Language Translation

Rapport International is a full-service multilingual communications agency that believes in "people-first communications." When clients need translation (written) or interpretation (spoken) services, they are not just using a language; they are   connecting with people, says Wendy Pease, President of Rapport International. With over 30 years of experience and experts who speak more than 200 languages, the company provides a 100% satisfaction guarantee, giving its clients dependable and accurate language services.   

Rapport International's vision is to connect people for a peaceful and prosperous world, and their mission is to unite people across language and culture.  Employees embrace and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion by facilitating clear communications for clients, no matter the language.  

The company's specialty is high quality language services that include multilingual marketing, customer acquisition, legal, technical, and medical subject matters. They state that they guarantee satisfaction through attention to accurate and culturally adapted communications.  The company states that they write in the right voice, use correct terminology to avoid liability, customize services to customers' needs, and ensures delivery on time, all within the customer’s budget.  With its expertise in multilingual communications in over 200 languages, Rapport International gives strategic and practical advice to ensure global growth goals.   

Whether a client needs a website, contract, user instructions, product packaging, or other written materials translated or needs an interpreter to facilitate conversations in-person, on a video call, at a conference, or over the phone, Rapport International project managers deliver services that effectively meet the needs of the client. 

 

Driving through Excellence 

Founded in 1987, Rapport International's continuous commitment to quality and on-time delivery contributes to the progressive growth of the company. Their focus on building relationships  helped the company retain customers over the past 30+ years. While the company vision, mission, and values have evolved over the years, it has always centered on connecting people worldwide. 

The team's vision is "Connecting People for a Peaceful and Prosperous World." 

The mission is "To unite people across languages and cultures."   

The values are: 

  • Connect  
  • Understand 
  • Deliver 
  • Quality 

To achieve their vision, mission, and values, at the start of each project, the project manager discusses the company's strategy with the client to align on the objectives for the multilingual communications.  Once the project manager understands the goals, she makes suggestions on the process.  

The company also offers advice to clients about messaging and strategy to help them achieve their objectives in the most cost-efficient, culturally appropriate way. For example: 

  • Market research client who saved money by translating a FAQ landing page rather than continually individually responding to emails. 
  • A large retailer who avoided using a culturally inappropriate campaign in France. 
  • A hospital that transitioned to telephone interpreting for quick calls with clients. 
  • Life sciences company, which decided on the translated name of a newly patented drug by hearing the options presented by Rapport International.   

 

Dynamic Leadership Guiding Business Success 

As a young child, Wendy lived in Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines.  She knows the feeling of fear and frustration of not being able to speak the local language.  On the flip side, she understands the magic that can happen when people can clearly communicate. Wendy's passion is connecting people across languages and cultures. She knows that as global commerce increases, it uplifts everyone.  As a global citizen, she observes that people around the world want the same out of life – safety, the ability to provide for their family, time with friends and family, laughter, and the ability to contribute to society through gainful work.  While people may seem different because of skin color, religion, style, language, food, style of communicating, manners, and more, these are only surface level.  Staying curious and learning about our differences deepens our understanding of humanity.  

To encourage learning about cross-cultural communication, Wendy is a frequent speaker about exporting, global marketing and communications, multilingual lead generation, global expansion, global inbound, entrepreneurship, business ownership, diversity, equity, inclusion, and more.  Wendy has authored the book "Global Marketing" and hosts the Global Marketing Show podcast.  She moderates the Boston Chapter of Soft Land Partners, an organization of service providers who help companies with global expansion, and she hosts Global Rapport Speed Networking, a virtual networking event for professionals who work on a global scale, held the last Friday of every month.  

Along the way, she mentors and supports aspiring and growing entrepreneurs. 

 

Remodeling Brand Facet with Changing Times 

Wendy expresses that when a company is over 30 years old, experiencing change is inevitable.  When the prior owner founded Rapport International, there was no commercial internet.  In 1987, the owner worked on hard copy documents and used delivery services for materials. 

In 2004, when Wendy bought the company, she saw the potential for developing a website and moving contacts onto a CRM.  At networking events, people asked, "what kinds of companies would use your services?”  She used those opportunities to educate professionals about the potential for global business. 

As Google Translate became known around 2010, people became more aware of translation and started asking, "is Google Translate going to put you out of business?”  We know now, ten years later, that it did not. 

Around 2017, when AI technologies improved, people asked the same question. Rapport International is still here. 

In 2020, people understand that not all translation is the same.  They want to know if it will accurately convey their message and be culturally appropriate.  The mindset changed from "why do I need it?" to "I want the best!” 

Through the years, Rapport International held steady on providing high quality and on-time delivery of language services.  The team understands that not all companies and projects are the same and work hard to deliver exactly what the client needs and how they want it. 

 

Staying on Edge with Disruptive Technologies 

Rapport International stays current on technologies to embrace any new releases that can improve service delivery.  

