Poll: How much are you affected by negative feedback from clients?
De persoon die dit onderwerp heeft geplaatst: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
MEDEWERKER SITE
Jan 30

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How much are you affected by negative feedback from clients?".

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ADIE Translations
ADIE Translations
Duitsland
Local time: 11:54
Duits naar Engels
+ ...
Thoughts Jan 30

I remember being very affected by a comment once from a client years ago. Touch wood, I've not heard anything bad for a while.

The most troubling comments come from over-eager reviewers.


Carla Catolino
Gerard Barry
Rita Translator
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:54
Lid 2007
Engels naar Portugees
+ ...
Very affected Jan 30

I haven’t had any negative feedback since I decided that all my translations of more than 5 pages should go through a second pair of eyes. If I happened to receive one negative feedback, I would be very affected.

In my experience, what looks like negative feedback is sometimes nothing more than a stylistic change and not a true error on the part of the translator. If I know I am right, I will defend my translation. Of course, I will also apologize if mistaken…

For a
... See more
I haven’t had any negative feedback since I decided that all my translations of more than 5 pages should go through a second pair of eyes. If I happened to receive one negative feedback, I would be very affected.

In my experience, what looks like negative feedback is sometimes nothing more than a stylistic change and not a true error on the part of the translator. If I know I am right, I will defend my translation. Of course, I will also apologize if mistaken…

For a while (we part ways when after a few years the client decided that my rates were too high and I refused to lower them) I translated from English into European Portuguese articles published by “The Economist” and “The Guardian” for a Portuguese weekly newspaper and a monthly magazine. These translations were always edited by a journalist. Quite often when I read the finished product, I had to admit the changes made improved the translation quality…
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Iulia Parvu
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
Ana Vozone
Inge Schumacher
 
Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Duitsland
Local time: 11:54
Engels naar Duits
+ ...
Not very Jan 31

Of the few instances of negative feedback I ever received, most were either stylistic changes (some of them for the better, as I will freely admit) or even plain wrong. There was one bit of feedback where a Swiss employee of my client made several changes that would a) change the spelling to Swiss German (the job was for Standard German; I do not accept jobs into Swiss German unless I'm explicitly told that my translation will be adapted to Swiss in a second step); b) introduce unnecessary styli... See more
Of the few instances of negative feedback I ever received, most were either stylistic changes (some of them for the better, as I will freely admit) or even plain wrong. There was one bit of feedback where a Swiss employee of my client made several changes that would a) change the spelling to Swiss German (the job was for Standard German; I do not accept jobs into Swiss German unless I'm explicitly told that my translation will be adapted to Swiss in a second step); b) introduce unnecessary stylistic changes; c) make unnecessary deviations from the client's term base. Needless to say, I was rather furious because she was being incredibly rude and smug about her feedback, but that was the only time that a client's negative feedback really tugged on my nerves. Other than that, a job's a job.

[Edited at 2024-01-31 06:53 GMT]
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Maja_K
Gerard Barry
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spanje
Local time: 11:54
Spaans naar Engels
+ ...
Other Jan 31

I don't recall ever having had any negative feedback. I may have had some at some time in the past, but it couldn't have been world-shattering.
I do remember on one occasion a client insisted on me not using any synonyms in a financial translation, so, disheartened, I stopped doing them after that.


Chris Says Bye
 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 13:54
Engels naar Russisch
+ ...
I don't mind learning something from negative feedback Jan 31

It's just that I remember only one instance of such learning. I had translated an article and the reviewer was criticising my translation for good reason (my prior experience, mostly dealing with legal translations, had affected the language I used so I had to adapt). It happened many years ago. Since then, my scanty share of negative feedback has in no way affected the way I work. I keep in mind every decision I have made and why I made it, so I always have arguments to defend my translations, ... See more
It's just that I remember only one instance of such learning. I had translated an article and the reviewer was criticising my translation for good reason (my prior experience, mostly dealing with legal translations, had affected the language I used so I had to adapt). It happened many years ago. Since then, my scanty share of negative feedback has in no way affected the way I work. I keep in mind every decision I have made and why I made it, so I always have arguments to defend my translations, which often makes reviewers angry because they hate feeling stupid. Actually, I think part of the reason why the company for which I translated the article from earlier eventually showed me the door was that I had opinions and never hesitated to share them (their management were a pretty authoritarian crowd). Except for that article, my only fault with them was that I broke a couple of deadlines, which was a big deal because they served high-paying and very irritable customers (I then had a really slow computer and no CAT tools, so deadlines were a challenge).Collapse


Sundar Gopalakrishnan
 
Justin Peterson
Justin Peterson  Identity Verified
Spanje
Local time: 11:54
Lid 2007
Spaans naar Engels
I must be a masochist Jan 31

As a teacher, almost all my evaluations were positive, but I tend to remember the negative ones, and wince
As a translator, most feedback has been excellent, but I tend to remember mistakes I made... YEARS ago!


