Employees | 07.01.2016

Spotlight on: roles at a Translation Company

In the first of a series of features that goes behind the scenes at a translation company, we look at key roles and their responsibilities. 

 

Account Management

Let’s start by looking at the role of the Account Manager. You could be forgiven for thinking that Account Managers must resemble some mythical creature with the ability to grow extra arms, such is their ability to multi-task and look after several projects at once!  

Account Managers are customer-facing and manage every step of the translation project workflow from the initial quoting stage right through to delivery of the completed translation and final invoicing. They are responsible for communicating with the rest of the production team on the client’s requirements and for providing the best and innovative solutions.  

As well as being the point of contact for the client, Account Managers work closely with the translators themselves. They carefully identify those with the necessary background and expertise to assemble the most suitable team of linguists across all required language pairs. The bridge between the client and translation team, Account Managers ensure all project-specific instructions are passed on to the translator and liaise between the client and translator if queries arise.  

Here at The Translation People, our Account Managers are responsible for their own portfolio of clients, which allows them to deliver a translation service individually tailored to each client and to develop meaningful, long-term relationships. 

 

Sales and Business Development 

Working alongside the Account Managers to keep existing clients happy, both from a quality and service perspective, are the Sales and Business Development team. They encourage regular dialogue with the client so that our service is appropriate and adapts with their business as they face new localisation challenges.

As well as ensuring that companies who need translation services think of us when they need work doing, their role is also about speaking to new and potential customers about their requirements and making sure our proposals are in line with their expectations.

Our Customer Relationship Manager also gathers and monitors customer satisfaction and feedback and relays this to Account Managers.

 

Vendor Management 

The responsibilities of a Vendor Manager focus in particular on supplier recruitment and quality management. The Vendor Manager coordinates the recruitment of new suppliers to the network of linguists and also continually reviews the performance and quality of existing suppliers.

New linguists must pass a rigorous selection process in line with our ISO certification before they are eligible to join our freelance team and the work of existing translators may be selected for review as part of our continuous evaluation procedure.

The Vendor Manager works closely with the Sales and Account Managers to ensure that the profiles of our linguists cover the languages and specialist fields to meet our clients’ needs. When necessary, they also organise new recruitment campaigns which target translators with a particular skillset to cover any new requirements.

 

In-house Translator and Proofreader 

In addition to our extensive network of freelance translators, we also have our own internal Translators and Proofreaders.

Alongside translation tasks, an in-house translator may work with Account Managers to compile style guides and glossaries and perform maintenance on translation memories (TM): A TM stores a client’s past translations and if they make even just a small change to a translation after delivery, these amends can be entered into the TM and used in their future translations.

The main task of the proofreader is to review, edit and format translations before the final delivery. They will check aspects such as spelling, grammar, content, logic, style and consistency. They will also make sure that all project-specific instructions and reference material have been followed, including any style guides or glossaries. For projects where the target language is not their native language, a proofreader may be asked to check for completeness, numbers and formatting in the final artwork.

Our in-house translators and proofreaders form a vital part of the QA process. They provide detailed feedback on translations to the Account Managers and Vendor Manager and also evaluate test pieces as part of the recruitment process for freelance translators.

We hope that you now you have a better understanding of who’s who, but if you’d like to know more about how we can help you, please don’t hesitate to contact us via your Account Manager or through our website.

 

 

 


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