Four crucial points to verify about a document translation service…

When you need documents translated, there is quite a field of document translation services available out there. So how do you choose between these various agencies to find the one best suited to your needs?    One thing that’s important to check is whether the translations provided by these agencies are machine assisted. These days three are a lot of computer based translation services, and while these may work for casual translation, they often produce results that are not very easy to understand. The computer can get confused by the construction of a sentence in a way that a human translator never will. Therefore, it’s very important that any agency that you’re thinking of hiring, employs human translators. If you wanted machine translation, you could just use Google translation services on the net. But this service doesn’t provide results that are of a quality sufficient to the requirements of a business.      Another thing that you should look into, is the skill set employed by the company you are looking at. Does this particular document translation service employ translators from around the world? When going in for document translations, especially for important document translations, it is important to employ a translator who preferably lives in the geographic area  the document originated from or is intended for. Most translation agencies employ a large battery of freelance translators, and so can source translation expertise from different parts of the world. This is an ideal situation, and if the translation service you are looking at cannot provide this facility, then perhaps you should look elsewhere.    Another thing that you should pay attention to is whether a translation agency is able to handle any special requirements that you may have. For example, if the material that you are getting translated is overly technical, then you may have to inquire whether the translation service has writers with the necessary technical expertise to handle that material. Similarly, if the language used is too complex or literary, then you may have to inquire whether the translation agency can provide document translation services for this level of material.     Lastly, comes the aspect of quality control. I would say that a good way to choose between document translation agencies is to give each agency some sample material to work on. This is a low cost test that will provide you with the answers you need much more swiftly than merely asking questions of the representatives of the agency. Give each agency around three hundred words to work on of material that is as close to the material that they will eventually be working on with you as you can make it. Then examine the results that they provide, or better still, have a native speaker in the destination language examine the results that they provide, and choose the agency that provides you with the best results. Always be ready to switch between agencies if one agency doesn’t deliver results consistently. Since agencies employ a large battery of translators, you may consider asking the agency to consistently assign you a translator that you like. In the beginning, of course, this is not so important, but as you use the agency more often, you may find that one particular translator delivers results suitable to your needs more consistently than anyone else, and you may ask the agency to have this translator assigned to your company. Note that this may involve some extra charge.One minor point is to ensure that the various account managers employed by a document translation agency are willing to accommodate your needs.