Poll: How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?
论题张贴者: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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May 14

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?".

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Iulia Parvu
Iulia Parvu  Identity Verified
罗马尼亚
Local time: 05:23
正式会员 (自2022)
English英语译成Romanian罗马尼亚语
+ ...
Other May 14

Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Sebastian Witte
Agneta Pallinder
expressisverbis
Michael Hughes
Chris Says Bye
Josephine Cassar
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
葡萄牙
Local time: 03:23
正式会员 (自2007)
English英语译成Portuguese葡萄牙语
+ ...
Occasionally May 14

I have been working for some clients for over 20 years and this kind of loyalty is the best positive feedback I could have hoped for. Over the years, I’ve been called by some customers things like a “saint” (?!), a “miracle worker” (?!), a “princess” (?!) and various other similar sobriquets but these positive comments have to do with my response to their urgent requests…

Iulia Parvu
Chris Says Bye
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
荷兰
Local time: 04:23
正式会员 (自2006)
English英语译成Afrikaans南非语
+ ...
What is feedback? May 14

ProZ.com Staff wrote:
How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?

If by positive feedback you mean them saying thanks for the help, then I do get that quite a lot. If you mean a genuine compliment e.g. "you were amazing" (but not "thank you for your amazing help"), then less so, but still occasionally.

Then again, some agencies give out compliments like sweets, and I suspect that they do it because they were taught that that is normal polite business communication. The insta generation also tends to give many compliments in their e-communication, be it in the form of emoji or as gushing (that said, my generation did say "ROFL" without actually having rolled on the floor). But seriously, the young generation gets upset if you don't continuously compliment them -- they think you're upset with them if you don't do that.


Iulia Parvu
 
Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise
比利时
Local time: 04:23
正式会员 (自2020)
French法语译成Dutch荷兰语
+ ...
Feedback May 14

Samuel Murray wrote:
If by positive feedback you mean them saying thanks for the help, then I do get that quite a lot. If you mean a genuine compliment e.g. "you were amazing" (but not "thank you for your amazing help"), then less so, but still occasionally.


I don't think this is what's meant by feedback. Feedback is about the quality of your translation work, imo, not about compliments about your personality.

On-topic: I receive messages with explicit positive feedback about my work only rarely, perhaps once a year (one of my clients works with a system in which reviewers award a score to every translation, so for that specific client I get regulary a good or very good score, but I guess it's more about spontaneous feedback in the question above). But the large majority of my clients are long-standing (10+ and a handful 15+ years). Like others already said: there's no better feedback than the continuous loyalty of your clients.

[Bijgewerkt op 2024-05-14 10:43 GMT]


 
another "What is feedback?" May 14

Iulia Parvu wrote:
Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?


Yes, indeed, but it doesn't say anything about what sort of positive feedback. Positive feedback can be given for problem-solving (such as dealing with emergencies), reliability, low rates, personal warmth, and sometimes even quality.

I remember talking with an agency owner who spoke in glowing terms about one of her translators. More or less what she said was "X is just wonderful. She always delivers on time, her work is not great but it's good enough for the client, she can take on huge amounts and she's a thoroughly nice person. Always a pleasure to work with". X used to earn 36% less than the top earners at the agency were getting for standard jobs at the time.

Someone asked for information about this agency on a mailing list and this colleague, X, said she enjoyed working for them but that their rates were low and there was no way to get them to raise them. Well, others were getting far more, but the quality of her work just wasn't very good. Even so, she filled a very useful slot and deserved all the praise she got. They kept her for many years, until they lost the contract with the final client.

The same agency owner also told me about a technical translator in very unflattering terms: he was impossible to work with, he would ask endless questions, he would insult the end clients over mistakes in the texts, he was constantly grumpy, never wanted to be disturbed and his rates were high. She kept working with him for years and years because he was the only one who could deliver high-quality work.