For the actual language work, the company hires qualified, trained, screened, and experienced linguists to keep quality high. "Language is a changing organism," as Wendy puts it. She points out that Webster's dictionary adds thousands of new words every year – for instance, "zoom fatigue," "self-isolate," and "contactless."  These words did not exist before 2020.  Next, if one considers how colloquialisms, idioms, slang, humor, and cultural meaning creep into communications, it will be challenging for technology to be able to replace important and clear communication.  Even machine translation with human post-editing is not of high quality. 

Yet, Rapport International embraces technology for situations where human involvement is not needed.  AI, Big Data, NLP, and the cloud streamline service delivery and offer options for people who did not translate prior to these options.  Wendy makes sure that Rapport International stays on top of all developments to determine the best use cases.   

Each year, the company adds new technologies. Some of these include: 

  • Translation memory platforms provide linguists with previously translated content, so messaging stays consistent.   
  • Various platforms allow for service requests, delivery, and content management. 
  • Analytics on websites give feedback on what information consumers want. 
  • Chatbots allow for quick delivery of information to users. 
  • Live chat technology enables customer service across multiple languages.  
  • File transfer is easy and fast. 
  • Automated conference interpreting services allow for conferences, which previously offered no prior interpreting, to offer language services inexpensively. 
  • Technology to manage glossaries for consistent messaging. 
  • Cloud services for remote workers to deliver 24/7 services as needed. 

Even though Rapport International does not use AI, NLP, or MT for automating translation and interpretation, the company continually researches technologies to become more efficient with service delivery and expand solution offerings. 

 

Categorization of Client Demands Driving Innovation 

Speaking of the company's unique, innovative aspects, Wendy reveals that it is the project management and linguistic matchmaking offered by Rapport International. 

Project Management: 

Many language services companies build a platform and require clients to use their platform to procure and manage services.  Years ago, Rapport International looked at building a propriety portal for clients to use and realized that clients prefer using their internal systems.  Adding another platform gives them one more process/portal to learn, log into, and manage. 

Instead, it built a proprietary internal system for project management to work with the client's preferred process.  At Rapport International, the company focuses on innovative service delivery, customized to each client's needs and preferences.   

Rapport International stays current on available platforms and technologies and then recommends the appropriate ones for clients who want an automated process.  By providing consulting on best practices and offering the right solutions for each situation, the clients benefit.  

By doing this, the company can service clients across all multilingual communication needs from written, spoken, video, audio, live chat, chatbots, glossary management, vendor-neutral translation management, marketing platforms, and more.  It provides in-depth industry knowledge to advise clients on best practices for meeting their needs.   

Linguistic Matchmaking: 

Rapport International works with experienced linguists with subject matter expertise.  The project managers carefully match the client with the best linguist for the project.  

On subsequent projects, its team assigns the same linguist to the client. This maintains consistency of voice and gives the linguist a deep understanding of the client's business, product, and preferences. Companies spend time developing a voice and personality, and so must the translator. 

This attention to detail and consistency contributes to Rapport International's ability to build and retain clients' relationships – some client/translator connections lasting 30+ years. 

 

Notable Awards and Building Long-Term Relations 

Rapport International is a certified woman-owned business with a marketing specialty.  In 2017, they became the only language service agency certified as a Hubspot Partner.  

Other awards and accolades include: 

  • Goldman Sachs 10ksb Graduate 
  • Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence Awardee 
  • Entrepreneurs' Organization Member 
  • Inclusive Award from the State of MA Supplier Diversity Office 
  • Women's Conference Notability Nominee 
  • SBA Business of the Year Nominee 

Yet Wendy believes that awards do not capture the most essential element of the company – relationships. Many translators and interpreters have worked for the company since its establishment, with some clients having over 10-year relationships with these linguists. This is an example of "linguistic matchmaking," and for Wendy, this keeps the translation quality high. 

 

Going Global with Internet 

According to Statista, the global language services industry was worth approximately 46.52 billion US dollars in 2018. Over the next few years, experts forecast growth of five billion US dollars, reaching $56 billion in 2021. 

Factor affecting industry growth rates:  

  • Internet access - allows people from anywhere in the world to access products and services  
  • Millennials - started traveling young, so they are not afraid of languages and cultures. They are more open to global business. 
  • Machine translation - increased access to translation. Gist translation is fast and easy.  

With these factors influencing how people and leaders of organizations see global trade, Wendy assures Rapport International will keep spreading the word about the global business opportunities and the importance of high-quality translation for the content that matters. 

Even though a common belief is that English is the global language, experienced global citizens know that people want to clearly understand important materials and feel a company respects their language and culture enough to speak to them in their native tongue. 

Wendy shares that one of Rapport International's clients experienced the impact of translation when pitching to a potential client in South Korea.  While the meeting was conducted in English, the client was the only potential vendor that translated their slides into Korean.  Wendy says, in the end, that critical step won the deal for them.