Wordsmith Quality Model WQM 10 – An Attempt to Make a Homebrewed Quality Model

Translation industry is a combination of product and service industry. On one way, we deliver a product – a piece of page, MS Word, and PDF document and on another side we provide a perishable service. We cannot sell a piece of translation to n number of clients. Quality issue in this industry is complex and there is no mechanical way to define or quantify it. Unlike a factory, translation has a very high ‘personality’ attached to it. We need to balance this personal with the global benchmarks where experience remains key navigational tool.

Below are listed ten simple quality factors that we have gathered from experience. The overall quality, roughly can be said to be weighed average of all these and these ‘weightages’ vary from project to project, client to client. Hence these can be considered as a map rather than the territory itself.  

1. Linguistic Quality (LQ), i.e. whether the end product / service satisfies all language-related conditions. But this is also not very easily measurable. Linguists, like experts of any field, differ in their opinion.
2. Timing Quality (TQ): This is a factor which is quite underestimated. It does matter little if a translation is delivered much after the deadline. A high LQ might fail miserably in overall Quality if TQ is poor.
3. Format Quality (FQ): Formatting is important for almost all projects and for some, format is the most important issue.
4. Post-Delivery Quality (PDQ): Like any product or service, after sales service or maintenance is needed here. It is a nightmare for a client if the agency / linguist is not available after delivery as the more the product moves towards the end client, less and less is the turnaround time needed to make it ready to deploy.
5. Availability Quality (AQ): Just like a doctor, how much competent and qualified, tends to lose reputation and business if not available at the right time, i.e. when a patient needs him, a linguist or an agency whose availability is not high, is reflecting a poor quality, even before the job has started!
6. Updating Quality (UQ): Researches in service sector have shown that in most of the cases, customers value an update on the delivery-related details of a project (time, format, progress) more than the actual delivery itself. (Imagine: If you could have been told beforehand how long it will take for you to reach the billing counter or the desk clerk. The idea of putting countdown timers in traffic points has its root in this behavioural pattern of ours regarding waiting for something.)
   This can be explained in another way: the project you are going to deliver to your immediate client might be sent to somebody upstream. Hence the Project Manager handling your project can plan / manage much better if you have some mechanism of periodic update. This information flow keeps everybody in the chain in a better comfort level.
   Finally, any change in your communication methods needs to be immediately updated. Your communication is your lifeline. Remember Nokia, world’s largest manufacturer of communication device: Jeevan ki Dor. (Thread of Life)
7. Presentation Quality (PQ): An area quite overlooked by most of us. Just like packing a piece of anything by certain type of paper and ribbon gives the object the hallowed and lovely title of ‘gift’, hence presentation is very, very important while you are delivering a finished product.
   Certain simple and common practice to present properly:
   1. Retain filename of the source and add subscript to tell in advance what the project number is and from what language to what language.
   2. Write a cover letter telling what is there.
   3. Do the same in the Subject line and end with – delivery, – report, – clarification, – comment.
   4. In case of multiple passing of file, write version 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 in the filename.
   5. Provide a short glossary or note if you think that would help. You need to understand that it may so happen that the text you are delivering is not understand anyone during its upstream level, except perhaps by the end-user!
8. Comfort Quality (CQ): Many a times, clients complain of lack of comfort. It might have nothing to do with your work or presentation or anything. You need to understand and be sympathetic with it. If a client is not comfortable with zip file or ftp, don’t try to shove it or shrug your shoulder – My God! What is this!
   Explain the issue and try to solve it rather then getting confrontational. An example: A client of ours went berserk telling us for three days that she did not receive the file. We sent the file some five times in the mail and then onto her ftp site. Still she came back with the complaint that she is not getting the file. At the stage when we were losing our mind as well, we found out that she had some problem in logging into her ftp site (might have forgotten password, we are not sure!) and her email server rejects all attachments more than 10 Mb silently!
   Please remember the cliché but very shrewd advice from a man hailing from a Gujrati business family – Nobody has won an argument against the customer. The full name of the Gujarti gentleman is M.K Gandhi whom the world knows as Mahatma Gandhi.  
9. Recording Quality (RQ): An easy thing in the surface in the days of all database management software etc, but there are potential cases hidden. Examples? Plenty: Wrong count of words, Invoicing to be done on source or target words, Invoice without Purchase order reference, Wrong Job Number, Wrong dates, Sending an Invoice after a time when everybody but you might have forgotten the project, Addressee not found.
10. Ethical Quality (EQ): The last one but the critical one. The moment a client gives you a project, he transfers something invisible but the motive power of everything in the world: trust. Honour that trust. This includes confidentiality (you are not supposed to share the details, may be on a arrest warrant or a criminal record you are working on), non-solicitation (don’t try to get projects from your client’s client just because you have that email id in the forwarded mail) and integrity (give that extra hour for making the project as faithful, as perfect as you can).

Recommend this article: ||||