In light of the recent events, humanity has to face a great number of difficulties. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of our daily routines had to be altered but the sphere that suffered the most is the sphere of services. The need for strict measurements for flattening the curve has pushed a lot of businesses into a closedown or operating on the most basic level.
Depending on the service provided and the way delivering results is executed, some companies turn out to be more adaptable than others. How does this outbreak affect the work of the translation industry, how could networking maintain client relationships and how can service providers keep on operating effectively even online? Let’s look into it!
Creating your space online
Since COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, a lot of countries had gone on lockdown. The safety precautions include minimizing physical social contact, which is the main reason a lot of businesses are forced to shut down temporarily, if not at all.
However, the translation industry has been adapting its work to online services for years now. The virus outbreak resulted in employees working from home, which isn’t as abrupt a change for translating companies. The main resources of such companies – the translators – already have a lot of experience with networking.
Think about how your workload will change
With all the demand and supply moving to the online space, business owners need to think about how they can digitalize their services and monetize them. More attention should be shifted to the customer support teams that will be aiding and directing your client relationships. An important detail is a simple and understandable interface of your online portals – this is an impersonal way of strengthening your customer relationships.
As for the translation industry – the workload hasn’t really changed, but it has definitely taken a different direction. In these times of social distancing, a lot of companies are communicating in written form instead of the human contact they have been used to before. This indicates that there is a high demand for international business communication translation work.
The hospitality, tourism, and travel industries have decreased the demand for translation work. As opposed – the number for medical translations requests have significantly risen.
Keep contact with your customers and sustain client relationships
The most important thing is not to lose grip of your customer engagement. To keep your workflow steady, you should put the effort to show your clients that your company is here for them. Take the time to guide them through the new modus operandi your company is using and make sure that it is comprehensible enough so they don’t get lost in the abrupt changes, which might result in the deterioration of your client relationship.
You might be surprised but there are a great number of ways you can maintain the correspondence with your clientele. Much of face-to-face communication can be digitalized. Even initiatives such as LocLunch can be organized with the help of social media platforms, where people can still gather and discuss ideas.
How the industry reacts to lockdown?
Quite a lot of events linked to the translation industry have been canceled or postponed as well. However, different companies are doing everything they can to digitalize as many events as possible. Organizations such as the European Language Industry Association and the Globalization and Localization Association are actively engaging their clients by managing different webinars and forums.
The teams at 1-StopAsia are working full force to deliver the best translation experience during these troubled times. Being located on the three affected continents, we’ve been dealing with the situation from day one. We adapted fast to the home office working environment and even though it isn’t an easy journey, our specialists are giving their best and it shows! We are here to take care of your work and don’t forget to keep yourselves safe!