It is common practice to test a service provider’s quality before hiring them. For most services, this proves an ideal way of testing the quality of the company whose services you are considering hiring. However, for assessment of translation quality, testing can prove to be an inaccurate measure in most cases. A language service provider works well when he is given the independence and time to carry out his best translation practices. Unfortunately, when it comes to testing translation quality, this proves to be a problem. In most test scenarios, there are a lot of hurdles and barriers that don’t normally exist when we are working with the language provider.
This is one of the reasons why a company who is looking for a language buyer needs to know how to evaluate and test a company’s translation services so it gives an accurate measure of their performance quality. By using an alternate approach that can prove to be a better gauge of performance and service quality, a buyer can minimize hassle and risk once a vendor is selected. Most LSPs have a standard set of procedures and practices they follow in order to provide the best quality services. These practices include the following procedures:
Most language service providers have a glossary of terminologies of the language they have to translate to. This is especially essential when the field of the buyer’s translation requirements is of a technical nature. This is why most language service providers create or own a glossary that is approved by the customer before they start translating the content. This is essential to ensure both parties are on the same page. During quality testing, hardly any LSP is provided with a glossary and as a result inaccuracies can result in the translated documents.
Every customer or buyer has their own unique writing style. This includes terminologies, sentence structures as well as style of punctuation usage along with formatting details. When an LSP is testing for a buyer, they rarely are provided with a style guide and as a result have to work blind.
Many a times, the product details for which the translation services are required are technical or complicated. This is why after a LSP is hired, they are provided training to get them up to speed with the product’s technical details. However, during the testing phase, the LSP is rarely ever provided training and on top of this, the testing material usually includes many technical details which prove to be a challenge for the provider.
LSPs also require a detailed Q&A session in which they clarify all their confusions and questions related to the product and content to ensure they understand the requirements and the purpose of the content clearly. This crucial step is usually missing when quality testing is being carried out. These problems require them to work on a different and challenging level than that of their regular practices which can result in an inaccurate quality measure. This may affect speed and quality as well as comprehension during the testing phase.
A wiser approach is to ask the LSP for samples of their work which you can then review to see if they match your requirement. Also inquire about the translation process to get a better understanding of the quality based on the provider’s level of consistency. You can also provide the vendor the full details of their requirements, such as the glossary, training material, or Q&A session, before carrying out a sample test which will allow for better quality testing.