Trust between an organization and its language service provider (LSP) is what happens when the two work closely and continually on optimizing the quality, efficiency, security and cost effectiveness of the language services provided. There are four key principles underlying that trust:
1. Understanding
2. Communication
3. Delegation
4. Feedback
Here we outline Versacom’s take on building and maintaining trust, based on our 20-plus years of forging valuable partnerships with more than 2,000 public- and private-sector organizations from all fields and industries.
Click the above links to learn more about the four principles and see examples of simple practices that can yield great results.
Principle 1: Understanding
To establish and maintain trust with your LSP, there must be mutual understanding. In concrete terms, that means both parties must arrive at a clear agreement about the goals and challenges of the mandate, the services provided, the terms and conditions, and the expected deliverables. Here are some tips on how to foster mutual understanding and reasons why it helps you.
It’s in your interest to request a free consultation
Are you preparing an RFP or a language services request? Consult a language service firm to get recommendations, with no obligation on your part, early on in the process. You’ll not only get free advice from industry experts on your multilingual communications procurement and management strategies and needs, you’ll also receive crucial information to make sure your requests are clear and realistic and garner suitable bids.
Savings
Speed
Compliance
Quality
Defining performance indicators is essential
If you are about to finalize a service agreement with a new partner, you should establish relevant, measurable performance indicators. These will help you anticipate deadlines and costs, determine quality criteria and develop a problem-resolution process. In other words, performance indicators will help you see where your partnership stands and how effective it is. With clear indicators, you will know what to expect from the outset and spare yourself potential unpleasant surprises.
Compliance
Speed
Security
Savings
You will achieve significant cost savings/avoidance with the documentation and reports to prove it.
A kick-off meeting will get things off to a smooth start
If you are about to start working with your new LSP, why not organize a kick-off meeting between your main translation requesters and your dedicated LSP team? This will give you an opportunity to clarify your expectations, approach, guidelines and preferences, basically everything your LSP needs to do the job well. You can meet the people you will be dealing with and make sure your partner knows and understands you. This way, you will get bespoke translations and service that meet your expectations from the outset.
