Are you looking for a language service provider for your brand localization?
It is, indeed, a hectic job, and you need to figure out whom you should choose among the many options available in the market. Judging the credibility of language service providers takes work, especially when everyone is good at their marketing skills. However, there are a few tricks that you can use to evaluate the competence of an LSP. It is important to ask the right questions and get maximum information about their localization process so nothing is overlooked.
Considering the impact of an LSP on your overall brand reputation in the foreign market, you have to be really careful while hiring an LSP. Read this article till the end to get some idea of how you can analyze the overall reliability of a language service provider and whether or not it would fit your localization demands.
What to Look for In a Language Service Provider?
Make sure that an LSP is able to meet your localization demands, and there are various factors you must consider. It would allow you to assess the competence of an LSP more effectively.
How are Their Experience, Expertise, and Reputation
To begin with, you have to ask your LSP about the years of experience they have in total. In addition to their experience, you must also inquire about their area of expertise. It would help you get some idea about how relevant is their overall experience to what you are actually looking for. Furthermore, you must also evaluate their overall reputation and standing in the market. Social media has made it easier for you to analyze the integrity of any company.
What Are They Claiming to Provide?
Once you have gathered basic information about an LSP’s background and market authority, it’s time to look for what they are providing. Visit the website of your LSP, and look for the services they are offering and what they are claiming to achieve if you hire them. However, you can’t always get a complete understanding of an LSP by visiting the website and social media sites. It is mostly the copywriting and marketing LSPs do to appeal to more customers.
What do Their Customers Think About Them?
Ask their current customers about their experience with the LSP. How satisfied are they with the overall LSP service? Which issues have they faced throughout their partnership? It would help you know what you should expect from an LSP. You can see the customers’ reviews or visit their social media pages to watch the activities and what sort of queries customers post in the comments.
Get Some Technical Details
It is important to ask your language service providers about the technical details, such as which linguistic system they use or what quality assurance processes they adopt to ensure high-quality outcomes. In addition, you can ask them about the security infrastructure and if they are using any cloud-based TMS. It would help you ensure that the LSP would keep your information confidential and secure from breaches. No matter if you are using the best localization management system for your project management, if your LSP needs to become more familiar with it, you end up facing more problems. So, it’s crucial that your LSP has experience working with the linguistic system that you are using for localization management.
How Do They Communicate with Clients?
How an LSP collaborates and communicates with its clients is an essential factor to consider. Delays in response and passive communication would cause an understanding gap between you and your language service provider. An LSP must use a reliable communication medium and give you enough time to deliver core localization requirements. So, it would be best if you clarified how you would communicate with LSP. You must choose an LSP that provides seamless communication without making you wait longer.
Have a One-On-One Conversation
Once you have finalized a few language service providers after comparing them on various factors, it’s time to sit with them to discuss your specific localization needs. A one-to-one conversation with your LSP would allow you to evaluate how well they could understand your localization requirements and which solution they are coming up with to fulfill your needs. Now, you can compare the initial responses you get from each LSP, which would tell you a lot about how well an LSP would go with you through your localization project execution.
Conclusion
Asking the right questions would help you find the right language service provider. Just because someone is appearing on top of your search results doesn’t necessarily mean they are right for you. They are maybe just good at SEO and marketing. So, it’s better to assess your LSP on its actual performance and credibility. You can follow the tips provided in the article to find the perfect language service provider partner.Read more
