Client conversation:
“We used machine translation for our website, but the text was translated literally in many parts, for example Birthday was translated as ημέρα γέννησης (meaning literally the day on which you were born), instead of γενέθλια (which is the annual anniversary of your birthday).”
On the same day, conversation at my aunt’s house:
“Cousin: I was suggested to check this new cosmetics company which has currently summer sales with very good offers, but their site seems a bit weird. The syntactic structures are bizarre and they don’t make much sense. Not sure what to do…
Aunt: Maybe it’s a scam. Don’t risk it! Place an order in our usual e-shop, which we trust.”
Have you ever thought how a badly translated content affects your brand and sales? Well, the above conversation is a real example of how consumers react in such cases. Enlightening, isn’t it?
You could now argue in the following way: But this is only a minority case, with the majority of clients it still works well. The price is the determining factor for most people, language and style plays only a minor role.
Well, if you think like this, I will rather tell you not to jump to conclusions.
What consumers said
Croud agency developed an international study to explore consumers’ attitudes towards localization in France, Germany, China and Japan. Among others the respondents were asked how would finding untranslated or badly translated content on a brand’s website affect their impression of that brand. Are you wondering what did they say? Here are the 3 top answers with the highest percentage in all survey countries:
a) Would make me less likely to purchase from the brand
b) Would prompt me to look for alternatives
c) Would make me trust the brand less
See the full report here: https://insight.croud.com/international-localisation-report-2022
So now what do you think?
Remember! These statements come directly from the consumers themselves. These consumers are clients in your business as well. Are you going to risk it?
To use or not to use AI?
One thing is for sure. If you don’t look after the quality of your translations and content, you will lose clients.
And machine translation won’t help you in this regard.
I know that this can sound like a cliché and you might think that I am only saying this for fear that the machines will replace me and I’ll lose my job.
This is not true though. Actually, I do embrace the technological advancements and I use AI in my work too.
The problem for you though is that setting up a reliable Machine Translation System is a complex task that produces good results only when certain conditions are met and requires a lot of expert knowledge.
Non-expert people and businesses do not usually know:
- Which machine translation systems are more reliable and so worth to give them a try and which not,
- Which systems endanger your confidential data or business intelligence and which are safe to use
- What are the conditions, under which a machine translation system is expected to work efficiently and is thus recommended,
- How to train a machine translation system, namely, how to configure its technical parameters, so that it produces quality results
- Whether the set of data used to train the machine were suitable for their kind of texts or not
- How to evaluate whether the machine translation result is acceptable or not and so on.
And this is where we step in!
My team consists of experienced top-notch translators who have been specially trained on machine translation systems and know how to profit from AI developments. We are the go-to professionals who can help you leverage all these technological innovations to efficiently produce accurate, correct and reliable copy that attracts customers and skyrockets your profits.
I am not telling you not to use the power of AI. What I’m saying is don’t do it alone, as without expert knowledge you may end up having poor translations that make your clients go away from your brand.
Get in touch with me now and let the expertise of my team take care of everything for you.
Contact me at: info@translationembassy.com
My company specializes in helping businesses expand worldwide and gain customers abroad by providing consulting and translation/interpreting services to support their strategy and goals.
Services we provide for businesses include among others:
- Marketing translations for any kind of promotional material
- Technical translations for product manuals, patents, technical reports, safety guidelines etc.
- Financial translations for accounting/tax documents, balance sheets, annual reports etc.
- Legal translations for statutes, various agreements, employment contracts, internal regulations etc.
- Official (certified) translations for use in public authorities,
- Liaison interpreting for business trips and negotiations,
- Conference interpreting for promotional events, training seminars and conferences for expert opinions exchange
Get in touch with me now for a free consultation!
Contact me at: info@translationembassy.com
