Case study: coffee machines terminology
From Precision Craftsmanship to Global Excellence in Coffee Machines
This leading company headquartered in Switzerland is renowned in the coffee machine industry for combining state-of-the-art technology with timeless design, catering to high-end coffee enthusiasts worldwide. Their professional machines, sold and serviced globally in markets such as the UK, US, Dubai, China, and Singapore, underscore the need for consistent and accurate multilingual communication.
As their operations expanded, developing a comprehensive multilingual glossary became essential to maintain uniform terminology across all documentation and communication channels.
The Critical Role of Consistent Terminology
Why was standardized terminology so crucial for this brand? With machines sold across continents and comprised of numerous components, ensuring consistent translations across various languages was essential. Imagine if the same part had different names in an instruction manual and on the machine display. This inconsistency could cause confusion for customers and technicians, potentially leading to a perception of lower product quality despite the machine’s technical excellence.
Inconsistent terminology can erode customer trust. When discrepancies appear in product documentation, customers might question the company’s attention to detail and overall reliability, which is especially detrimental in an industry where precision and quality are paramount. Furthermore, operational inefficiencies arise when technicians spend additional time interpreting instructions, and miscommunications across international teams can lead to costly errors. In the long term, a lack of standardized terminology could hinder the scalability of global operations as new markets and languages are introduced.
Beyond brand reputation, terminology inconsistency increases customer service workload, as the team would need to resolve customer confusion, potentially impacting profitability.
The Challenge: Minimizing the Risks of Miscommunication
This company already had multilingual materials, but they were riddled with inconsistent terminology. To streamline workflows for technicians and improve the customer experience, the localization team needed to standardize and align terminology, setting a strong foundation for future translations and content creation.
The challenge was twofold: extracting specialized terminology from a vast repository of over 1.15 million translated words and creating a multilingual glossary. This was not merely about identifying key terms, but also capturing the precise technical nuances unique to their industry. The task was further complicated by the need to align these terms across three languages, while ensuring consistency with existing technical documentation.
To put this into perspective, manually reviewing 1.15 million words would require around 766 hours, costing several thousand euros. An efficient, accurate solution was necessary to tackle this formidable task within reasonable time and budget constraints.
The Perfect Partnership
To address this challenge, the company partnered with Creative Words. Utilizing its in-house terminology extraction system powered by advanced NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology, Creative Words performed a data-driven analysis of key terms within the legacy materials. The initial extraction generated a list of source (English) terms, which was then thoroughly reviewed and refined by a native English linguist. Importantly, the client was actively involved in validating this list, ensuring that each term was relevant.
Once the English terms were finalized, Creative Words populated the glossary with corresponding French and German terms. This process involved native linguists with specialized technical knowledge, ensuring that the translations were both accurate and contextually appropriate.
The company played an active and integral role throughout this crucial phase, working closely with our team to ensure that every translated term met their standards.
Rather than a simple review, this was a dynamic, collaborative process, driven by ongoing feedback. This careful approach ensured that terminology across all languages remained consistent, accurate, and reflective of the brand’s commitment to excellence.
As a result, the final glossary was more than just a technical document; it became a fully approved, comprehensive resource supporting the company’s global communications. This partnership was instrumental in delivering a solution that met both the brand identity and operational requirements.
Results
The collaboration resulted in a highly effective outcome. In just one week, Creative Words delivered a comprehensive glossary with 300 entries in English, French, and German. Each term had been validated by the company and approved in all three languages, ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout their global documentation. Furthermore, the cutting-edge solution provided by Creative Words led to significant time and cost savings.
By working closely with Creative Words and actively participating in the validation process, the company successfully achieved its linguistic objectives, strengthening its position as a leader in the espresso machine manufacturing industry.
What they say about us
“Our experience with Creative Words was exceptional. Faced with the daunting task of creating a multilingual glossary for our extensive technical documentation, we needed a partner who could handle both the complexity and volume of the work. Creative Words delivered beyond our expectations. This partnership resulted in a solution that saved us significant time and costs.”
