Over recent months there has been a rush by translation companies to jump on the ‘transcreation bandwagon’ and even a few blog posts calling it a new service or just spouting dubious sales-speak. But surely the question of when to transcreate versus translate is really more about what level of customer service we want to deliver in which country or to what target audience?
Firstly, the word ‘transcreation’ – it’s not new
At Wordbank we have been providing this service since the mid ’90s – our Conquest™ service was launched in 1997 specifically to offer a better way of adapting creative copy to different local markets. Indeed, I first heard the term back in 1996. It was coined by a European advertising agency executive laboriously making a point about how marketing should be properly adapted rather than just translated.
Admittedly, at the time I, like many, considered it an ugly mongrel of a word and the advertising executive in question worthy of immediate membership of “pseuds corner”.
However, I believe that the real issue here is neither one of semantics nor of different flavours of translation. What it is really about is how much value a particular company puts on customer service and the customer experience in practice.
How many times have you heard a major international company say how much they value their customers and that excelling at customer service is part of their corporate DNA?
Clear, effective communication
Actions speak louder than words
Clear, effective communication is an essential part of customer service.
Take the hotel business, for example. Customer service is essential: our first and last contact with any hotel will most probably be with the reception/front desk staff. Before we even get near the product we have been sold (i.e. a bed for the night), we must run the service gauntlet of online booking and negotiate our way through the potentially treacherous waters of check-in.
Consumer experience... (Cross at the crossing, Brazil)
I often wonder if hotel staff experience the same fear and trepidation that I feel as I approach the front desk of a strange hotel anywhere. Does that sharp smile and equally sharp uniform disguise an accident waiting to happen or a warm, welcoming, kind human being keen to pander to all my jet-lagged, stressed-out executive needs?
Whatever happens, the outcome is categorized, filed and ranked in my personal database of experienced brand value logged against the probability of a future return visit. In other words, duly noted.
During the summer I have had several hotel experiences, variously in Sicily, Milan and Denver. Somewhat surprisingly considering America’s celebrated customer service culture, my overall experiences were better in Sicily and Milan than Denver, although I have lost count of the times I have stayed in the Denver hotel in question. To put it bluntly, their CRM system should have been blaring ‘regular customer, retain at all costs’ when I checked-in. So something failed.
Yes, I was ready to quit, never to return
Yes, my Denver minibar fridge failed miserably in its mission to refrigerate and despite informing reception no less than three times, nothing was done about it. I just gave up, did not use the minibar and logged three large black marks in the aforementioned mental database.
The Sicilian and Italian staff, however, were just plain helpful and considerate, despite minimal English in the Sicilian case. I left feeling well-disposed to the staff and the company in both instances.
All very well, but how does this relate to transcreation?
The whole thing comes down to brand EXPECTATION versus brand EXPERIENCE. And in today’s world, that often means online brand experience as much as face-to-face or voice contact.
We do not need a management consultant to point out that the arbiter of satisfaction is as much the overall level of service we receive as the quality of the product itself. For instance, Hugo Boss is a designer of world renown, a premium brand and one I rated. However, two recent and disastrous experiences with their online store mean that I will think twice about going down that route again and indeed my perception of the whole brand has been sorely dented.
Does the level of service match the message?
On the other hand, love or hate Ryanair, you are never left in any doubt about the (basic) level of service to expect and the actual brand experience tends to live up to that (or down to it, depending on your perspective). The staff may irritate you with their constant sales banter but equally they are helpful, friendly and have a sense of humour. Ryanair’s messaging is clear and effective – you definitely get what you pay for.
The message vs. the level of service
A lot is talked about machine translation, translation technologies, shared translation memories etc., all good stuff for driving down the cost of translation to the lowest level. But what message does that send to your customers? Is the quality of content on your website, in an email, on the landing page, in the sales or channel training modules good, or just good enough to make sense?
How happy are we really when we tick the satisfactory or average box for level of service? We are certainly not delighted, or going to recommend to a friend or enthuse on Twitter. As for the post-order customer service I received after calling Hugo Boss, I have had more success talking to my kitchen wall. And now I’m telling you about it.
Posted on the UK Guardian website 25 July 2011
Any company promoting a value proposition which includes or implies a commitment to a high level of service and/or product quality is surely creating a market expectation that company communications will reflect that commitment locally rather than being just good enough.
With translation technology virtually open to all (thanks to Google), is there not an opportunity for the smarter company to differentiate by making their website and online communications in general more stimulating, interesting and sensitive to the local audience/target demographic?
Search engines aside, surely the customer or prospect is the prime target for websites and online marketing?
Nike, BMW, Hugo Boss. All of them make clear brand promises, as does Michael O’Leary at Ryanair, now the biggest airline in the UK (in the 12 months ending June 2011, Ryanair carried 75.5 million passengers). He makes it clear that Ryanair wants to be the biggest and the cheapest, and the quality of customer service correlates with the price you pay.
How do you want the local market to perceive your brand? Veering towards a Michael O’Leary or a Hugo Boss?
We all use clichés and idiom everyday, peppering our normal conversation with metaphors and sayings. This is a common human trait and indeed an inherent aspect of the evolution of language. How often do you hear phrases like “let’s suck it and see” or “let’s throw mud at the wall and see what sticks“. Never? Then what about “finding a needle in a haystack” or ” a snowball in hell“?
Culture and environment can directly influence idiom. Take the following euphemisms to imply someone is stupid:
