At first glance, hiring a cheaper vendor for translation services seems like a sensible choice.
After all, a translation is just a translation, right? However, after going through this process several times, you’ll realize there’s another cost associated with translation – the cost of quality.
When comparing quotes from different companies, you should also consider the “cost of quality,” which becomes evident much later during the translation process or after project completion. The “cost of quality” should be discussed while scoping the project to avoid losses for all parties involved.
What Makes Up the Cost of Quality?
The cost of quality is paid by all parties involved in terms of effort, money, time, and opportunity cost.
Effort
Producing quality content requires significant effort from the translator, who needs to spend more time to produce highly accurate work. This means higher rates to improve their earning potential. Additionally, project managers coordinate with different translators to maintain consistency.
Time
Rushed work increases the probability of errors in the final delivery. Pushing a service provider to work faster with fewer resources often results in multiple rounds of corrections, wasting everyone’s time.
Money
Allocating fewer resources might seem cost-effective initially, but multiple rounds of corrections and low-quality work have long-term impacts. Missed deadlines, delayed campaign launches, and paying rush fees for other projects can accumulate as monetary loss. Service providers also lose money fixing mistakes multiple times and not working on new projects.
Opportunity Cost
Both the service provider and the client lose opportunities when they must repeatedly collaborate to make corrections in the same project. The service provider could be working on new projects, and the client could have moved on to new initiatives.
The Long-Term Impact of Ignoring the Cost of Quality on Project Completion
Neglecting quality can deteriorate the long-term partnership between the client and the service provider. Over time, this leads to:
Decrease in Client Satisfaction
Without the promised quality within the allocated budget, client satisfaction drops, reducing trust in the service provider.
Delays in Money-Making Activities
Delays in launching marketing campaigns negatively impact your profitability. Translators and translation agencies also suffer financially.
Deteriorating Relationships
Consistent haggling and quality issues make translators wary of working with certain clients. Changing translators frequently causes project managers to struggle with maintaining consistency, and straining relationships among translators, service providers, and clients.
Scenarios of Choosing Cheap Quality
Scenario 1
Negotiating a low budget with the service provider can lead to:
- Increased Errors: Novice team members are prone to more mistakes, causing rework and delays.
- Missed Expectations: Your expectations might not be met, leading to dissatisfaction.
- Wasted Time: Errors and revisions consume valuable resources and time that could have been spent on productive activities.
The result? A damaged relationship, where the translation service provider might hesitate to work with you again.
Scenario 2
Prioritizing budget over quality using less experienced translators may lower initial costs, but the consequences can be severe.
- Customer Dissatisfaction: Poor-quality translations frustrate and confuse customers.
- Lost Customer Loyalty: Subpar translations can make customers lose trust and switch to competitors.
- Damage to Reputation: Inaccurate or culturally insensitive translations can harm your brand’s image in foreign markets.
Investing in Quality is Better Than Bearing Losses Later On
Hiring experienced translators for critical projects ensures timely completion with minimal revisions. At ActiveLoc, we assign the most suitable translators based on our client’s project needs.
Our project managers ensure that translators have the required domain expertise, experience, and bilingual efficiency to deliver projects that resonate with our client’s brand voice.
Want to discuss your project? Contact us today!
