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Poll: My clients care more about cost than quality. Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "My clients care more about cost than quality.".
View the poll results »
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:13
Spanish to English
+ ...
If that were the case, I'd be reluctant to continue working with them.
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I don’t think so. Some of my international customers have been with me for ages though in Portugal I have a reputation of being expensive. Anyway, this question should be addressed to them not to me…
[Edited at 2022-06-17 13:32 GMT]
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 01:13
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Imagine that your clients think low costs are the most important thing, what does that say about you as a one of their suppliers then?
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. A company that focuses only on quality without considering costs has no future. Nor has a company that focuses only on cost without considering quality.
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Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 01:13
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
| Somewhat agree | Jun 17, 2022 |
My biggest and most important client used to bug me for a rate reduction on an annual basis until 2020. It was always enough to point out the horrendous "quality" of jobs I had the misfortune to review/proofread as well as their TMs.
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Sadek_A 
Local time: 03:13
English to Arabic
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Simply because I always don't give those the chance to even be called "my clients".
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 01:13
French to English
Lieven Malaise wrote:
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. A company that focuses only on quality without considering costs has no future. Nor has a company that focuses only on cost without considering quality.
Yes, exactly.
Only one of my clients has ever haggled over my rate. So they have a cheaper rate, and have tried to haggle me even further down too, which I completely reject.
For my direct clients, I do tell them when I first give them my rate that they can easily find someone much cheaper (not that I'll point them here or anything like that), but I do also point out why I'm not cheap. They are mostly very appreciative of my work.
I'd rather say that I'm worth it than say my clients don't care about cost!
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Ventnai
Spain
Local time: 01:13
German to English
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I don't agree in general but I'd say one or two have moved in the direction of caring more about cost. One now large I have worked with for over a decade has been going downhill since investment funds have acquired a stake. It's still worh my while working for them but it may come a time when it's not.
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| A Direct Client Who Ended Up Caring More About Quality | Jun 17, 2022 |
Someone who wanted his grandfather's award-winning book translated initially opted to go with a "translator" who offered a lower per word rate. When the client had the "translator" submit several chapters of what she/he had produced after a certain point, he realized he had made the wrong decision (I could see, after reading them myself, that he had, without any doubt, done just that), and then asked me to undertake the rest of the work, at the same time that he agreed to pay my requested rate. ... See more Someone who wanted his grandfather's award-winning book translated initially opted to go with a "translator" who offered a lower per word rate. When the client had the "translator" submit several chapters of what she/he had produced after a certain point, he realized he had made the wrong decision (I could see, after reading them myself, that he had, without any doubt, done just that), and then asked me to undertake the rest of the work, at the same time that he agreed to pay my requested rate. Luckily, it was a long book.
[Edited at 2022-06-17 13:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 02:13
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
| chicken or the egg | Jun 17, 2022 |
If our clients care more about cost, then we care more about clients, who care about cost. If that wasn't the case, we would choose clients who cared more about quality.
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Most, if not all, care about both - quality but at the lowest cost possible though there are clients and agencies which care about quality and know and appreciate that quality comes at a cost and are willing to pay it.
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I voted "Disagree," but in fact I do think some agencies are entirely focused on cost and have no metrics for assessing quality. That's not true of all agencies, and it's certainly not true of international organizations.
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I'm curious about the almost 50% (currently 47.2%) of responders to this poll who voted "Agree" and thus presumably consider their own work to be substandard but cheap.
I certainly don't feel that way, but if I did, I don't think I'd be so ready to admit it.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 01:13
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| They care about both | Jun 18, 2022 |
They care about both. But quality is important for agencies because end-clients are not stupid, and agencies want repeat business from end-clients. Some agencies have unrealistic expectations about price, though.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:13
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I voted "Disagree,"
I didn't know we could do that. How? Where?
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