Smartling's in-house translation provider, Smartling Language Services (SLS), delivers high-quality, on-brand translations for any content type. To ensure your standards are met at all times, SLS services and workflows come with a Translation Satisfaction Guarantee.
How does it work?
Translations by Smartling Language Services adhere to industry best practices, as well as your Linguistic Assets and any other specifications or instructions you may provide.
If, however, you identify an error or inaccuracy in the translations performed by SLS, please report this to Smartling as outlined below.
The Smartling team will then analyze the reported inaccuracy to check if it is covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee.
If the reported issue is covered, Smartling will retranslate the affected content at no additional cost to remedy the inaccuracy.
Which translation errors are covered?
Translations not meeting the expected quality level for the selected workflow will be corrected at no additional cost.
Only objective errors (e.g., grammar or spelling mistakes) are covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee. Purely preferential changes cannot be reperformed free of charge.
Before the translation starts, please ensure that your Linguistic Assets are set up correctly to capture your translation preferences. If pre-defined specifications, as found in your Linguistic Assets, are not adhered to, this will be covered by the Satisfaction Guarantee for most workflows (see below for further details).
Examples of Linguistic Assets not being observed:
- Glossary terms are not applied.
- Style instructions are not followed.
- Incorrect ToV or level of formality is used in the translations.
- Linguistic conventions are not adhered to.
For most workflows, Smartling guarantees that HTML tags present in the source content will be maintained in the translations, to ensure consistent formatting (see below for further details).
Desktop Publishing (DTP) services for post-translation typesetting will only be performed if they are specifically included in your workflow.
Workflows covered by the SLS Translation Satisfaction Guarantee
Please find below a list of SLS workflows and services that the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee applies to, and the error types covered for each.
AI Translation (AIT)
- Expected quality level: AIT typically produces a translation quality comparable to traditional MTPE and is associated with an average MQM quality score of 95+.*
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Covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee: Inaccuracies that result in “critical errors” only, as per Smartling's MQM quality evaluation schema.
- Critical errors are severe and render the text unusable or misleading.
- Critical errors are mistakes that could result in harm, or have legal or commercial repercussions (e.g., omitting negation in a terms and conditions text or mixing up the two parties in a legal contract).
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Not covered: Any non-critical errors are not covered:
- Style or ToV preferences (specified in the Style Guide or otherwise).
- Cultural or creative elements.
- Errors related to document formatting, missing or misplaced HTML tags.
AI-Powered Human Translation (AIHT)
- Expected quality level: AIHT typically produces a translation quality comparable to human translation and is associated with an average MQM quality score of 98+.*
- Covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee: All objective inaccuracies, regardless of the error severity, and all specified linguistic instructions.
Professional Human Translation
- Expected quality level: Professional human translation typically produces an average MQM quality score of 98+.*
- Covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee: All objective inaccuracies, regardless of the error severity.
Creative translation or other specialty translation workflows
- Expected quality level: Depending on the exact workflow and service provided. Please reach out to your SLS representative for more information.
- Covered by the Translation Satisfaction Guarantee: All objective inaccuracies, regardless of the error severity.
*A specific MQM quality score is not guaranteed and only indicative of the average expected quality level.
Does Smartling guarantee a specific MQM quality score?
No, a specific MQM score is not guaranteed.
Smartling guarantees the expected quality level for a given workflow and will fix objective errors if a translation does not meet that quality level. The MQM score is a only a way to measure the average quality level based on a sample of translations. It is purely provided as a guideline to help you choose the right workflow for each content type.
How to raise a quality concern?
Any inaccuracy needs to be reported to Smartling in writing within 30 days after the translation was performed by SLS.
- To raise a quality concern, send an email to your SLS representative at translation@smartling.com.
- Please provide concrete examples of strings that don't meet your expectations.
- The string hashcode, which is accessible from the String Details, makes it easy to identify the exact translation you are unsatisfied with.
- Please include details regarding your exact concerns (e.g., brand terminology wasn't applied as per the available Glossary).
Info: There are other factors that may impact translation quality, outside of SLS translation performance, such as SmartMatch. The Smartling team requires specific examples to analyze the exact root cause leading to any inaccuracies. This helps us ensure that the reported issues are fully accounted for and can be prevented going forward.
What happens when you raise a quality concern?
Once sufficient details and examples have been provided, your SLS representative will determine if the quality concern is covered by Smartling’s Satisfaction Guarantee.
- If the quality concern is covered by Smartling’s Satisfaction Guarantee:
Smartling will rework the translations at no additional cost to you. - If the quality concern is not covered by Smartling’s Satisfaction Guarantee:
If desired, you can submit the content for retranslation at an additional cost. You may want to consider selecting a different workflow to upgrade the quality level, or provide new instructions that will improve help us improve the translation. Your SLS representative will be able to advise you on the best approach.