Can you honestly tell me words like ‘Client Changes’ in an email subject line do not make you panic? And lower your self-confidence?

Anyhow, it is important to turn these situations (when clients make specific changes or edits and, sometimes, accompany them by general comments) into success.

First of all, we should understand who is making those changes.

Therefore, we may have a part-time reviewer who works with the products/services/activities that are described in the translated text. He/she is not necessarily a linguistic expert and reviewing translations is not his/her main job.

Then we may have to deal with a specialized reviewer whose main role within the company is the revision of the outsourced translation. He/she is in charge with the quality assurance of the texts.

As for the changes that might incur, we can list some of their common types.

Terminology changes: the client uses a different term (succursale for branch locations, for instance) and the new term makes sense. We accept and implement them.

Translation errors: apologize and correct the mistake. Promise you will not do it again.

Clumsy work: it happens. Your translation is close to perfection and the changes returned seem to lower its quality. Handle things with diplomacy, without feeling frustrated or angry. Try to explain to the client why those changes cannot stay and how the situation may be fixed.

Added or deleted content: you notice new or missing text so it is your duty to communicate and confirm. And this is because the reviewer may not be the one who ordered the translation and he/she should be perfectly aware of the fact that the final version differs from the source.

As for incorporating the feedback, open the document you have sent to the client (hopefully saved on your hard drive) and make a copy of it. Compare that copy to the file with comments, introduce the needed changes, clean the file and send it back to the client.

In case you and the client reach a dispute, there are a few things you should consider. You should never respond immediately to an angry call or e-mail. Compose your response and let it sit a bit before send it. Then, do not forget to ask for a few specific examples of the issues the client is talking about. Remember to always be kind and concise and that the time to speak up about your objections to the fact that the clients asks for a complicated QA process with no increase in your rate is BEFORE the project starts.

Everyone makes mistakes. You and the client included. But it is important to remember that a mistake is an opportunity to improve. And the way you react to the client’s feedback marks you out as a professional.