The importance of your reputation in building your supply chain is really well illustrated by an encounter Eva, our Translation Manager, had at a legal translation workshop last weekend in London. Chatting to an interpreter over coffee, Eva asked for her contact details for possible interpreting assignments…
Interpreter: “I’m sorry, I never work for language agencies, they can’t be trusted”
Eva: “Oh, I didn’t know – I do work for a language company – Lifeline Languages?”
Interpreter: “Lifeline? Oh, but you guys have a fantastic reputation here in London – I’d be happy to work with you of course!”
So we connected with another excellent linguist, while she’s found another avenue to high-quality well-paid work.
And encounters like these – this isn’t the first by a long way – go to show EXACTLY why reputation matters!
Always look after your people – you may have seen in the press a while back another language company in real trouble as a result of NOT doing so (just Google “MoJ interpreting fiasco”). Look after your people, and they’ll look after you.