Chris Says Bye
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Rachel Waddington
Zea_Mays
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Ana Vozone
Ana Vozone  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:23
正式会员 (自2010)
English英语译成Portuguese葡萄牙语
+ ...
Not "how often" but "how many"... May 14

Only one of my clients gives me feedback on every job I deliver.
But all the other clients keep coming back... I suppose that is a good sign of good feedback.


Chris Says Bye
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Josephine Cassar
Luis M. Sosa
 
Somewhere between weekly and occasionally May 14

Somewhere between weekly and occasionally, which probably goes for most of us.

Customers returning is a good sign, but customers taking the trouble to say how god-like I am is an even better sign.


expressisverbis
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Iulia Parvu
Becca Resnik
 
Laureana Pavon
Laureana Pavon  Identity Verified
乌拉圭
Local time: 00:23
正式会员 (自2007)
English英语译成Spanish西班牙语
+ ...

版主
No, it's not :-D May 14

Iulia Parvu wrote:
Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?


Actually, I don't think they are the same.
This is particularly true these days.


 
Chié_JP
Chié_JP  Identity Verified
日本
Local time: 12:23
正式会员 (自2013)
English英语译成Japanese日语
+ ...
Yes but May 14

It comes in a form that I am asked to take care of other linguists' messed-up poor translation at very low cost and short timeline.
I understand because it is a hallmark of my trusted quality but not necessarily pleasant way.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
法国
Local time: 04:23
French法语译成English英语
. May 14

I don't keep a tally of how often, but I'm always really pleased when I get it.
A short while ago, my client transferred a message from the German translator she uses, who said she really loved my translations and preferred to wait to see my translation before handing hers in, because she was often inspired by my work. I was really chuffed to get a compliment from a fellow translator who knows just how hard the texts are!


Chris Says Bye
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Becca Resnik
 
Ikram Mahyuddin
Ikram Mahyuddin  Identity Verified
印度尼西亚
Local time: 10:23
正式会员 (自2006)
English英语译成Indonesian印度尼西亚语
+ ...
That one client May 14

There is one client who sometimes give me positive feedback for small jobs I do for them.

 
Sandra Boca
Sandra Boca
意大利
Local time: 04:23
正式会员 (自Feb 2024)
English英语译成Italian意大利语
+ ...
Occasionally May 15

Usually when I ask if everything was ok with the previous project or if there were corrections so that I can implement the in the new one.

 
Hayley Wakenshaw
Hayley Wakenshaw  Identity Verified
英国
Local time: 03:23
正式会员 (自2018)
Dutch荷兰语译成English英语
Depends on the project May 15

These days, I almost always get very nice feedback after a larger project of, say 5,000 words or more. This may come from the PM, the end client or the revisor/editor. I’ve had good (unsolicited) feedback at least every other month for the last year.

Although I have lots of proof by now that I am good and actually do believe that I am good, I still have imposter syndrome from time to time, so I always appreciate PMs taking the time to give or pass on compliments.


Becca Resnik
 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
土耳其
Local time: 06:23
会员
English英语译成Turkish土耳其语
All the time May 15

I'm sure I would get positive feedback all the time and be hailed as the 'Ice Scream' of EN>TR translations if only I were working with the Turkish translation agencies with Turkish PMs or Turkish end clients that might appreciate my end product... But working with European agencies and communicating with foreign PMs in lingua franca, they have no clue about the quality of Turkish translations... So as long as you don't come across an end client (of the agency) that's a complete c**t, you're con... See more
I'm sure I would get positive feedback all the time and be hailed as the 'Ice Scream' of EN>TR translations if only I were working with the Turkish translation agencies with Turkish PMs or Turkish end clients that might appreciate my end product... But working with European agencies and communicating with foreign PMs in lingua franca, they have no clue about the quality of Turkish translations... So as long as you don't come across an end client (of the agency) that's a complete c**t, you're considered okay.. I've found that the best way to avoid such a possibility (coming across a ....) is to steer well away from marketing translations, which I don't like anyway...Collapse


Chris Says Bye
expressisverbis
 


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Poll: How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?






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