When Running a Business, Be Kind to Your Translators!

As a translation agency, we have had the pleasure of collaborating with hundreds of freelance translators from all corners of this fantastic planet. They have been people from diverse cultures, with very different communication and working styles. And over the last 16 years, it has been this amazing medley of people that has enabled APlus to prosper, grow and deliver thousands of translation projects to our clients.

I have always recognized the importance of each of our contributors and extended warmth and a human connection even though we rarely meet in person. But even if the relationship between APlus management and its freelance translators is almost exclusively conducted in cyberspace, we ensure that our interactions exude patience, understanding and fairness.

I also like to surprise people with a happy phone call. Once a year, I pick up the phone and call some of our top translators and thank them for their work and dedication. I am always told we are the only translation agency who has ever done that. Usually a translation agency calls a translator when they have a problem with their translation.

And when you treat people right, something wonderful happens. Whether they are your clients or your full time or freelance employees, they are likely to reciprocate in kind. In our industry, that means that a freelance translator might give our agency priority over another one because they simply like working with APlus people. That means he will make himself available for that rush project one of our clients desperately needs done by Monday morning. The translator is likely to go the extra mile to please and reread his text an extra time to make us happy. He likes working with our agency because he gets treated with kindness and gets paid fairly and on time, so essentially, he wants to ensure we send him more work in future. And guess what? If he goes the extra mile to please, that means we then have the best translation possibly to deliver to our client.

It really does end up being a win-win for everyone.

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