Poll: How much are you affected by negative feedback from clients? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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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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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.
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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… ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 16:41
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
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] ▲ Collapse
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 16:41
Spanish to English
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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.
| | | | | 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
| | | | | 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!
| | | | Liena Vijupe 
Latvia
Local time: 17:41
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
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... See more 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. ▲ Collapse
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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.
| | | | Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 16:41
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
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.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 16:41
French to English
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.
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 10:41
German to English
| 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.
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| 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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