| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Visiting your clients (agencies) in person Thread poster: Maciej Pomorski
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:20
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Not my personal opinion... | Jun 10, 2021 |
Gerard Barry wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
alessandra bocco wrote:
Many years ago, one of my main clients was a Spanish agency located in Barcelona, where my cousin lived. When I decided to go and visit him, I wrote to the PMs and we arranged a meeting at the agency. Everything went fine, we spent a nice time together and... I never heard from them any more! Not a single job after that day... No emails explaining what had happened, they simply disappeared.
Maybe this was not related to my visit, but I never tried again to meet my clients!
Any type of "getting too close to vendors" or between vendors is not encouraged in organizations as it may result in conflict of interest or bias. This may explain what happened.
What would the conflict of interest be?
This is just what I saw in organizations. Well, she had lunch/dinner with this translator, they grew a closer bond, so she will be sending more work to her than to other translators in the same language pair with the same qualifications. This is their assumption, not mine. It does not have to be the case in this instance (we don't know why they stopped contact after that lunch/dinner), but generally speaking, this is how bias is evaluated in organizations. If they have a policy that their PMs are not allowed to interact with translators outside the remote job scope, then this PM may have breeched it.
[Edited at 2021-06-10 14:28 GMT]
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Not a bad idea | Jun 10, 2021 |
I´ve done it twice that I can remember. I told them I was coming both times and went to their offices. I brought some chocolates both times.
I´ve been meaning to visit a few customers for a while. This time I will ask when they might be having some company function where I would be welcome, such as after work drinks. I´d have to travel a few hours, but it would be worth it.
| | | | Maciej Pomorski
Poland
Local time: 14:20
Member (2005)
German to Polish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for your posts. I decided that I won't ask them if I can come. Instead, will mention casually on the next occation that I'm going to their city for vacation and I will leave it to them whether they invite me to their premises or not
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:20
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Edward Potter wrote:
I´ve done it twice that I can remember. I told them I was coming both times and went to their offices. I brought some chocolates both times.
How much did you charge them for the chocolates?
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Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Charging for the chocolates | Jun 11, 2021 |
Tom in London wrote:
Edward Potter wrote:
I´ve done it twice that I can remember. I told them I was coming both times and went to their offices. I brought some chocolates both times.
How much did you charge them for the chocolates?
I charged 0.09 euros/chocolate, with a 20% discount for the ones that were the same.
| | | | Peter Motte
Belgium
Local time: 14:20
Member (2009)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| Well, it depends ... | Jun 11, 2021 |
... considering what happened too Alessandra Bocco.
Maybe it's best to only visit prospects, but not existing clients, provided I hadn't seen those existing clients earlier on.
In the case of prospects, it's a new relationship.
In the case of existing clients which you didn't visit earlier, it might be better to keep the relationship an online relationship.
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
| Opportunity for collusion | Jun 18, 2021 |
Kickbacks, price fixing, favors, etc.
Maybe you offer them the girlfriend experience in exchange for rejecting other applicants from your language pair. Maybe you just buy them beer for preferential treatment. Or maybe you concoct an elaborate scheme to defraud the agency and their clients....
After all, most corporations can and presumably do sometimes read anything going through their corporate email server.
Any stuff going on out of Big Brother's view ... See more Kickbacks, price fixing, favors, etc.
Maybe you offer them the girlfriend experience in exchange for rejecting other applicants from your language pair. Maybe you just buy them beer for preferential treatment. Or maybe you concoct an elaborate scheme to defraud the agency and their clients....
After all, most corporations can and presumably do sometimes read anything going through their corporate email server.
Any stuff going on out of Big Brother's view makes Big Brother very very uncomfortable.
Gerard Barry wrote:
Lingua 5B wrote:
alessandra bocco wrote:
Many years ago, one of my main clients was a Spanish agency located in Barcelona, where my cousin lived. When I decided to go and visit him, I wrote to the PMs and we arranged a meeting at the agency. Everything went fine, we spent a nice time together and... I never heard from them any more! Not a single job after that day... No emails explaining what had happened, they simply disappeared.
Maybe this was not related to my visit, but I never tried again to meet my clients!
Any type of "getting too close to vendors" or between vendors is not encouraged in organizations as it may result in conflict of interest or bias. This may explain what happened.
What would the conflict of interest be? ▲ Collapse
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