Poll: In your opinion, how important is it to physically meet potential clients? Autor de la hebra: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In your opinion, how important is it to physically meet potential clients?".
View the poll results »
| | | | | Not important at all | Jun 28 |
Except for sworn translations (which since I moved back to Portugal in 2015 I only do 3 or 4 per year), in more than 40 years in the business I have only met 3 clients in person.
| | | | Enrico Zoffoli 
Italia
Local time: 14:32
Miembro 2013
alemán al italiano
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| Not important at all | Jun 29 |
In fact, not having to do that is one of the cool things about this job.
| | | | Alex Lichanow
Alemania
Local time: 14:32
Miembro 2020
inglés al alemán
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I am yet to meet any of my clients in person and it has never been necessary for my business.
One of my existing clients insists on monthly Google Meets to discuss each month's jobs in detail, so I do get to hear her regularly, but we don't even use cameras in those Meets. That is pretty much the closest "personal" contact I have ever had.
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| Very useful, I would think | Jun 29 |
As I’ve said here many times before, meeting clients in person is the best marketing you can do, because they then remember you and are more likely to treat you as a human being rather than a “resource”. However asocial we might be collectively, it’s always nicer working with a person than a machine.
That said, I’ve never met a potential client, only existing ones.
| | | | | Communicating by e-mail is much easier! | Jun 29 |
I did actually meet a couple of my best clients, when we worked for the same agency. They are Norwegians, and I can read Norwegian without trouble, but guiding them round a small Danish town was quite another matter! We resorted to speaking English, which worked, of course, but was not the same. Danish and Norwegian look very similar on paper, but we have real trouble understanding each other's spoken language.
It is often a pleasure to meet clients at seminars or other gatherings, ... See more I did actually meet a couple of my best clients, when we worked for the same agency. They are Norwegians, and I can read Norwegian without trouble, but guiding them round a small Danish town was quite another matter! We resorted to speaking English, which worked, of course, but was not the same. Danish and Norwegian look very similar on paper, but we have real trouble understanding each other's spoken language.
It is often a pleasure to meet clients at seminars or other gatherings, and it may be a good way to find new clients, but for me, it is not an important part of the business relationship.
What if they discover that I'm really a grumpy old woman, not that charming person I try to project in my mails?  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia y Herzegovina
Local time: 14:32
Miembro 2009
inglés al croata
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| Very much a resource | Jun 29 |
One can very much be treated like a resource even in person, it doesn't change anything. For instance, I had interpreting projects where a decision maker who hired me by email never appeared in the physical world during the project, they had people working for them (who did not have the power to assess me). So, did it change anything? Not at all.
IMO not very important. I met some clients in person but that didn't make them a particularly better client than others.
... See more One can very much be treated like a resource even in person, it doesn't change anything. For instance, I had interpreting projects where a decision maker who hired me by email never appeared in the physical world during the project, they had people working for them (who did not have the power to assess me). So, did it change anything? Not at all.
IMO not very important. I met some clients in person but that didn't make them a particularly better client than others.
[Edited at 2024-06-29 09:45 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
Francia
Local time: 14:32
francés al inglés
It's maybe not necessary to meet PMs from agencies. But with my direct clients, it's much better when I do actually meet them. I can get a better feel for them as artists.
This may not be the case when you're translating technical stuff, but definitely in the arts it's important.
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