Latest Blog Post

Linked In Recommendation

Published January 11, 2010 by admin

We recently received a nice recommendation from a valued client on Linked In.  While we don’t normally post these on our blog, this one stood out as blog worthy.  You can also check this out on my Linked In profile via the following link:http://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickmarx

“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Fredrick on a professional and personal level since September 2006. When I first met Frederick, I was under a tight time line to complete translations for more than 100 operator manuals in less than 3 months. Not only did Frederick and his Staff at Keylingo meet our aggressive time line, but also delivered a quality product. I was so impressed with Frederick and his staff that I decided to exclusively use Keylingo for all our translation needs. Frederick has instilled a professionalism throughout his company that is second to none. I highly recommend Frederick and his company Keylingo to anyone that is seeking a vendor that can deliver results.”

Posted in Marketing & Advertising

Celebrating, Reflecting, and Looking Forward

Published October 13, 2009 by admin

With little fanfare but much enthusiasm, we recently celebrated our fifth anniversary in business. Despite the challenging economic environment, Keylingo continues to perform well and we are very optimistic about our future.

Reflecting on the last five years, we feel confident that we have a strong understanding of our position within our industry and what makes us different.  So as we look ahead to our next five years, we’d like to share some of those distinctions – five of them to be exact – and invite you to give us an opportunity to exceed your expectations.

Keylingo saves. Keylingo’s linguistic resources span every time zone and can be managed effectively from anywhere in the world. While many translation firms boast numerous offices to “wow” prospects, these locations do not add value. They are nothing more than expensive sales offices that support their extraneous overhead by inflating your rates. The Keylingo business model eliminates the need to charge clients for maintaining extra offices that are simply not needed in today’s interconnected world.

Keylingo satisfies. Keylingo ranks among the very highest in customer satisfaction in our industry. This is no hollow claim. The Dun & Bradstreet Open Ratings system of grading supplier performance ranks Keylingo in the top quintile of companies in our industry for client satisfaction, with Keylingo scoring a ninety-six out of a possible one-hundred.

Keylingo simplifies. At Keylingo, we believe in efficient, streamlined quotes and client relationships. Keylingo will return your quotes within one business day and base those quotes on the work required – not protecting margins with unnecessary project management fees. A true single entity, Keylingo is not a group of companies with confusing divisions of staff. Unlike other vendors, we do not pass clients to different representatives when project types change, nor do we waste time running your quote through multiple internal layers.

Keylingo empowers. Keylingo’s online workflow application is a powerful tool we provide our clients for free. Other vendors trap clients with technology and service contracts, insisting on maintenance fees, usage fees, or the outright purchase of workflow applications.  Keylingo is different. We consider this technology a normal cost of doing business and one we would certainly never require our customers to subsidize.

Keylingo promises. Keylingo promises to work tirelessly to constantly improve and exceed your expectations. Others may boast of ‘third party quality certifications’ that will sound relevant to translation, but mostly just measure their ability to invoice and collect. Keylingo will never up-sell expensive applications you do not need in an attempt to drive our revenue. Nor will we feed you misleading rhetoric about linguistic capability differences in an attempt to inflate our price. What we will do is earn and continue to re-earn your business with every project – period.

