Chillistore announces that they have been acquired by Argos Multilingual, but will remain a separate and independent subsidiary. More details here!
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A structured approach to quality
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Ardilaun Court, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Dublin D02 TD28, Ireland
How Our Exclusive Language Ownership Program Streamlines Content Creation While Boosting Quality
It’s an obvious statement, but it bears repeating: No matter what the language, no matter which markets you are operating in, having high-quality, impactful localized content is essential to business success – both from the standpoint of website SEO to gain prospects all the way down to clear instructions and stand-out customer support to keep future business coming.
And, while we all know the above is true, the real challenge is creating the process that ensures all your translated content is of the highest quality possible. As a company that got its start in LQA, we at Chillistore understand the “how” of this process is best done by sharing responsibility between those who know the business, the target markets, and the process best.
We’ve pioneered the application of a highly successful collaboration framework model into localized content creation. Bringing business, market and process expertise together means we have all the stakeholders on board through every step of the content creation journey. Here are the four steps:
At the heart of translation quality is having the best possible source material to build your localization efforts off of. We use the principles pioneered on our Language Ownership Program to ensure the highest quality source materials to begin the translation process. With this content optimized and positively representing your service promise, you have a source of truth for all your localized content. Guaranteeing this means more than a standard LQA firm’s approach. We work side-by-side with the stakeholders in your organization to ensure everyone agrees on the source content’s quality before we go to the next steps. By doing this, we guarantee we have a central point to refer back to whenever there are questions of translation or brand intent.
Ensuring accurately translated localized content from the provided source material is where most LQA providers stop. But it leaves a nagging question for any sharp-minded business professional: How do you know the content will make an impact and deliver all the results it’s capable of?
We can help you answer this question with not one, but two collaborative steps that maximize translation effectiveness and move your LQA from simply asking, “Does it translate?” to “How effectively will it work when translated?”
Content Profiling: By first understanding your business goal we can apply source readiness analysis to map and cluster content based on those goals. This helps you get a better picture of the overall effectiveness of source content, where the opportunity for greater effectiveness lies, and lets us agree on efficient production workflows that prioritize certain content for highly skilled human subject matter experts, others for standard translation, and still others for machine translation with human post-editing based on your business goals, etc. In short: Work smarter, not harder and use your budget in the right place.
Content Suitability: A discriminating eye that catches discrepancies is what LQA is all about. By first understanding your brand and business goals, along with the legal and cultural concerns of your target markets, we can filter out anything that doesn’t fit your brand’s image and messaging or that would otherwise expose you to geopolitical, legal or cultural risks. This helps ensure all your translated content meets government compliances and is locally relevant.
Repeatable, consistent messaging is at the heart of translation quality. And the most efficient way to create this consistency is with a properly designed and implemented term base. Here the collaboration framework pairs SMEs and the translation team to identify and codify specific terminology that is unique to your industry and brand. Whether the system is as simple as a spreadsheet for a small implementation or requires a full industry-available or customized terminology management system, by bringing together the teams to collaborate on the solution and record those results early in the process, you get a high-quality start that saves translation resources later.
Content creation is rarely if ever a single-use project. We work with your team to capture the most commonly used phrases and strings in what we call “Translation Memeory” so that they can be reused. By keeping these common strings consistent it helps to ensure your brand voice stays consistent. These Translation Memories can get poluted over time though so we always suggest good maintentece. Our proprietary AI-enabled TM clean-up tool is good place to start with little investment but high value. All this guarantees your content doesn’t just read and sound great the first time, but continues sounding great for seasons to come with minimal “tone drift”.
Helping businesses expand and grow from market to market in the most efficient and consistent way possible is our passion, at Chillistore. We’d love to help your team grow your localized content while maintaining consistency in every language and culture you interact with. Drop us a line and let’s start creating together!
Connecting Teams and Creating End-to-end Quality With The Chillistore Language Ownership Program
Quick Survey: Which do you take better care of, the rental car you got at the airport on your last trip, or the car you own at home?
Whatever your personal answer, a quick conversation with a rental agent or fleet maintenance manager of any rental company will yield a host of stories of the kind of abuse a poor rental car can experience.
