Quality
Profit from the chance to contest by being repaid and learning how to buy
The possibility of error in a thoroughly traditional activity
Translation activity is vulnerable by definition. Even the best among translators, after a few hundred miles of texts rendered perfectly in their own mother tongue, will always make mistakes (at least 60 times a line). And it also happens that their revisers or terminologists can in turn occasionally remain "hypnotized" by one (or several) paragraphs. Meticulous compliance with the "quality loop" principle, set out in the ISO 9000 standards is sometimes not sufficient to ensure so-called "zero error" perfection. Translation is therefore not exempt from the diabolic possibility of error.
Eurologos offices, which produce millions of pages a year, know it and found their work on excellence and the pursuit of perfection, while relentlessly seeking to avoid, ever-anxious, the devastation of errors. The most modern tools of linguistic engineering (translation aids, automatic correctors and other computerized syntax checks) are implemented in order to steer clear of humiliation, which is always painful to translators, resulting from an error in their work, which is and will always be predominantly traditional.
The three steps in the inevitable repentance of Eurologos
A group such as Eurologos has anticipated, for more than 25 years, a fast and fair procedure for the reparation of possible translation errors.
Firstly, the client’s revisers must ensure the validity of the criticism that detects the error. As these revisers are supposed to know that all well-translated lines are systematically open to potential contestations, they must make sure that they are justified and above all intelligible, in their analysis. They must shun the first four temptations described in the "5 ethical and professional rules" of the final check (see our ad hoc document). Often what may first appear to be a translation error to clients is only a synonym of the source phrase.
Secondly, the client’s revisers must formulate their criticism on the basis of at least six "objective correction criteria" listed in our document "Contesting first means examining". That way they can differentiate between objective and non-negotiable spelling errors and, for example, their stylistic or geo-stylistic rendering preferences as these can be genuine (and even acceptable), but might also not invalidate the criticized text.
Finally, they must decide if the time they spend on the contestation is an active investment for the future and reparation to compensate for an underestimation of the translation problem (this is often the case!) as it was previously handled by their companies: for example, an order was placed without addressing the core problem of definition of company technolect (the provision of precise and relevant terminology for products). All lexicographical errors require a concrete solution, with the preparation of company glossaries on a technical level… It is a well-known fact that all postponed problems will come back to haunt us.
The opportunity of contestation of Eurologos must thus be seen as a strategic "second chance" for an inadequate commercial relationship to develop into a partnership that corresponds to the linguistic and marketing complexity of translation and editing services. Eurologos offices can always be counted on as writing professionals. What is more, Eurologos offers the sacrosanct credit note as compensation, where necessary!
Contesting to be compensated and to create a good partnership with Eurologos
When an incontestable mistake is made and breaches contract, Eurologos fixes it immediately: we replace the text, layout or online content, or send a credit note for the same amount. Eurologos offices even do so willingly if it is possible to create a new, constructive relationship of business partnership that can turn the received criticism into a treasure. On this website, you can find the “post mortem” document for our completed and delivered projects: it provides for systematic criticism – very vivid – of the relationship – from both the Eurologos and the client point of view – regarding the realization of the project we have just completed. This way we can avoid the absurd musical chairs-style changes in translation agencies that inevitably lead companies to successive disappointments: once you have dealt with a multinational and “glocal” company like Eurologos (global and local with more than 30 offices worldwide), there is a need to create a strategic partnership of truly excellent and definitive linguistic services.
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