Posted in Marketing & Advertising Tagged , |

Disgruntled or Disciple – A customer service experience

Published March 25, 2009 by admin

I recently sat down for lunch at a local restaurant on a beautiful spring day.  Having just completed my workout I was hungry and looking forward to relaxing for a while under the sun on the patio.  It was also after the normal lunch hour so there were only a few other patrons joining me.  After placing my order I set about getting more comfortable and reading a magazine article.  All was well.  Time passed and I noted that others had the same idea and the patio was now a buzz with other customers.  Dogs were now tied to the patio railing and kids meandered about – curious about the animals on the other side of the fence.  Noteworthy as well was the fact that others, who had arrived after me, were now being served their lunch.  After the third such occurrence I politely inquired with my server whether I had ordered something that took longer to prepare than the other meals that had already been served.  She said she would check.  This was the first moment when I felt the restaurant had an opportunity to turn me into a disciple.  There was no apology and no recognition that I had been there longer than the other patrons who were now all eating.  Had this not been obvious I would not have been as frustrated as I was.  But, I had clearly been waiting a long time and not once did my server say, “I notice you’ve been waiting a while.  Let me go check on your order.”.  Such a little thing, but very powerful.  In my translation services business, my point of view is that if I don’t do these things, someone else will and they will have a loyal client…which by the way is very hard to overcome once it’s been acheived.  Whoever was managing that restaurant should have been watching the patio and noticed the problem as well.  Well, long story short, even more orders came out while the server was “checking” on my order and at that point I’d had enough.  I said to another server that I wanted to pay for my drink and go.  I started walking inside to do so and my server caught me and said “don’t worry about it”.  I thought to myself, “Gee thanks…for nothing!”  I had already spent over a half an hour waiting and what was supposed to be a relaxing lunch turned into an exercise in self control.  At that point I became a disgruntled customer, walked next door and ate there.  How can any business that cares about it’s customers let something like this happen.  Had this been my business I would have bent over backwards apologizing and given the party a coupon for a free meal.  Once again, in my translation services business, we will not allow for a dissatisfied customer and we will do whatever it takes to make it right.  We all make mistakes and that will never change.  I’ve made plenty, and I now I welcome them.  Why? Because it is the only way to learn and it creates an opportunity to establish a customer that is more loyal than they would have been had the mistake never happened.  The restaurant in question here failed miserably in handling their mistake and not only will I likely never go back, but as you can see I am telling others of the experience as well…not good for the restaurant.  Let’s hope this was an isolated event and/or they wake up soon.

Posted in Customer service Tagged |

Linked In Recommendation

Published February 4, 2009 by admin

We recently received a nice recommendation from a valued client on Linked In.  While we don’t normally post these on our blog, this one stood out as blog worthy.  You can also check this out on my Linked In profile via the following link: http://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickmarx

“As Counsel for Asia for a US public company, I relied upon KeyLingo for translations of a tremendous amount of business and legal documentation in a very tight timeframe. The work was always superior and on-time — and we imposed what would normally be considered to be quite unreasonble time deadlines because of demands of our own customer. The work translated included technical manuals and documentation, business strategic plans, contracts, and other general commercial documents, including correspondence and documents prepared for our customer. Not having the abilty to read the Chinese translations ourselves, we relied on the customer to tell of any problems, and we received almost no complaints. The staff was always accessible, even with the time difference of twelve to thirteen hours. The online database of documents was also very useful in that more than one person could manage the translations from our end. My previous company has also used KeyLingo for translation work throughout our international businesses in several countries. I would highly recommend the services of KeyLingo to those looking for top quality, timely and professional translation work.”

Posted in Marketing & Advertising Tagged , |

Back to Basics Questions for Preparing Winning Translation Services Sales Proposals

Published October 23, 2008 by admin

As we enter our fifth year, Keylingo has remained very busy and sustained a very respectable growth trajectory despite the financial crisis.  We are thankful to win more deals than we lose, but it is the losses that reveal cracks in our operation and thus, opportunities to learn.  Recently we lost a couple of deals and as I examined what went wrong, it was clear to me that our business suffered from taking certain fundamental practices for granted.  In light of this I decided to revisit some of the basic principles behind our success and that sharing this information might be beneficial to others.

Asking the right questions and uncovering what is most important to a prospect are basic tenets in earning new clients.  However, when a business is so busy churning out proposals it can be easy, at least in our case, to forget that each project is different and to really differentiate requires digging a little deeper into each opportunity and addressing the prospect’s hot buttons.

To that end, I’ve made a list of questions as a reminder and sort of a checklist to use in interactions with both prospects and new projects for existing clients.  I’ve seen similar lists like this out there and I am sure I could have included more and/or other questions.  For us, I wanted to keep it to 10 questions and focus on what we saw as the critical points to cover.  Take what you can from it and if it does nothing else but remind you to get back to basics, in whatever form that may take for your business, I’ve accomplished my objective.