This little example shows one of those simple truisms: when people take ownership, they take greater care and responsibility for what they have entrusted them with. And it’s this truism that has guided the development of our Language Ownership Program.
With language ownership, we work with localization service buyers, LQA service providers, and translation service providers to create a smart ecosystem that improves quality while also streamlining the content creation process. And by taking a stake in the outcome of your project and working side-by-side with your team we can build the concept of quality ownership into every step of the process. As extended members of your team our reviewers take ownership from start to finish, making sure that the right people are involved on your side for accountability and streamlined decision-making.
Because our reviewers work directly with each team in the process to add our expertise in language and quality of translation, we can bridge gaps between project managers and linguistics experts to reduce pain points and make the entire process more fluid. Put simply, at Chillistore we never see quality as a simple pass/fail checklist, but as an end-to-end process of continuous improvement.
A strategic level view of your business is essential. But so too is getting into the hearts and minds of your customers at the local level. And while that sounds like a worthy goal, the reality is, no one person can be an expert in every market. That’s where we come in.
We first put in the work to really understand your business goals, brand positioning, and linguistic needs. Then we bring in our in-country experts who become an extension of your own team and add the local-level perspective and expertise that ensure success.
Our reviewers are linguists familiar with the language and culture of local markets and also experts in your industry. That dual expertise facilitates information and knowledge sharing, bridges the gap with your translators and allows knowledge sharing on a continuous basis that progressivly improves quality.
To put it more simply, it’s like having a local “fixer”, guiding your team through the intricacies of the culture towards a true quality outcome.
It’s a given that each culture has its own sensitivities, customs and nuances – and that it’s best to not run afoul of them.
Having so many different cultural experts on the Chillistore team means we can spot the cultural cautions others miss – and we can consult multiple experts to foster collaboration on even the most contentious issues from gender neutral language to fully representing all the communities you are trying to reach in a given culture.
Diversity and inclusivity are essential for reaching a wider audience. By tapping our team of cross-cultural pros, and reviewing your content with a critical eye we can make sure your translated message isn’t just heard, but really resonates with your target audience.
Understanding your business goals and the cultural nuances gives us the start of a quality cycle. But being able to quantify the quality of translation efforts is what makes the Language Ownership Program so powerful. Collecting and analyzing relevant data from query management systems and reporting it back in the form of actionable reports and dashboards gives you objective building blocks to improve quality over time.
To generate these reports, we analyze scorecards, check error types, measure results against your KPIs, and check details for each task (whether linked to product, language or service provider).
The data collected and analyzed is the base for truly objective quality recommendations that can be implemented into smart workflows.
Armed with the analytics above, the entire translation process can be optimized for constant improvement. By leveraging our community management and collaboration skills we help create a culture of ongoing improvement and innovation, where every localization stakeholder is committed to achieving the defined quality goals.
Or, to put it more simply: A process where everyone feels ownership.
In our 10 years in the LQA industry we have seen first hand the value bridging gaps between translators, reviewers, and stakeholders can bring.
We’d love to help you build quality throughout the full lifecycle of your content for better customer experience and growth in your target markets.
Call it the global imperative conundrum: Your brand stands for something in your home market, and whether it was by hiring an agency or doing the work in-house, you’ve allocated mountains of resources to keep your communications with customers, prospects, and staff all in a consistent voice to guarantee growth and efficiency. And now? You need to do the same thing across multiple markets – without running afoul of local cultural sensitivities. In short, you must adapt to Rome without giving up the identity you worked so hard to create. And that’s where a content review of your brand’s source material is invaluable.
Consider an illustration we’ve referenced before: As an individual traveling to a different culture, your personality remains the same at home and in the host country. How you display that personality changes – it adapts to suit the local custom.
If you’re a warm, outgoing person in the U.S., it’s displayed by a quick smile and being fast to extend a handshake, making eye contact, and using your first name.
Are these the correct customs to reflect your personality in Italy? What about Japan? It takes a little research to know for sure.
As an individual, you’ll probably do some internet searches, maybe call a friend who’s traveled there before to understand the local customs. The goal isn’t to change who you are but to meet the locals in the way they expect.
