What is the best way to find a professional translation service?

If your company is about to use a business translation service for the first time, it likely signals that start of an exciting new international venture. As such, you’ll no doubt want to find the perfect translation company – one that is responsive to your needs, fairly priced and quick to produce the translations that you need. Of course, translation quality will also be high on the agenda! 

So what’s the best way to find a professional translation service? There are plenty of translation companies out there, so it’s important to ensure that you engage with one that will deliver everything you need. 

Most searches for translation companies these days begin online – although it’s also well worth asking your peers for recommendations of professional translation companies that they’ve used previously. When searching online and engaging with companies that look promising, there are several key points to focus on. 

Clarity around pricing is important. Many translation companies keep their prices hidden, in order to engage potential customers in discussion before they reveal their translation cost. Businesses looking for upfront information on translation prices should seek out companies that detail these on their website, either through a price list or an instant quote service. 

The translation company’s response time should also be assessed. The business world moves quickly, so it’s important to work with a translation company that can keep up. Companies that run live chat services on their websites are a good starting point, as they tend to be committed to efficient, responsive customer service. 

Next, look out for details of specialist services that the translation company provides. Financial translation, for example, requires a different skillset to legal translation or to video translation. As such, be sure to assess potential translation companies’ areas of specialist knowledge before committing to use a particular company. 

Once you have a few companies in mind, it’s time to start reading reviews. Google a range of search terms – such as ‘Tomedes review,’ ‘Tomedes translation review’ and ‘Tomedes translation service review’ – in order to track down a variety of reviews of the translation companies you’re considering using.

Translation company reviews can give you a good indication of the quality of service you can expect to receive. Some companies will also undertake a test translation in order to offer assurance as to the quality of their service. However, bear in mind that the translator undertaking the test may not be the same person who is ultimately allocated to do the work, so test translations can be somewhat limited in their usefulness. 

At this stage in the process, you should have a good feel for which is the right professional translation service for your business. A company that is open about its pricing, responsive to your communications, able to provide specialist translators and well-reviewed should stand you in good stead for meeting your company’s multilingual needs. 

If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact Tomedes and speak to our expert team.