Poll: How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?".
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Iulia Parvu 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:26
Member (2022)
English to Romanian
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Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?
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I have been working for some clients for over 20 years and this kind of loyalty is the best positive feedback I could have hoped for. Over the years, I’ve been called by some customers things like a “saint” (?!), a “miracle worker” (?!), a “princess” (?!) and various other similar sobriquets but these positive comments have to do with my response to their urgent requests…
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 01:26
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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ProZ.com Staff wrote:
How often do you receive positive feedback from clients/agencies?
If by positive feedback you mean them saying thanks for the help, then I do get that quite a lot. If you mean a genuine compliment e.g. "you were amazing" (but not "thank you for your amazing help"), then less so, but still occasionally.
Then again, some agencies give out compliments like sweets, and I suspect that they do it because they were taught that that is normal polite business communication. The insta generation also tends to give many compliments in their e-communication, be it in the form of emoji or as gushing (that said, my generation did say "ROFL" without actually having rolled on the floor). But seriously, the young generation gets upset if you don't continuously compliment them -- they think you're upset with them if you don't do that.
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 01:26
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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Samuel Murray wrote:
If by positive feedback you mean them saying thanks for the help, then I do get that quite a lot. If you mean a genuine compliment e.g. "you were amazing" (but not "thank you for your amazing help"), then less so, but still occasionally.
I don't think this is what's meant by feedback. Feedback is about the quality of your translation work, imo, not about compliments about your personality.
On-topic: I receive messages with explicit positive feedback about my work only rarely, perhaps once a year (one of my clients works with a system in which reviewers award a score to every translation, so for that specific client I get regulary a good or very good score, but I guess it's more about spontaneous feedback in the question above). But the large majority of my clients are long-standing (10+ and a handful 15+ years). Like others already said: there's no better feedback than the continuous loyalty of your clients.
[Bijgewerkt op 2024-05-14 10:43 GMT]
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| another "What is feedback?" | May 14 |
Iulia Parvu wrote:
Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?
Yes, indeed, but it doesn't say anything about what sort of positive feedback. Positive feedback can be given for problem-solving (such as dealing with emergencies), reliability, low rates, personal warmth, and sometimes even quality.
I remember talking with an agency owner who spoke in glowing terms about one of her translators. More or less what she said was "X is just wonderful. She always delivers on time, her work is not great but it's good enough for the client, she can take on huge amounts and she's a thoroughly nice person. Always a pleasure to work with". X used to earn 36% less than the top earners at the agency were getting for standard jobs at the time.
Someone asked for information about this agency on a mailing list and this colleague, X, said she enjoyed working for them but that their rates were low and there was no way to get them to raise them. Well, others were getting far more, but the quality of her work just wasn't very good. Even so, she filled a very useful slot and deserved all the praise she got. They kept her for many years, until they lost the contract with the final client.
The same agency owner also told me about a technical translator in very unflattering terms: he was impossible to work with, he would ask endless questions, he would insult the end clients over mistakes in the texts, he was constantly grumpy, never wanted to be disturbed and his rates were high. She kept working with him for years and years because he was the only one who could deliver high-quality work.
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Ana Vozone
Local time: 00:26
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
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| Not "how often" but "how many"... | May 14 |
Only one of my clients gives me feedback on every job I deliver.
But all the other clients keep coming back... I suppose that is a good sign of good feedback.
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| Somewhere between weekly and occasionally | May 14 |
Somewhere between weekly and occasionally, which probably goes for most of us.
Customers returning is a good sign, but customers taking the trouble to say how god-like I am is an even better sign.
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Laureana Pavon
Uruguay
Local time: 20:26
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
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MODERATOR
Iulia Parvu wrote:
Isn't the fact that clients keep coming back for your services the same as receiving positive feedback?
Actually, I don't think they are the same.
This is particularly true these days.
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Chié_JP
Japan
Local time: 08:26
Member (2013)
English to Japanese
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It comes in a form that I am asked to take care of other linguists' messed-up poor translation at very low cost and short timeline.
I understand because it is a hallmark of my trusted quality but not necessarily pleasant way.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 01:26
French to English
I don't keep a tally of how often, but I'm always really pleased when I get it.
A short while ago, my client transferred a message from the German translator she uses, who said she really loved my translations and preferred to wait to see my translation before handing hers in, because she was often inspired by my work. I was really chuffed to get a compliment from a fellow translator who knows just how hard the texts are!
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There is one client who sometimes give me positive feedback for small jobs I do for them.
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Sandra Boca
Italy
Local time: 01:26
Member (Feb 2024)
English to Italian
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Usually when I ask if everything was ok with the previous project or if there were corrections so that I can implement the in the new one.
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Hayley Wakenshaw
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:26
Member (2018)
Dutch to English
| Depends on the project | May 15 |
These days, I almost always get very nice feedback after a larger project of, say 5,000 words or more. This may come from the PM, the end client or the revisor/editor. I’ve had good (unsolicited) feedback at least every other month for the last year.
Although I have lots of proof by now that I am good and actually do believe that I am good, I still have imposter syndrome from time to time, so I always appreciate PMs taking the time to give or pass on compliments.
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 02:26
Member
English to Turkish
I'm sure I would get positive feedback all the time and be hailed as the 'Ice Scream' of EN>TR translations if only I were working with the Turkish translation agencies with Turkish PMs or Turkish end clients that might appreciate my end product... But working with European agencies and communicating with foreign PMs in lingua franca, they have no clue about the quality of Turkish translations... So as long as you don't come across an end client (of the agency) that's a complete c**t, you're con... See more I'm sure I would get positive feedback all the time and be hailed as the 'Ice Scream' of EN>TR translations if only I were working with the Turkish translation agencies with Turkish PMs or Turkish end clients that might appreciate my end product... But working with European agencies and communicating with foreign PMs in lingua franca, they have no clue about the quality of Turkish translations... So as long as you don't come across an end client (of the agency) that's a complete c**t, you're considered okay.. I've found that the best way to avoid such a possibility (coming across a ....) is to steer well away from marketing translations, which I don't like anyway... ▲ Collapse
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