Just like researching local customs before you arrive, a content review looks at all your material to keep multi-market messaging aligned and, most importantly, optimized for the local culture. The goal is to flag areas of concern, offense, brand misalignment, and cultural insensitivity while working with your team to make sure your brand looks and sounds as appealing in its new market as it is in your home market. Because when you nail market suitability, you reap larger user engagement and higher customer retention.
As they say, it’s best to stop problems before they start. A source content review looks over your starting materials to spot challenges that will have to be addressed for the new market.
Doing this now can mitigate several pain points in the localization cycle by facilitating early-term harvesting or query resolution, helping with descriptions of tags or idiomatic expressions, and flagging content that might be deemed difficult or insensitive in other cultures.
A careful reading of source content with an eye toward the new target market will anticipate issues for translation, such as complex language, topics or examples that don’t make sense in the cultural context, and concepts that would be considered offensive to the target market.
A classic example of the latter is the “Got Milk?” campaign, which was understood to be humorous in the English-speaking American market but had to be adapted for the Spanish-speaking Latin American market due to the cultural understanding that the woman of the house handled grocery needs – and being caught in a situation without an item would imply the woman was lacking in her duties.
Surveying the source material lets you spot the key terms for your specific industry and brand voice that will need to be translated consistently, taking target market suitability into account. Content complexity comes into play here as the list of terms grows, the technical skill required in the industry increases, and the domain expertise of the brand grows.
With more consumers viewing videos and animations, paying attention to your multimedia and flagging areas of concern for cultural appropriateness is essential. For instance, in some markets, a man and a woman conducting business alone in an office would be considered offensive. The scene may need to be edited to avoid offense.
Once you’ve assessed the materials and understand the desired outcome, you’ll be able to create 3 essential tools to accomplish the goal of maintaining your brand voice while adapting to the culture and staying consistent in future communications:
Reviewing your content early in the process ensures your brand’s core message is well captured, understood, and represented. And when the core message is honed and well understood, the translation output is more accurate and relatable to the target audience.
But don’t think you have to pull this daunting task off all by yourself. We’ve over a decade of experience in the localization quality world, helping brands leap into new markets without losing their voice. And we’d love to help you too!
Redefining (And even Renaming Quality Assurance) With the Analytical LQE Model
“LQA.” It’s one of those ubiquitous terms in the localization world: Used by everyone, tossed around in nearly every meeting, heads nod with each mention. But often times, the definition is hard to pin down – and, of course, varies from each person using the term.
Which can leave your business open for inconsistent translation and missed opportunity.
What’s even worse, LQA is sometimes confused with QA check, a set of automated checks that produce a report listing potential errors in translation. However, it’s important to note that automated QA checks are not the only step in ensuring quality translations. To achieve better results, LQA should be performed both by a linguist and by automated quality assurance checks.
So instead of “LQA” and its nebulous definition, we prefer the term LQE. And to make sure we’re all on the same page, we want to define it so you can understand exactly what you need to be getting when it comes to ensuring consistent translation quality no matter what vendors you are using.
LQE provides an analytical method for measuring the quality of a translation by first letting you set an objective measuring system and then breaking translation text into smaller segments to track errors in specific words and phrases so that an absolute and objective quality score can be assigned.
Our industry has made progress, and we’re moving faster than ever. With the advent of technology, global sourcing, and distribution, plus the emergence of markets spanning the globe, the entire localization industry is growing at an incredible pace.
Companies are anxious to expand markets and find opportunities – which means they’re increasing the translation rate. And, with increased work comes an even more pressing need to evaluate the quality of all these translations and create objective measures that will improve translation efforts over time – because, as we all know, a poor translation can have an all-too-sinking effect on sales, customer satisfaction and even lead to lawsuits.
In short, we need a new Language Quality process that is faster to apply, more objective in its grading, and has adaptable standards to suit the different types of translation work performed in each market, especially translations containing risk-prone content referring to legal, geopolitical, and/or data protection items.
This is where Language Quality Evaluation (LQE) takes over from LQA (Language Quality Assurance): Expanding the definition of quality from mere pass/fail to a complete system of checks and balances that improve what really matters: your customer’s experience with your brand.
