Poll: Do your clients generally appreciate or require updates on job progress before the deadline? Người gửi thông tin lên tuyến đoạn: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do your clients generally appreciate or require updates on job progress before the deadline?".
View the poll results »
| | | | neilmac
Tây Ban Nha
Local time: 06:41
Spanish to English
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Not as a rule, although it may happen on occasion, if the client is under pressure to comply with deadlines of their own. I vaguely recall having to do it a couple of times in the past 20 years or so, but it's not a common occurrence with my clients, most of whom are direct and long-standing and know that I deliver on time.
| | | | Muriel Vasconcellos 
Hoa Kỳ
Local time: 21:41
Thành viên kể từ 2003
Spanish to English
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| Good question! My answer is "Sometimes." | Nov 4, 2019 |
My two biggest clients encourage translators to upload work in progress on their portals once a day. I hesitate to do that for obvious reasons. My mother used to say: "Never show half-done work to children or fools!" While the people I work with don't fit either category, I'm aware than anything can happen. So I have not been very compliant. If it's a large job, I try to remember to back it up on the cloud every day, and in between I ***sometimes*** give my clients occasional updates, especially... See more My two biggest clients encourage translators to upload work in progress on their portals once a day. I hesitate to do that for obvious reasons. My mother used to say: "Never show half-done work to children or fools!" While the people I work with don't fit either category, I'm aware than anything can happen. So I have not been very compliant. If it's a large job, I try to remember to back it up on the cloud every day, and in between I ***sometimes*** give my clients occasional updates, especially if I know the job is urgent. I don't want them to worry.
If I ask a question about the job, that already tells them that I'm working on it, and often, how far I've gotten. In that case, I don't need to update them. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Other (they don’t require but they do appreciate) | Nov 4, 2019 |
I work regularly with one of my clients on big jobs (from 40,000 to 200,000 words) and as they occasionally asked me how the work was going on now I prefer doing this the other way around and I’m the one telling them from time to time how things are progressing…
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Kay Denney
Pháp
Local time: 06:41
French to English
Sometimes yes.
In particular the one client that has me working on their CAT tool on their server. I only validate segments during the final proofing stage, so up to an hour or so before delivery it still looks like I've done nothing. This has led to anxious PMs calling to ask whether I have any problems. While I appreciate their sollicitude, it rather unnerves me to think they are "spying" on me.
So I have explained that I don't want to fill their TM with dodgy draft... See more Sometimes yes.
In particular the one client that has me working on their CAT tool on their server. I only validate segments during the final proofing stage, so up to an hour or so before delivery it still looks like I've done nothing. This has led to anxious PMs calling to ask whether I have any problems. While I appreciate their sollicitude, it rather unnerves me to think they are "spying" on me.
So I have explained that I don't want to fill their TM with dodgy drafts and they accept that. Given that I systematically deliver in time, they now leave me alone. Sometimes they'll give me an earlier deadline than translators working into other languages, simply so that those translators can see what I've done, in that they may find it easier to research the terms in English to find the best solution in their language. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marta Gómez
Tây Ban Nha
Local time: 06:41
Thành viên kể từ 2007
English to Spanish
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| It applies pretty much the same to me :). Only occasionally, due to exceptional circumstances. | Nov 4, 2019 |
neilmac wrote:
Not as a rule, although it may happen on occasion, if the client is under pressure to comply with deadlines of their own. I vaguely recall having to do it a couple of times in the past 20 years or so, but it's not a common occurrence with my clients, most of whom are direct and long-standing and know that I deliver on time.
| | | | | Yes, several do... | Nov 4, 2019 |
First of all, if you're working to a tight deadline it can be distracting and make you nervous. I have one client who sends me projects with hard deadlines to meet and then nags me for updates, which only makes it more difficult for me to meet the deadline. I've never missed a deadline for them, I should say. I therefore try to remember to keep sending them reassuring messages.
But worse is the client who first of all agrees to a deadline, but then starts asking for the work to be d... See more First of all, if you're working to a tight deadline it can be distracting and make you nervous. I have one client who sends me projects with hard deadlines to meet and then nags me for updates, which only makes it more difficult for me to meet the deadline. I've never missed a deadline for them, I should say. I therefore try to remember to keep sending them reassuring messages.
But worse is the client who first of all agrees to a deadline, but then starts asking for the work to be delivered in sections "so they can get ahead" (there are subsequent formatting issues to be dealt with). I am always very loath to hand anything over until I have done the final complete read through, standardising vocabulary (these are vaguely literary projects). It may take me until the very end of the translation to come to a final decision about some words... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Edith van der Have
Hà Lan
Local time: 06:41
Thành viên kể từ 2016
English to Dutch
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They know I always deliver on time.
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| Don't Require It, But Do Appreciate It | Nov 4, 2019 |
My literary clients always seem to appreciate it, because of their enthusiastic acknowledgement that they will soon be getting what they requested.
[Edited at 2019-11-04 14:58 GMT]
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 22:41
Dutch to English
+ ...
No, I have never been asked but I would prefer not to because it takes time away from work, and I want to review the entire document when it's finished and make it consistent from beginning to end with respect to terminology, formatting, etc.
| | | | Tom in London
Vương Quốc Anh
Local time: 05:41
Thành viên kể từ 2008
Italian to English
ProZ.com Staff wrote:
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do your clients generally appreciate or require updates on job progress before the deadline?". View the poll results »
No - not generally. But they like it when I deliver ahead of the deadline. Sometimes if it's a very big job, they do like to receive progress updates (just to let them know I'm still alive, and working).
[Edited at 2019-11-04 15:06 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney
Pháp
Local time: 06:41
French to English
Noni Gilbert wrote:
First of all, if you're working to a tight deadline it can be distracting and make you nervous. I have one client who sends me projects with hard deadlines to meet and then nags me for updates, which only makes it more difficult for me to meet the deadline.
I had someone like that at the agency. I ended up telling them that each phone call set me back at least half an hour. When they still kept calling, I unplugged the phone. I wasn't even supposed to be in direct contact at that point, but the PM couldn't handle her constant calls and gave her my direct number. I don't think I ever bothered to plug the phone back in, since I only got calls from frantic PMs, to whom I would invariably say, well send me the file and I'll take a look, so they might as well just start by sending that email.
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Mario Freitas
Braxin
Local time: 02:41
Thành viên kể từ 2014
English to Portuguese
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Many times, when the project has several files, the clients ask us to send the files individually as soon as we finish translating each of them. But I never had a client ask me to inform the progress regularly other than that. Sometimes they as how it's going, of course.
Sending files one by one is not a good practice, though. Many times you find a better term or make a correction in the other documents that would be required in the documents you already delivered as well, and that causes ... See more Many times, when the project has several files, the clients ask us to send the files individually as soon as we finish translating each of them. But I never had a client ask me to inform the progress regularly other than that. Sometimes they as how it's going, of course.
Sending files one by one is not a good practice, though. Many times you find a better term or make a correction in the other documents that would be required in the documents you already delivered as well, and that causes confusion. In addition, I figured the clients rarely ever make any notes about the files sent in advance to prevent you from making the same mistake in the other ones. They usually wait for the end of the job anyway to tell you if anything has to be changes, which is pretty stupid.
So I usually prefer to deliver the entire job, unless otherwise specificed in advance by the client. ▲ Collapse
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