You read and hear all these horror stories on social media and translation blogs about translation companies. How the owners or project managers have no knowledge about the translation industry, how they only care about profit, how impersonal their emails are (Dear translator/provider) and so on. Some freelance translators and/or translation company owners tell positive stories sometimes about great working relationships with agencies, high rates, communication, I even wrote a thank-you letter to my favorite agency client a few years ago.

I want to tell you about a lovely person, a translation company owner, that I met recently. It was such a positive experience in so many ways that I had to share it with you. In my 13 years of experience in this field and the thousands of emails I have exchanged with clients, never have I seen such a communication style in the first and second contact emails. I’ll quote some parts of his emails (in Italics) but without personal details to avoid embarrassing him 

…I am a member of XXX group on LinkedIn, so I thought of you when this translation project surfaced…

If you’ve known me, read this blog before, read one of my interviews online, followed my social media shares and/or attended one of my presentations: this is a great example of making great contacts through LinkedIn groups! I don’t even participate much in discussions of that specific group; I just share our Weekly Favorites every couple of weeks so group members can discover great content from fellow translation bloggers.

…I am attaching our non-disclosure agreement

It was half a page, clear and concise. I have never read such a nice and short NDA before!

… my broader interest would be to establish a working relationship with you going forward in the future, beyond this most immediate project.

I think that should be the ultimate goal for both freelancers and clients; to establish mutually beneficial relationships. And he is the first person I’ve know who said that in his very first email! After I happily replied to his email, he went into even more trouble to write a long and honest reply, parts of which I quote below and I would love you to read carefully. It will change your faith to humanity, at least with regard to translation company owners. More.

See: Lingua Greca

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