LQE framework allows you to select and adjust evaluation criteria for specific content type and specific needs but, whatever you chose, and however you tailor it, the results are still comparable (if you have different LQE models for different content types, they still fit together, giving you a detailed view of localization quality throughout different departments)
To think of it another way, TQE is applying the same statistics-based quality control system that revolutionized the manufacturing world to translation.
While it might sound intimidating, building an effective LQE model for any project can be broken down into a fairly simple process roadmap that first identifies the quality level to achieve for each content type and the criteria that will be used to determine if that quality level was met.
Once the level and criteria are set, the project can be scored, and follow-ups can be delivered. Let’s take a look at the basic steps:
Within the preliminary stage, you will also set the thresholds for 3 key measurements that make LQE an objective measuring tool:
After your thresholds are identified, the text is broken up into Translation Units (TUs) or phrases that can be checked for errors between the source document and the translation.
https://themqm.org/introduction-to-tqe/concrete-example-with-formulas/
The OQS can be compared to the starting Threshold Value to determine if the project is objectively a pass or a fail, but that’s only the beginning of TQE’s follow-up utility.
Because the OQS is an objective measure, your team can compare quality results between different projects to determine the success rate of translation providers across multiple projects and languages, note trends over time or find areas for targeted improvement.
Defined goals create defined processes with measurable metrics to judge quality from. With a true LQE philosophy guiding your process, subjective definitions of quality are replaced with objective data, so all team members can see the same end goal – and have the proper tools to measure their results. And by digging into the stats, each team member can see what steps they can take to improve their performance and deliver greater value.
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/3d-isometric-flat-vector-conceptual-illustration-of-evaluation-gm1418874295-465421627?phrase=performance%20evaluation
With over a decade of experience in the localization quality world, we’ve become, if you’ll pardon the bragging, masters of implementing quality evaluation and control processes that break down the walls between translators and other stakeholders and get the results that today’s fast-moving business space demands. We’d love to explain more about how adopting an LQE philosophy can help – and we can guide you through every step along the way.
Perfect synchronization. If you want to see it on full display in a breathtaking fashion, watch a local rowing team race. After hours and hours of practice, the team comes together, moving through all four stages of the stroke in perfect unison – oars hitting the water within fractions of a second, sending the boat down the channel with minimal waste of energy. The entire crew works as one to achieve the same goal.
Inspiring mental image, but what does it have to do with localization? Grab the oar, and let’s think it through. Coordinating terminology across translations, channels, and projects to maintain a consistent brand voice is every bit as challenging as getting eight individuals to coordinate strokes.
But when it’s done well, your brand meets the consumer in each of your markets precisely as it should with every touchpoint – and, further, the consistent use of terminology in each market allows you to maximize your SEO results. Like rowing, this coordinated effort yields ever greater results with less effort.
Just like a crew boat has a coxswain in the stern to guide the boat’s direction, a terminology workflow formalizes the translation process to guarantee your translated content remains unique in tone, clear in communication, distinct from your competitors, and, most importantly, consistent.
Despite everyone’s best intentions, translation is often relegated to a rush job and sent to a third party where the translator doesn’t have access to all the relevant information to guide voice and tone in translation. The result is inconsistent content that leaves customers confused or unsure of the intent of your message.
As a business that got our start in Language Quality Assurance (LQA), solving these inconsistencies became one of the biggest keys to helping customers succeed. And we, of course, found the fastest, most cost-effective way to solve these inconsistencies was to prevent them in the first place.
Formalizing the translation process to capture commonly used terms, phrases, and industry jargon lets you catalog and store these translation fragments for future use.
The basic process is quite simple: perform an audit in the starting language and highlight consistently used technical terms that “stick out” as not general language.
Once you have the terms identified from the audit above, you can create notes to briefly explain the term and the context of its use. A searchable terminology management database or “termbase” lets the translation team, who may not be technical experts in your field (but ought to be) quickly and consistently translate these unique terms faster and with less guesswork. This information will make any translator’s job easier – and ensure proper translations every time the term is used.