BACK TO BASICS QUESTIONS FOR PREPARING WINNING TRANSLATION SERVICES SALES PROPOSALS

When quoting your next translation project, ask these questions to ensure a more accurate proposal, avoid multiple communications, and best position your company to win.

  1. What is the “source” language of the text? (i.e. the language the text is currently written in)
  2. What is/are the “target” language(s)? (i.e. the language(s) the prospect/client wants the text translated into)
  3. Are there any variations within the target language(s)? (e.g. Canadian French, Simplified Chinese, Mexican Spanish, etc.)
  4. What is/are the length of the document(s) in pages or words?
  5. What is the subject matter of the text? (technical, marketing, finance, medical, legal, etc.)
  6. Who is the intended audience/what is the purpose of the translation? (e.g. internal vs. external use, to be filed in a court of law, to be published., etc.)
  7. What is the necessary level of translation? (i.e. draft, reviewed, proofread)
  8. What is the format of the source document? (e.g. Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, Quark, etc.)
  9. What is the desired format of the translation(s)? (e.g. Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, Quark, etc.)
  10. When is the deadline for delivery of the translation(s)?

Keylingo is a Multilingual Information Management (MIM) company helping businesses of all sizes increase global revenue. Founded in 2004 and based in Atlanta, GA, Keylingo has contractual, single source and long lasting relationships with some of the world’s largest and most respected companies. Each year, Keylingo manages thousands of translation projects encompassing millions of words in every major business language, subject matter, and industry.

Posted in Sales Tagged , |

Translation Business Case Study in Inc. Magazine

Published October 2, 2008 by admin

I look forward to reading Inc. Magazine every month.  It’s chock full of insights and resources that any small business can benefit from.  In the October, 2008 issue, however, I was especially pleased to see an article directly relevant to my industry.  I should clarify, this was a case study that profiled a translation business and the challenges it faced getting to the next level.  The case study is followed by expert opinions regarding how the business should move forward.

The case study and the opinions were interesting, but lacked some important details.  As a fellow participant in this industry I felt the need to opine.

First, the company as described in the case study seemed overstaffed for its size.  By my count the firm has between 25 and 27 employees.  With revenue at $1 million this puts revenue per employee below $40,000.  This is lower than all but one of the Top 25 Translation Companies as ranked by the Common Sense Advisory on May 29, 2008.  Growth typically drives inefficiency in the translation business as more and more staff are required to manage the increase in work and a more sophisticated marketing effort.  That said, the company in the case remains small and thus should consider a leaner organization going forward.

Second, the sales staff is in desperate need of training if a call volume of 250 calls per day (5 sales people x 50 calls per day as described in the case study) is not yielding more business.  There is a lot of information easily available about metrics as it relates to sales and establishing some basic benchmarks should be a critical issue for the company.

Third, I found it incredible that with lack luster revenue and a relatively inefficient operation the owners could find the time and resources to participate in owning and racing horses.  I say pick a less expensive and time consuming hobby and reinvest in the company.

Finally, I think the company is right on with its idea to increase pricing.  The case study described that early in its history the firm offered its services for free.  This was a mistake and one can infer that the company’s pricing is still on the low end based on this initial strategy.  In the translation business, there is a positive relationship between price and the perception of value.  If you are going to go after the big fish I don’t think you’ll be successful if your strategy is to be the price leader.  These companies expect a significant creation of value and are willing to pay a premium for that.

In closing, it’s important to note that even at $1 million in revenue this company is larger than the vast majority of its competitors and that is a significant accomplishment.  If they can implement a few important changes and never give up there is a good chance they’ll get where they want to go.

Posted in Strategy Tagged , |

Welcome to our new website!

Published August 13, 2008 by admin

We have redesigned these pages in order to better connect with you.

Posted in Marketing & Advertising

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