With my experience of being a translator, I think I understand the linguist hiring circle. Therefore, I have certain expectations from customers. Of course, I believe that there should be certain responsibilities of translators as well. Anyway, there are only a few companies who will acknowledge your experience. Also, there are rare cases when your experience will make you skip another requirement for your work quality test. Therefore, customer feedback can actually be the most effective way for you to prove your excellence.

I know, every company will ask for your profile. But, they will eventually demand a unique language test for their evaluation. Therefore, obtaining feedback from customers is the most common process of linguist skill evaluation.

Bright Side Of Test

If we think about the bright side, taking a test will make you improve your skills. But, this only applies when you will actually get some solid feedback for the test.

There is a definite requirement of some evaluation results. Regardless of whether the linguist passed or failed the language standards of that specific company.

The factual side of the language test is much different than it should be. In reality, only a few companies actually take the sample seriously. Most of the mid-level companies don’t even share their requirement standard before asking for the test. And when they fail the skills, they give a simple excuse, “Did not meet our standard.

My Experience

Let me give you an example of this. Recently, a company contacted me for a sample test. The job was for subtitle translation. They demanded a total of 6 tests in 2 months. After I completed them one by one, their response was, “Unfortunately, it did not meet our expectations.”

Well, what was my response? I asked them for specific feedback so that I can understand which part of my translation needs improvement? So, the response was, “Did not meet our expectations as it consists of a lot of literal translation.”

Literal Translation, I have been hearing it a lot in low to mid-range companies. This is not an actual term in most cases. It seems that companies are using this term as an excuse to dismiss another explanation.

What I don’t understand is, why do I need to go thru the 6 test? And it was just to realize that my skills are not up to the standard? This is something that I don’t accept as a fact.

Big Quality Standards Or Just An Excuse?

There are several genuine companies who acknowledge the skills as it is. Anyone who works for subtitle translation would probably understand that being a part of appreciative company itself is a skill acknowledgment statement. At least, it was for me.

I never heard a word, “Literal Translation” when I did the test for these big companies. I am sure they have an actual big standard of quality evaluation. But, I am not sure why did they not bring this issue? This is the most common problem that linguist experience.

Well, I don’t have any prejudice against the unpaid test for quality evaluation. Of course, companies need to test the skills so that they can distribute their tasks to the qualified linguist. However, when they take a free test, they should also fulfill the responsibility to provide proper qualitative feedback. Test qualitative feedback could help Linguist gain self-improvement knowledge. So that, Free Test could have a worth of its own.

What Is The Value Of Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is highly valuable because it gives us an opportunity to improve ourselves.

Feedback from customers or service feedback, if given properly, it can be just like any other skill improvement course for a linguist. However, in this course, you get realistic experiences and customized examples. This can help you become a much better version of yourself.

When you receive feedback from your client, it usually demonstrate a realistic approach. You will get an idea on how others will analyze your work. This is the only method of knowing your skill’s standard from other’s point of view. And this definitely is the fastest way to bring some effective improvement in your skills.

Recognizing the Significance of Customer Feedback.

We all know the importance of customer feedback; however, there are only few who actually prefer it.

Why? Well, there is a reason why the customer feedback is not so much in trend.

It is important that linguist takes client feedback seriously. If a customer provides feedback then it is necessary for a linguist to understand the value of it. Linguist should evaluate client feedback and gather customer comments on the work.

When a linguist receives feedback for his/her work, it is necessary to understand the evaluation.

When a client will give decent feedback of work, it can be a big skill improvement opportunity for a linguist. After linguist gather customer feedback, he/she should find out the factual highlights.

Also, it can also be considered that most of the freelancers don’t demand feedback from customers. Therefore, clients don’t bother to spend their time on the work quality evaluation. When a linguist will demand standard customer feedback, then the client may actually consider it.

Customer Feedback: Expectations vs. Reality

It is common that people in the translation industry don’t appreciate the feedback. Why, well, mainly because they are not actually feedback but more like a comment or criticism.

As I see:

Feedback by the client is influenced by the cost and satisfaction ratio of the service provider.

Therefore, the actual work quality usually gets compromised in the final feedback.

Feedback by a linguist is influenced by possible future opportunities from the client.

Which compromises the actual quality of feedback.

Therefore, I think collecting feedback and providing feedback should be a part of the basic process of test. When a linguist gives a test, it is the obligation of company to give some feedback. It could be on the quality or standards, etc.

When a client gives feedback, “There were some spelling mistakes; however, translation quality was up to the par.” It gives linguist encouragement to improve his/her spelling standards. It is like an acknowledgment of hard efforts that linguist put in the test.

How Customer Feedback Management Can Improve Business Trust

You might have seen that service websites offer customer feedback loop on their website. They show product feedback and different types of customer feedback on their front page. Well, it is because feedback is important.

By showing feedback, they give a message to the audience: we value your opinions.

Also, you can find your pros and cons when you will implement feedback with the help of customer feedback analysis. This will allow you to make an effort to satisfy a higher percentage of your target feedback.

Companies give their high preference to the customer rating system and ask customers to leave feedback. Why? Well, it is because when you survey your target feedback, you get all the right answers.

Due to its importance, the feedback monitoring system is in high preference.

Customer Feedback System And Our Traditional Conception

It is proven that customer feedback system can give your business a rapid boom. However, asking for feedback from clients is not exactly the most comfortable thing. Therefore, you need to change your perspective regarding customer service feedback.

You should learn the importance of customer feedback. But before that, understand the fact that asking feedback can help you developing customer relationships. This is yet another purpose why you should ask your long term clients to provide their experience feedback.

You ask yourself, ”why is customer feedback important”. Well, try asking yourself “why a customer would want to give the feedback”? Connect the feedback with the communications and relationship. Change your traditional conception and see the new picture of it.

Best Customer Feedback Methods And Practices

There are several customer feedback systems and methods that you can use. I would like to share a few effective options with you that you can implement in your business.

• Online Feedback Option If you have a website then you can get feedback on your website. Site feedback option can be the easiest and highly efficient way to obtain customer feedback.
• Online Customer Reviews Reviews can be a great quality-control system for any business. If your business is listed on Google and other business listing sites, reviews are best.
• Real-Time feedback If you have live chat support on your website or if you have an application, this one is for you. This can be the ultimate feedback of customer regarding their need and experience. It allows you to gather viewer’s feedback as it happens.
• Customer Satisfaction Survey If you have a popular brand or company, it is necessary for you to run a user feedback survey. Customer survey will allow you to know how good or suitable your services are. And for a linguist, this could be an indirect way of obtaining feedback from their previous and current client.
• Directly Gathering Feedback From Clients You can ask for customer feedback by email or phone etc. This will be a more personalized and customized way of gathering feedback.

Importance Of Language Test Failure Result Feedback.

We need to acknowledge this fact. Being a linguist who gets all YES in tests is a rare thing itself.

There are still some companies that will give you a “NO REASON” failure. When we agree to give the test of our skills, it should not be for free.

My point here is: Suppose if any company demands an experienced person to provide a skill test. Well, it should be their obligation to understand the value of their time as well. Although, the paid test is not a suitable option for companies. They should at least provide detailed feedback. So that a linguist can get a chance of skill improvement with the help of skill test.

Conclusion:

Giving feedback will make linguist feel like his/her efforts in the test are not pointless. Learning from customer feedback or test failure feedback is actually the best opportunity to improve oneself. With the proper management of linguist test, it will become a mandatory thing that companies will consider.