Staff Diary - Working for Bostico
The staff at Bostico International talk about the day to day life of working for a leading translation agency.
"Although I am always trying to make the best out of any situation, even out of the bad ones, sometimes I can`t help being frustrated thinking what I could have done different to handle or resolve a certain problem in such a way that all the parts involved would have been happier"
I love my Job!
Every day is different in every aspect and there is always something to so, which it is good because it is not all routine and the same every day. It is challenging because we work with so many people, nationalities and characters and for each of our clients there is always a new situation and a new challenge to get the job done with satisfaction guaranteed for the customer.
I enjoy seeing reviews from our clients, especially when they are excellent reviews. Who wouldn’t? And I am wondering for those who are were not satisfied if I have done everything I could to offer a good customer service all the way and of course a quality service.
The challenge in this job is to communicate adequately with the customer, understand their needs and requirement. Sometimes some customers don’t really know what they need. You need to make yourself understood so that the client will be fully aware of what we can offer, how much will cost, what they DO need and what is the process to get it done. You also have to communicate with the translator or interpreter who will carry out the job so that they understand what Bostico International and our client is expecting from them.
Some private individuals come into the shop or they email a request for translation but most of the time they do not know about our other services that we offer or they do not know that by requesting a translation it does not mean it will automatically be certified as these are two different services that tie each other up only if requested.
This is where we come in to advise the clients. Some clients are patient and listen and understand the charges for our services but some try to obtain discounts. In some circumstances, because we value new customers and we understand that the economy is not as profitable as it used to be, we are willing to amend our normal, standard costs so that both parts will be happy. But this might not always be an option and on some occasions the clients might not agree with even the lowest price we can offer and they ask for a more significant discount.
This is the moment when I explain to the client that it is not in my power to offer discounts but I will obviously ask for advice from my manager and we can proceed perhaps on what I am told from my manager. In some cases the clients are very happy with the discounts they might get, in other cases they keep emailing, calling or try face to face persuasion in order to obtain a much lower price. It is just one of those situations that we have to deal with and do our very best to satisfy even the most insistent of all customers.
Written by Tina from Bostico International - Back to the top
Taming the NRPSI
If I was to pick one thing that I am not a fan of, then those would have to be trying to get NRPSI interpreters to accept jobs. With NRPSI qualified interpreters, it is a constant struggle to convince them that we are a serious company and we offer the same rates as the court does and sometimes no matter how many positive arguments I might bring, I feel I am hitting a brick wall.
I realise that this rejection from NRPSI interpreters has nothing to do with my people skills, the way I talk or even power of persuasion but it is all related to other factors such as ALS (applied language solutions) who have had a negative impact on the whole industry and the interpreters are now taking it out on everyone else. Some NRPSI even take it a step further by now allowing us to even get a word out before they actually put the phone down on you. This is really rude. A while back NRPSI had an internal vote about "whether to make the interpreter's details public domain" and the majority chose to have their details public in order to get more jobs from clients. If they chose to put their phone number out, then why refuse jobs, especilly when we offer traditional NRPSI rates???
On other cases, they will bring you arguments as to why they do not wish to undertake work, which has nothing to do with Bostico, but nonetheless it affects us because of their lack of cooperation. But as I said, even if it is very frustrating and I want to hit my head against the wall about 20 times (no less than that!). The only acceptable attitude is to persevere by constantly working on trying to find out what makes the interpreters unhappy, what can we do to help so that we can get a positive attitude from NRPSI interpreters towards Bostico. We had, and still have, many NRPSI interpreters working for us and once you break the blinkered view of “If the court not contacting me directly, we are on strike” and gain their trust, then they will remain faithful, because they know we are a trustworthy translation agency providing legitimate work.
Needless to say that keeping NRPSI interpreters faithful is possible only because we do what we promise. It is challenging to contact an NRPSI interpreter when we need one because you never know what to expect and what situation you might encounter. I personally feel a bit frustrated to accept their rejection knowing that we are actually one of the few companies that offer proper working rates and still we get so many negative answers, especially before we even tell them the rates. It might be challenging and frustrating but never impossible even to try and “tame” an NRPSI.