Chris Says Bye
Rita Translator
 
Liena Vijupe
Liena Vijupe  Identity Verified
Letland
Local time: 12:54
Lid 2014
Frans naar Lets
+ ...
Not from clients Jan 31

I haven't had any negative feedback from clients, but some reviewers just rewrite everything (sometimes even introducing mistakes) and there is nothing to learn, so I simply ignore it. I've had to fight quite a bit with one particular reviewer who was ruining my work on a regular basis and it was affecting me to the point of considering leaving that client, but it was sorted out eventually and the work continues fine now.

I have also failed at tests because my translations weren't l
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I haven't had any negative feedback from clients, but some reviewers just rewrite everything (sometimes even introducing mistakes) and there is nothing to learn, so I simply ignore it. I've had to fight quite a bit with one particular reviewer who was ruining my work on a regular basis and it was affecting me to the point of considering leaving that client, but it was sorted out eventually and the work continues fine now.

I have also failed at tests because my translations weren't literal and therefore considered "wrong" or "too free". Then I usually explain it to the potential clients, some have even listened and given me another chance resulting in approval.
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Rachel Waddington
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
Baran Keki
Esther Dodo
Gerard Barry
 
Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
Verenigd Koninkrijk
Local time: 10:54
Nederlands naar Engels
+ ...
Feedback Jan 31

I think in general we tend to take feedback much too personally in this business. This comes from working in isolation rather than in collaboration with trusted colleagues. And because clients very often don't say anything at all unless they are unhappy.

Constructive feedback from someone you trust is a very different thing and it's a shame we don't get to experience this more often.


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
Chris Says Bye
Kay Denney
Esther Dodo
Kevin Fulton
Felipe Tomasi
 
Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Duitsland
Local time: 11:54
Engels naar Duits
+ ...
too personally Jan 31

Rachel Waddington wrote:

I think in general we tend to take feedback much too personally in this business. This comes from working in isolation rather than in collaboration with trusted colleagues. And because clients very often don't say anything at all unless they are unhappy.

Constructive feedback from someone you trust is a very different thing and it's a shame we don't get to experience this more often.


I think the problem often is that clients are anything but constructive in their feedback. If a client is openly mocking my (completely correct and accurate) translation and questioning whether I even know the language and then proceeds to make a bunch of completely wrong "corrections", I think I am at least a little entitled to feel insulted.
I have never felt personally insulted by constructive feedback (as little as there has been), because it ultimately helps me grow and evolve as a translator.


Rachel Waddington
Liena Vijupe
Sundar Gopalakrishnan
Chris Says Bye
MagnusRubens (X)
Kay Denney
Gerard Barry
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
Frankrijk
Local time: 11:54
Frans naar Engels
. Jan 31

Rachel Waddington wrote:

I think in general we tend to take feedback much too personally in this business. This comes from working in isolation rather than in collaboration with trusted colleagues. And because clients very often don't say anything at all unless they are unhappy.

Constructive feedback from someone you trust is a very different thing and it's a shame we don't get to experience this more often.


Yes I know this is the case for me. I remember doing a very dry, boring translation, for a fashion designer, but without an ounce of opportunity for creative flair, and being told that my translation didn't sound very interesting. They hadn't said they wanted a transcreation and weren't paying transcreation rates!

Since there's a lot of subjectivity in the kind of translations I do, I always tell my direct clients that feedback is included in the price. That way they can criticise, and I get a better feel for the kind of translation they want.

Once a client told me he didn't like a particular term I had used, he preferred the same term as in French. This was a word used in English but not in that particular context. I told him that I hadn't ever seen the French term on British and US websites for his . He promptly sent me a link to a page in English, but it was the translation of an Italian website. At that point I told him that if he wanted Globish, he didn't have the right translator. There was an awkward silence, then finally he said OK. He was so pleased with the final result he took me out to a gourmet restaurant.


Rachel Waddington
Zea_Mays
Gerard Barry
 
Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
Verenigde Staten
Local time: 05:54
Duits naar Engels
I was excoriated once Jan 31

A few decades ago I had a long and tedious translation that was full of repetitions. It seemed like a good candidate for TM software, so I bought Déjà vu and gave it a try. I won't go into detail, but I made a royal cock-up of the job. The colleague who had outsourced the job to me let me know in no uncertain terms that my product was a useless mess. Nevertheless, he paid me, but at a greatly reduced rate. I learned the meaning of GIGO the hard way.

Rachel Waddington
 
Gerard Barry
Gerard Barry
Duitsland
Local time: 11:54
Duits naar Engels
Not from clients but from "colleagues" Feb 1

I've worked mostly as an in-house translator and have in the past been in the position of having my work revised (sometimes together with unfriendly and/or condescending comments) by so-called "colleagues". That's the worst feeling of all - having to work in the same office as someone who clearly doesn't respect you. Proofreading is one thing but being a sanctimonious p***k about is is another.

 


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Poll: How much are you affected by negative feedback from clients?






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