Tradudoc: Translating browsers into prospects

The immediacy and interactivity of the web are harnessed to turn browsers into enquirers.

The Site

Traducdoc is a translation company based in Montpellier and focusing its business-oriented services on English, French and Japanese. Its website explains the way the service works, its linguistic credentials and how to get a free no-obligation quote.

The free quote service is pushed at every opportunity. An always-accessible Devis Gratuit (“free advice”) heading on the main navigation bar is backed up with a “Demande de devis” panel on the home page complete with the promise of an instant reply (“Nous répondons immédiatement”). Clicking on any of the three other navigation bar headings opens a mini-pop-up along with the new page. This again prompts users to request a quote with the question “How much will it cost to translate your text?”

The Takeaway

Traducdoc is using the immediacy and interactivity of the web to turn browsers into enquirers by making it both possible for them to get an instant quote for a piece of work – and impossible to get away from the opportunity to do so.

There is a danger that such an insistent tactic allied to the controversial pop-up will drive some people away, but for Traducdoc the risk is probably worth taking. Its service is quickly grasped, requires minimal explanation and only a bit more reassurance about quality, so it can cut quickly to engaging the potential customers among its site’s visitors. And the two things any business user will want to know are how much? and how quickly?

In a highly competitive market such as this, use of e-mail forms to gather contact information and obtain a copy of the document to be translated draw would-be clients into a more committed dialogue than is possible in other forms of distance selling.

First published on 24 February, 2004