Why It's a Good Idea to Hire a Translation Agency as a Long-term Provider
When businesses seek translation, interpreting, localization and other language services, there are many ways to meet their needs. In some cases, short-term solutions such as relying on in-house staff or hiring a temporary supplier can be tempting.
But at Idiomatic Translations, we're leaning towards the full-service Language Service Provider (LSP) model; we've seen it work wonderfully in our experience doing over 1 million translations over 25 years. There is no other way to cover over 99% of the world's languages.
That said, don't take your word for it (no matter how much we talk).
Below, let's look at the long-term benefits of working with a language service provider into two categories: the added value that adds up over time, and the main problems you'll want to avoid.
Building consistent voice across diverse environments
Additionally, working with an LSP will provide you with significant long-term value, starting with your relationship with the LSP over months, years, or decades.
The best time to start working with a language service provider is when an urgent language need arises.
If your organization operates in a purely monolingual environment, it is hard to imagine that the need for translation, interpretation or localization will arise overnight. However, the value of international contacts is well established and you will never lose a business opportunity because you cannot meet a potential client or partner.
Some of the most important languages to be able to cover for international business are:
Mandarin, spoken by over one billion people worldwide
Hindi, spoken by over 600 million people worldwide
Spanish, spoken by over 500 million people worldwide
Arabic, spoken by over 300 million people worldwide
Beyond just making your website available in any of these tongues (or others), you also need to ensure that content is consistent across your various pages—and across different languages.
Working with a trusted LSP partner is the best way to guarantee that, at scale.
Volume and Complexity of Language Services
Consistency becomes exponentially more challenging over time as the sheer amount of content you need to make available across different languages balloons seemingly out of control. Every new asset needs to be cross-referenced against all others to make sure your voice is uniform.
Flexibility across cultures and use cases
Premium LSPs also provide security beyond basic translation.
Communicating across cultural boundaries requires more than transliterating or replacing individual words or phrases with their (obvious) equivalents in other languages.
You must also translate your translations so that they are authentic to readers and listeners with a deep understanding that goes beyond dictionary definitions and textbook rules. While individual translators may offer this sensitivity to one or two cultures, they are unlikely to be familiar with many cultures. To do this, you must work with LSP.
On a related note, partnering with an LSP will give you access to specialists who know the ins and outs of a specific industry, within one or more cultural and linguistic contexts. For example:
Specific assumptions that could be crucial to accurate legal and medical translation
Cultural associations and connotations that can make or break tourism/travel content
Common idioms and expressions, which can lead to marketing gaffes when ignored
Individual translators or smaller firms are unlikely to offer the same depth of experience across various industries, generally preferring breadth of applicability in a more generalist approach.
Working with an LSP allows for unparalleled flexibility across all languages and use cases.
Avoid Growing—and Adapting—Pains
Beyond providing positive value, partnering with an LSP long-term can also mitigate or prevent several pain points both directly and indirectly related to translation and other language needs.
At the most basic, logistical level, partnering with an LSP streamlines all language concerns into a single relationship. Once you've established a strong partnership, you don't have to worry about recruiting, hiring and retaining internal staff or outsourcing language responsibilities.
Sometimes organizations require multilingual employees for translation, even if these tasks are not in their job description. Not only is it ineffective; but the results can be disastrous.
Speaking a language, even fluently, is not the same as being a competent translator
Untrained translators can make mistakes without supervision
Translators who translate must take primary responsibility.
In other words, this temporary dependency is a Band-Aid or a quick fix, not a real solution.
But working with language service providers helps to address and remedy language issues with professional care and industry standard best practices. Long story short, problem solved.
Quality Assurance Through Certification
Ultimately, the biggest indicator that an LSP will be a successful long-term partner—and the most effective approach to meeting your language needs—comes down to their certification.
One of the biggest differences between LSPs and other solutions, like individual translators or automated solutions, is that you can verify the quality of the former through an international standard.
ISO 9001:2015 lists requirements for translation services, including but not limited to:
Specific resource requirements, like experience minimums for individual staff
Step-by-step requirements for translation and review of translated materials
Additional procedural requirements for pre-production and post-production
To verify compliance, LSPs undergo rigorous assessment from third-party certification bodies who also need to be certified.
In short, the process guarantees that an LSP you partner with long-term is dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s—that diacritics are all in place—so that you can focus on what you do best.
Get a Quote for Language Services!
As you can see, working with an LSP as a long-term partner will provide value for your business by providing unparalleled dependability across all language services and optimizing operations.
Looking for a partner to meet your translation, interpretation and localization needs? Idiomatic Translations is happy to help. With our ISO 900:2105 certification, 25 years in business, and thousands of happy customers, we're here for you.