How to Choose the Best Translation Company

Shira Pik-Nathan

August 31 , 2023 · 7 min

With the growing recognition of the importance of translation and localization, there are more top translation companies now out there than ever before, making it difficult to decide which to choose. When choosing a translation company, you will need to know that you can trust your translator to complete your project accurately, within your deadline, and in line with your requirements.

You may be worried about brand consistency, you may have large or sensitive projects, or you may require specific expertise. It can feel overwhelming with all the options to choose the best translation services that’s the best fit for you and your company. To help you out, we have put together a list of some of the most crucial tips for how to choose the best translation company.

What Do Translation Services Do?

Translation services play a crucial role in bridging language barriers and facilitating effective communication across a global network 500 of markets. These professional language services often involve the conversion of written or spoken content from one language to another, ensuring that the intended message is accurately conveyed while considering linguistic, cultural, and contextual nuances. Translation services cater to a wide range of industries, from business and legal to healthcare and technology, enabling organizations to reach wider audiences and tap into diverse markets.

In today’s interconnected world, accurate translation is essential for businesses looking to expand their reach and connect with customers from different linguistic backgrounds. Whether it’s translating marketing materials, legal documents, technical manuals, or software interfaces, translation and localization services help maintain the integrity of the content while making it accessible to a broader audience. Beyond words, translation also involves understanding cultural sensitivities, idiomatic expressions, and industry-specific terminology to ensure the message resonates appropriately

What is the role of a localization service provider or translation vendors?

Typically, these professionals oversee your localization project comprehensively, provided you’re willing to invest in their professional services first. They begin by evaluating your specific localization needs, suggesting strategies to accomplish your localization objectives, and outlining the essential actions required. Subsequently, they assist in translating your content and adapting your project for local audiences.

If your organization possesses the necessary budget to cover all costs of translation and localization services and you’re not interested in forming an internal translation team, entrusting your localization project to skilled experts emerges as the most secure course of action.

7 tips for what to look for in a translation company

1. Make sure the translation agency can also do localization

For translation agencies 500 to be successful, it need to understand its target market and be able to not only translate but localize your content as well. Without localization, the translated material might not get the message across to your target market. For example, a Brazilian Portuguese audience will need different messaging or use different phrasing than a European Portuguese audience. Using leading language service provider or a multilingual translation company that employs native translators from your target market to ensure that your content is properly localized is crucial for success.

2. Ensure the translation company has quality assurance processes

When it comes to ensuring a high quality translation services, your choice of a professional translation company is paramount. While selecting a reputable translator is a step in the right direction, it’s important to acknowledge that human translators, like everyone else, can make mistakes. Similarly, opting for machine translation might seem efficient, but machines can also falter, particularly in capturing the nuances of human expression and localizing content effectively. Therefore, the translation company you opt for should go beyond a single translator or machine.

Look for a company that integrates professional translators and editors into their workflow and has established review processes in place. These mechanisms are designed to uphold the integrity and accuracy of the translated material. This could involve a second translator cross-checking the work of the first, a meticulous review by a project manager, or the utilization of Neural Machine Translation with Post-Editing (NMTPE) to enhance accuracy.

Investing in a top translation partner and language service provider that takes these extra steps demonstrates a commitment to delivering a quality translation, ensuring that your message not only transcends language barriers but resonates authentically with your target audience.

3. You should be able to reach customer support 24/7 in any language

Another key sign of professionalism is a translation company’s customer service. If an agency is available to you at all hours, you know you can rely on them to handle any issues that may arise. Try contacting a translation or translation services company you want to try out via email, phone, or chat and see how long it takes them to reply, and how satisfied you are with their assistance. The way they handle your initial inquiry is a good way to measure how they will support you as a customer.

Additionally, a translation company should know how important it is to be able to communicate with their customers in their own language. If the website localization 500 company or translation management system you have your eye on provides multilingual support, that’s a good sign for their overall ability to provide good translation and localization services. At BLEND, for instance, we utilize Zendesk to enable our support agents to respond to our customers in any language with the help of our team of translators or MT.

4. The translation company should have industry and subject matter experts

Obviously, translators do have a lot of common knowledge of the world, and a native-level understanding of the language and culture that are translating for. However, a good translation company will have experts in specific fields like finance, medical, marketing, or technical translation. These experts ensure the proper terminology is used in the target language so your content sounds as professional as it did in the original language. Check the company’s website or try to open a project and see if they have translators with the expertise your project requires. A proper translating company will have a knowledgeable team who can easily tackle any subject matter thrown at them.

5. Your translation company and its translators should have the proper certifications

While it may not seem so difficult, providing quality translation services, is far from easy. It requires certain skills, courses, and certificates to reach the highest levels. Not to mention a whole load of experience with translating different subjects. All professional translation services companies must have a team of certified experts in the languages and expertise they offer. Different companies have different certification processes and qualifications, so you should look into how a company vets their translators and what types of certification or testing they require of their translators before they begin sending them customer projects.

Additionally, the translation service or company itself should have certifications listed on its website. Keep an eye out for an ISO 9001, 17100, or 27001 badge, which shows that the company is upholding high standards for the delivery of their translation and interpreting services, and meets data protection standards as well, which means they’ll keep your information safe.

6. Check how fast the company can complete your translation

Besides the translation quality, one of the most crucial factors you’ll likely pay attention to is how fast your translation is finished. Whether you have a deadline for a project at work, need to submit a visa application, or just don’t have the patience to wait for your translation, you’ll want to find a translation company that does their job as quickly and efficiently.

Request a quote for a project and see what the estimated delivery time is so you can understand about how long your translation process will take and whether the company you’re considering can deliver in the timeframe necessary. Many companies also have the option to pay a small extra fee for expedited delivery of high quality translations, so if you know you’ll need a very fast turnaround, this may be something to consider when choosing your translation company.

7. Look into reputation, reviews, and references

Of course, if you’ve researched all of the above and still are having trouble choosing between all the translation companies out there, you can always see what others have said about a company to understand if it will be a good fit. Check the company’s website for customer testimonials or case studies to see what kind of work they’ve done in the past. To get the full scope it’s best to also check review websites like G2 or TrustPilot to see if their previous customers are satisfied.

Do a quick Google search as well to see what kind of information or news articles are out there. Have they been featured in major language industry publications by Slator or Multilingual Magazine? If so, this likely means they are legitimate and have a good reputation in the industry.

You can also ask around and see if your trusted friends or colleagues have recommendations for a good translation company they have worked within the past.

Final Verdict: Choose the best translation agency to check all your boxes

We went through some of the crucial factors you need to keep in mind when you decide to hand over your project to a certified translation services company. If the options still feel overwhelming, can tick all these boxes and meet your translation needs. Whether you need official and certified translation, business translation, machine translation, or human translation, BLEND covers it all, and much more!

Have questions? Talk to our team.