How important is keeping your brand’s personality consistent? Consider this: If you are multilingual, your personality shines through in any language you are conversing. And even within the bounds of local culture, your personality is still you.
A brand does the same thing across markets and languages. Cataloging your personality in the source language allows you to consistently translate your brand’s spirit into the new language: Are you approachable? Light-hearted? Serious?
Language conveys all those things – and making sure it’s consistent is what capturing your Branded Source Terminology is all about.
Specialized terms, industry jargon, and local SEO terms are all tracked and logged on the target terminology side of your system. This gives translators a consistent voice to work toward. It’s also far more efficient from a translation standpoint, as new translation vendors can be brought up to speed faster, and QA (Quality Assurance) systems have terms to check against.
Some companies put off international and multilingual SEO until localization is complete. This is a mistake – primarily since 90% of searches are conducted in a user’s native language.
By laying the groundwork for the SEO campaign during your website localization planning and entering these terms as part of your Target terminology, you can keep the budget in check and reduce ad hoc strategy re-works as you build the content for each market.
With over a decade of experience in the localization industry, we have plenty of experience with workflow implementation. We can help you decide if one of the industry-available terminology management systems is the right choice or if you need something custom.
In addition, we can work with your teams to define roles and responsibilities, help balance the needs of SEO and branded communications in every market and create processes that streamline change terminology management as the business and SEO needs arise. Just drop us a line, and we’ll get your team rowing like the champs they are!
In the past few years, inclusion and diversity have taken center stage and become an essential lens through which we are now measured both as individuals and the companies we represent. From our actions, words, and changes we’re determined to implement, a new recognition that being open, honest, and welcoming to all has become paramount.
Our business is all about language – a fundamental part of a person’s identity. Part of our duty in clear communication to all people is to create accurate translations and images that resonate with people across many cultures and diverse experiences.
As localization professionals, we don’t subscribe to binary systems, nor limit language to what has been used in the past – because language is ever-evolving! It’s as flexible and malleable as we are.
One of the most important ways language and identity converge is in the form of pronouns. A person’s pronouns are how they present themselves to the world. While some languages (like English) have established multiple gender-inclusive solutions, others have yet to do the same.
Romance languages, for example, denote a gender for everything. How is one to create inclusive solutions within a highly gendered language? Accepting that language should reflect people — their needs, identities, and choices — is the first step, and it’s our first step at Chillistore. We are ready to find solutions that transition away from old, stale systems and move toward modern and inclusive solutions.
In addition to inclusive language, we also create inclusive images and visuals. We work on video subtitling for hearing-impaired audiences and develop complex image descriptions in the target language for blind audiences. The challenge of these projects lies at the intersection of inclusivity and accessibility. For instance, in English, “X” is sometimes used for gender neutrality, as seen in the word “Mx.” However, screen-reader technology struggles to read texts like “Mx” that contain the “X.” We’re working on finding unique solutions to this problem. It’s a process, but it’s one about which we’re passionate.
While we don’t think localization is the only key to addressing complex social issues, our industry happens to be one that’s uniquely positioned to both contribute to the conversation, as well as propose solutions. After all, an emphasis on inclusion and diversity is in our DNA and has always been what gives us life.
Here at Chillistore, inclusion and the blending of culture have been with us from the start: We were founded by a Brazilian woman living and running a business in Ireland, and we’ve been able to leverage this cross-cultural founding to bring together experienced professionals from around the world. Chillistore’s continued goal is to make our community feel safe, respected, and comfortable no matter your walk of life.
While diversity is at our heart, the process is ongoing. Chillistore hosts Bias and Compassion workshops for our freelancers, where we discuss the importance of inclusive, diverse language. We don’t tolerate any display of bias, racism, misogyny, or lack of general respect. Maintaining a safe environment means walking like we talk. And at Chillistore, we believe in walking inclusively and engaging with diversity. There’s no other way to exist.
We’re not afraid to learn as we go, which is crucial to implementing real change. We’re also not scared of making mistakes, but we stand ready to address and learn from hiccups. This journey is only at its beginning – and we look forward to what potentially lies ahead.
We’d love to work with you to reach more people with your message – and in every area of the globe in which you’d like to work. Drop us a line, and let’s work together!
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