Bin Tiede Germany Local time: 22:26 Member (2008) German to Chinese + ...
Jan 17
Unfortunately I have never been successful in educating a client, not a single one. At the moment when I tell them how my way works, they all misinterpret my goodwill suggestion as “she does not want to work with me anymore”.
Situation 1
A more or less regular client kept on sending me small jobs. I told her, "I don’t mind taking one or another small job after a big project, but if I get too many of them, I have to charge my minimum rates". That was our last e-mail exchange.
Situation 2
A more or less regular client wanted me to type the source text from a PDF into Word before translating. I told her I had to charge extra for this task, then the client disappeared.
There are 2 PMs in an agency, with which I have been working successfully since 2 years. I am much more motivated to work for one PM than for another, I always have time for her projects, because she would ask for my price, whereas another PM sends me a project with their budget. Though there’s hardly any difference between the prices, I as a service provider feel more respect from the "good" PM. But I don’t want to say anything, because I want to keep the "less good" PM as a client, and I can’t change her anyway.
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Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 13:26 Member English to German + ...
Yes.
Jan 17
I do not want to go into details, but I have been asked to "break in" new PMs for at least 6 PM generations by long-term and regular clients. I am not really crazy about this, but it makes life easier later on.
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Tina Vonhof Canada Local time: 14:26 Member (2006) Dutch to English + ...
Suggestions
Jan 17
First of all, instead of "telling them how my way works", you could make some suggestions about how you would like to work with them "more efficiently" and suggest how this might be to their advantage as well. A former boss of mine called this approach "adding warm fuzzies" and I learned a lot from that.
Re: situation 1:
I don't know if this will work for you but if I get several small jobs from an agency that also sends me large jobs, I keep a 'running' invoice. I add all the small jobs (with their PO numbers) to this same invoice until it becomes a decent amount and then send it to them. They were quite happy with that.
Re: situation 2:
If they send you the PDF electronically, can you not simply convert it to Word, for example with ABBYY or another program? This would take only minutes.
Re: situation 3:
Since you don't have any control over which PM contacts you, there isn't much you can do. One thing you could try is to ignore PM-2's budget and reply with your own rates.
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Janet Rubin Australia Member (2008) German to English
Yes
Jan 17
I sympathize with you. However, IMHO "educating" clients is important, and with the right clients (those who appreciate the value of quality and the fact that quality does not pour down free from the heavens like rain) it does work.
If you can politely explain how you work and your justified reasons for doing so and these clients still "leave you", then they are simply not the right clients. Sad, but true.
Tina Vonhof wrote:
If they send you the PDF electronically, can you not simply convert it to Word, for example with ABBYY or another program? This would take only minutes.
I would have to disagree somewhat with this assessment. The benefit obtained from OCR programs always depends on the quality of the original source documents used to make the .pdf, and there are plenty of situations where a) a LOT more time than "only minutes" is involved, and b) the OCR program adds superfluous yet harmful formatting that, if transferred directly to Word, can turn the translation job into a living hell.
As a matter of fact, one agency I know specifically writes in its POs that translators are not to use OCR software (I have an answer to that they won't want to hear), probably because of the flaws inherent in using OCR without extra effort (to verify text and correct formatting).
OCR definitely has its benefits, but it still takes time to use properly. IMHO, unless the text either a) can be lifted directly from the .pdf using the extraction tool, or b) has little or no actual formatting (outlines, bullet points, tables, varying margins, columns, etc.), a surcharge is perfectly warranted.
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Jing Nie China Local time: 04:26 Member (2011) English to Chinese + ...
I tried, but failed too.
Jan 18
I have one client who always mark his changes in Red or in Green in the PowerPoint File. Each time he sent the PPTs back, I have to find his changes and changes these changes back to Black.
I have write to him for three times" please do not mark your changes in Red and Green", but each time, when I receive the revised file, the changes are still in Red or in Green. At last , I gave up.
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Heinrich Pesch Finland Local time: 23:26 Member (2003) Finnish to German + ...
Pricing is the only language they understand
Jan 18
For difficult customers/projects you have to charge more than for normal ones. If you get paid for your work it doesn't matter what you do actually, or does it?
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Phil Hand China Local time: 04:26 Member (2011) Chinese to English
Yes, but...
Jan 18
You can only educate those who are willing to be educated. If you work with high-quality clients, they may not know about how our industry works, but when you tell them how and why (and what the benefits are to them), they are interested and receptive. If you work with fly-by-night idiots, they neither know nor care.
Just this last couple of weeks I had to explain to a client that translators (should) only work into their native language - they wanted me to do their E>C, and I said, no, but I'll find you someone to do it. Happy ending for all.
Sometimes you have to educate by putting your foot down. A few weeks ago I got a file from a regular agency client. Not a great rate, but I was in an airport, had nothing better to do. After accepting the assignment, suddenly the PM said, oh, and update our Excel terminology file when you're done. Me: no. PM: It's part of the job. Me: no, it's not, just look at what the PO says. PM: Oh, please? Me: no. I might have done it if she'd asked nicely and at the correct time (before I accepted), because they're a nice bunch, and it's good to support professional working practice. But not if you try to sneak it in after the fact.
So educating clients is certainly possible. It's better if you are proactive about it: tell clients up front what you can and can't do. And don't ever be apologetic. I don't know how you talk to clients, but your phrasing to us doesn't sound very positive: "I have to charge my minimum rate", "I have to charge for typing". Rubbish. You don't "have" to do anything. You charge for typing because it's an extra service. When someone asks you to type up a document, mess with the format on a ppt, or feed the cat, the first answer is, "No, sorry, I don't do that. I'm a translator. I can recommend a secretarial service if you'd like." If the client begs, then you say, look, you're welcome to pay me for my time and ask me to type if you want. A secretary would be cheaper. Make the client feel like you're doing them a favour by even considering their request.
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