Value for money

As a professional translation agency, we are often asked about cheap translation. We are not the cheapest translation company in the world, but we work hard to give our customers the best value for money. We work to deliver the most economical translations for you. Our focus is quality – cheap translation can be a very expensive option.

How is cheap translation produced?

Typically, a cheap translation is achieved by a combination of different systems.

  • Some agencies send files to the cheapest translator (having a pool or hundreds of cheap translators on their books all around the world).
  • Some companies use machine translation (computers) to deliver cheap translations.
  • A combination of cheap translators and machine translation can be used: free machine translation edited by cheap translators.

Agencies can also just use a pool of translators who are reasonably good – some have degrees, some have diplomas while others are just native speakers. This delivers a hit-and-miss approach to quality. Today you may have good quality translation and tomorrow you may have bad quality translation.

STAR uses professional translators that meet our stringent ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 quality standards.

people at desk

Why does cheap translation cost more?

Reputation damage: If you deliver a bad translation to a client and they complain, your brand and reputation will be damaged. Do you think a client will trust your product or service if the documentation has errors?

Rework costs: Often you may have to rework your documentation or website again to fix errors. We often find it’s easier and better to retranslate from scratch than fix a bad translation. Rework is expensive as you have to pay to get the same job done twice.

Loss of sales: Have you ever visited an online store and seen bad English (language text) on the site? This is probably the result of cheap translation. Would you trust that company with your credit card details. We work with many ecommerce companies and we know we deliver translation that sells.

Lawsuits: The worst case scenario is that someone has an accident as a result of following less than perfect instructions for your product or service. Can you afford to fight the case in court?

Professional Translators

Professional translators do the following for each customer.

  • Manage terminology
  • Manage translation memory
  • Update their skills
  • Advise customers
  • Protect your brand

Professional Translation Service Quality

Here’s how we deliver the most cost-effective professional translation to you.

Professional Human Translators

We work with human translators who are both native speakers and work in their own country.

They must also be qualified translators and have industry experience.

Obviously, their qualifications and their work need to be rewarded, so they are paid higher than the standard industry rates. Their work is in context, consistent and much more reliable and accurate as they understand the industry they are translating for. Separate professional proofreaders are employed in the process to ensure that the translations are correct. Every project is proofread to check for mistakes or inconsistencies so we deliver a perfect product to you.

Our Professional translators will also…

Manage Terminology

They will build a list of key terms of each client to ensure accurate translation now and in the future.

Manage Translation Memory

We will store all your translations so they can be reused in the future. This means your text will always be consistent and over time the cost of translation will reduce.

Update their skills

Just as your company grows and your team expands their skills, we too expand ours. Translators need to keep on track of technology changes and industry developments to ensure their work matches your market’s ever increasing demands for quality.

Give advice to clients

Where we see areas of improvement for our clients we will pass on advice to you. We consider ourselves your language partner. If we can make a project easier for you it can also make our work easier, reducing your costs and ours simultaneously.

Translation Pipeline

The translation pipeline extends well beyond translation. Your process starts with document authoring, translation then publication. Outside this you will have your marketing department, product management and sales departments working together. Each step and department impacts each other. STAR is aware of this and works with its clients to ensure the entire supply pipeline works well and no-added cost is introduced along the way.