Written by Tina from Bostico International - Back to the top
Non paying customers
Another unseen part of we do at Bostico is chasing overdue invoices. This is a very big issue because it can affect everyone involved with the company from interpreters and translators through to members of staff. We are working with so many organizations, companies and private individuals that sometimes procedures do not go as smooth as they should do.
This ranks as pne of my least favourite part about working with Bostico but nonetheless, it is imperative that we do take action when an invoice is overdue so that we can bring the cash flow up to date and therefore everyone can be paid on time and we will not incur any surcharges or interest for late payments as well. It is really difficult to get an instant solution as fast as I would like, when chasing a payment. Instead I get empty promises or inconclusive answers and it can be really annoying, but we need to communicate with our clients and make sure they are aware of the situation and of course try to find a quick, efficient and suitable solution for both parts in solving the problem.
The trick is to have unlimited patience when performing such an action, especially on some occasions when you are passed from one person to the next one and in the end you will most definitely end up back to where you have started because everyone is raising their shoulders not knowing much about the situation (or at least pretending not to). It can be exhausting at times to make people understand the value of a contract on which they have put their signature and the rules within, they have agreed to a certain payment term, which is not at all respected in the end. Challenging and difficult as it is, it is a must that we have to pursue constantly in order to obtain results.
Overall, people can bring arguments that there are internal procedures and rules that apply and take time, and we fully understand that, so we constantly try to communicate with our clients to find suitable solutions but not all the time people seem to understand the importance of a good to excellent collaboration between two companies/institutions and we are “left hanging in the air” even for an answer.
The good part in all this is that we work as a very efficient team at Bostico and we always make sure that one person within the team will offer the clients ways and opportunities to settle any issue so that both parts will be happy at the end of the day.
Written by Tina from Bostico International - Back to the top
How efficient really is a radio advert nowadays?
If I was to speak from my point of view as a radio listener I could honestly say that the only time I am listening to the radio is when I am in my office at work or at home performing different chores around the house, therefore I am already distracted and not interested on what is running on the radio. I believe people nowadays “go” on a radio station for the music and news not so much for the adverts.
Depending on demographics i.e. the age factor, most of the people who listen to the radio are doing this while performing other tasks such as driving for example and are looking for a way to “kill time” while returning home from work, school and so on. I find it hard to believe anyone really pays attention to radio adverts anymore.
By observing people around me, family, friends I realise that almost everyone has the same habit when commercials start on the radio and that is to immediately try to find another radio channel.
When working in an office and listening to the radio you are constantly distracted by your work and speaking from experience sometimes when I am really caught up in work I tend to ignore everything else around me- such as radio sound, music, adverts, news, except telephone calls and other important tasks related to the job.
I believe that in the little time people have to rest their brain after a busy day they will lack the focus and probably will not remember the advert running on the radio. It is not just about the lack of focus after a day of work, school and so on but even during the day people are engaged into other activities that will distract them from paying 100% attention on the radio.
Before the media and internet developed to such a point where probably more than 50% of communication and advertising is done over the internet and newspapers, the radio was a big power and could make their “voice” heard but I feel that nowadays the more the internet develops no one is really paying that much attention to advertising because it has become so easy to just make use of search engines and find an information within seconds rather than listening to the radio hoping they will advertise what you are looking for.
I think the radio effect has diminished and it might turn out to be very ineffective for a business that decides to advertise their business using a local radio station. I believe there are only a limited amount of radio stations on a national level that might be a good idea to advertise with but the prices might jump higher than one can afford, therefore their services might not be affordable to everyone, every small business.
Launching a local advertising campaign or a national advertising campaign on a local or on a national radio station might be a huge risk to begin with considering the fast environment everyone lives in nowadays, especially since it seems that everyone is in a constant rush from one point to the other and people are multi tasking all the time, being very caught up in their everyday life, I really find it hard to believe that radio advertising will be efficient and will go to the target.
A while back I could still hear people saying “I heard on the radio ...” but nowadays more people refer to pieces of information they remember as to “I have seen on...”, “I have read in...” so that makes me wonder about the influence the radio will have in the business environment as it seems to me it has lost a lot of points in favour to other media channel that provide better ways of distribution when it comes to advertising.
Written by Tina from Bostico International - Back to the top