Social distancing: a time to hunker down…and act boldly

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a worldwide disruption to healthcare systems, civil society and to the economy (both national and global). The language services industry–and most specifically–the translation side is uniquely equipped to weather this disruption. Unfortunately for the interpreting side, namely in-person, is experiencing a serious downturn, opening new opportunities for OPI and VRI.

Company owners and managers, however, cannot conduct business as usual. Numbers will be down. In times of crisis, it is to be expected that the translation market turns bearish. Uncertainty doesn’t disrupt our businesses directly; it disrupts our clients’ businesses. Industrial orders will be delayed, postponed, or canceled. Budgets will be frozen. You can definitely instruct your sales teams to “beat the bushes”, “bring in the low-hanging-fruit projects”. You might be able to shake loose a few orders by offering rebates, discounts, or other incentives to your customers. I recommend doing it all to keep revenue flowing. But once that’s been done, there is one simple truth, you will not force your customers to buy.

An approach I’ve used in the past is to relish the opportunity to momentarily avert my managerial gaze from sales charts and projections to making improvements that are usually difficult or virtually impossible under normal production conditions.

You know how it goes in “normal” times, you are sitting in an operations or a sales meeting and the inevitable “only if” scenario arises. “If only we had made more progress with our MT production rollout.” “If only we had time to prepare for ISO certification.” “If only we could implement that new TMS” (or content connector, or business management system, etc.).

Admittedly, times of crisis are not ideal for taking on more risk, but they are times in which the bold are often rewarded. With the luxury of time, you can carry out special initiatives with greater attention with more hands-on deck. It’s an ideal time to have your staff researching solutions to recurrent problems.

Making big capital investments at this juncture may seem counterintuitive, but your chances of success and increasing your organization’s operational effectiveness are greatly improved thanks to the luxury of time and proper managerial oversight.

In addition, don’t hesitate to reach out to technology vendors and ask for a quote. You should expect significant savings. Remember the bearish climate. Sales for your technology vendors have also dried up. It’s not opportunistic to ask for a discount during these times. Simply by being willing to take a bit risk to spend during a time of crisis is a huge benefit to a supplier who may be idle.

LocFluent is here to help you kickstart, plan, and implement these initiatives. Your initial call with us is no obligation and is designed to allow discovery of your issue and confirmation that we can be successful with you. Schedule a call now!

Remember: Fate rewards the bold!