or news without your consent. The links contain plenty of useful information and tips for good practices.  

Managing our online identity should be part of a good online practice and Google's tool seems to be providing a good and effective solution.