A perfect example of being at the receiving end of an ‘unstructured international communication forum’ – frustrating, annoying……

Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp faced a challenging news conference with eccentric interpreters and local Russian journalists who were asking unstructured questions from ‘out of nowhere’. Albeit humorous and farcical to watch, (if you have a spare 10 mins) the journalists / interpreters were not prepared, they didn’t have the relevant information or sufficient linguistic skills.

(http://www.espn.co.uk/football/blog/the-toe-poke/65/post/3214413/liverpool-boss-jurgen-klopp-lost-in-translation-at-moscow-presser)

It would be difficult to imagine this scenario working with overseas business clients! Would any business get done?

The key to effective international communication whether written or spoken is preparation and achieving stated objectives including language, culture and localisation. We’ve had a number of successful case studies where there have been positive outcomes from a ‘well thought through’ international communication strategy:

Case studies:

1) Client was contacted by a potential Spanish distributor who appeared to be interested in their products but after a number of telephone calls to Spain the Client felt they were no further forward maybe through a lack of linguistic skills by both parties.

Client’s Objective: Worst case scenario if the Spanish contact didn’t respond to their email they would have still fulfilled their communication requirements.

TWL Solution: We suggested a low cost solution to see if there was any interest by translating into Spanish a list of questions which could be emailed direct.

Budget: One-off email 297 words – less than £75.00

Client’s Outcome: As the email has only recently been sent we await the outcome.

2) Client uses Salesforce software as their international CRM marketing tool, required in various languages. Challenges: some translations already completed; new translations needed to be keyed direct on to the cloud-based system; no facility for spell-checks and exporting text; character restriction; limited logins with only one person per language at any one time; tight deadline to meet live date; translated text to be localised; colloquial expressions to be translated for specific markets plus the meaning of the text had to be consistent throughout all languages / markets.

Client’s Objective: To ensure the international team are happy with the translated text. The CRM system to be used proficiently by all UK and overseas users. Ensure system goes live on the due date.

TWL Solution: We provided tight project management control, excellent communication skills and a great translation team where all requirements were adhered to within deadline.

Budget: Because of the complexity of the project the budget was based on an hourly rate with an estimated number of hours.

Client’s Outcome: A very positive outcome in that all users are currently being trained in their relevant language in ‘how to use the Company’s international CRM system’.

(Full details of the above case studies can be provided)