Article: Turning Thorns into Roses: Managing Challenging Clients De persoon die dit onderwerp geplaatst heeft: ProZ.com Staff
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| | Adam Warren 
France
Local time: 22:03
Lid 2005
French to English
| Document everything you do | Feb 15, 2013 |
Hullo,
Even with clients of a normally businesslike disposition, one has to fulfil the duty of due diligence.
Few of the documents I handle - even from official sources - are supplied to me free of errors, patches of ambiguity or obscurity. Accordingly, among several management instruments I have devised is a tabular queries sheet, of which I have made an MS-Word template:
- Title block:
name of client and end-client, assignment name and other r... See more Hullo,
Even with clients of a normally businesslike disposition, one has to fulfil the duty of due diligence.
Few of the documents I handle - even from official sources - are supplied to me free of errors, patches of ambiguity or obscurity. Accordingly, among several management instruments I have devised is a tabular queries sheet, of which I have made an MS-Word template:
- Title block:
name of client and end-client, assignment name and other references.
- Column headings:
Document name | Position in document | Source text | Suggested rendering | Notes
| Client's reply.
As a parenthesis, roughly the same format applies, mutatis mutandis, to reviser's reports and test revision reports. Here again, I tend to work quite hard on most of the drafts I revise, but my prime aim is to instruct and, if possible, defend my colleague, with the final aim of raising standards in the profession so that we can claim decent rates for our craft.
I have found that my own-brand management instruments are accepted (I assume tacitly) by my agency clients who advertise their "house" queries sheets, the requirements of which my own tables seek to satisfy comprehensively, but in a more user-friendly format.
Given the liability implications, which can be complex in cross-border business, one has to meet trouble and deal with it before it arises. Failing to note every item requiring clarification could result in the client meeting trouble further down the line, and the translator could then face the client's challenge of negligence. I therefore warmly endorse Suzanne Deliscar's cautious approach in a thoroughly worthwhile article, and hope this comment will make a constructive contribution.
Should anyone wish to have a copy of any of these management instruments, I am quite happy to supply one free of charge, in return for a simple acknowledgement of origin.
With kind regards,
Adam Warren (IanDhu - 41189) ▲ Collapse
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