Another type of threat to Insight’s quality claim comes from the fierce competition between agencies. Operational tactics are found to be shrewd enough to neutralise rivals’
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attack and defend Insight’s market place. Give-and-take, pushing boundaries, and even pulling strings are some of the routine practices used to win buyers.
Implemented in a strong sales culture, the booking management process is fast-paced and stressful. Since manual work is needed to aid the “semi-automatic processing system”
[A-Mng], procedurisation is extensively promoted to drive business performance in a way that the competitive market requires. For example, to make sure the fastest response are provided to the clients, each booking operator is instructed to follow a set of what they term “predefined formula” to do the job, which can break down to four key steps:
1. Always secure an interpreter first;
2. Immediately inform the client to lock the offer;
3. Roll out a new job number and send it to the client with details of the interpreter
4. Send the job details to interpreters. [doc]
Although the chain of activities appears to be straightforward, each constitutive component may be complex and involve multiple practicalities in its own right. To secure an interpreter, one needs to know their availability and location before the request sends in, especially when it is short notice; to ‘lock the offer’, sufficient information must be obtained from the client so that suitable interpreter can be matched (ideally), provided the client has already been educated with what is crucial information in the first place. Since a large proportion of jobs sent to Insight are not from direct clients but intermediary agencies themselves, which might complicate and prolong the checking processes. In this sense, it is striking that the booking operation does not literally start from the first phone call of email but at least a day before the assignment to plan ahead or as far back as the first time that the agencies gets to know the interpreter. The large information whiteboard displayed on the wall illustrates this point. It can be observed from the board that information concerning regular interpreters’ availability, home address, preferences and strengths are transparently noted and can be understood at a glance [jnl].
Managers warn that “interpreters can wait for the job details to come”, but if the response to clients is slow, “they might say ‘Oh it’s too late’ and got someone else to go” [A-Mng-2]. To avoid such error, each operator’s response time per request is recorded and monitored. “This helps to analyse the quality of customer service and remind people to speed up”, stated by the director. Besides ‘Taylorising’ the workflow, delivering efficiency is another key measure for Insight to stay abreast of the market. Insight establishes itself as “open-minded” and keen on “embracing changes” [web].
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Proceduarisation and efficiency are perhaps reflected in and meanwhile strengthened by the idea of “getting it right the first time”, meaning that “[I]f things are done right then it becomes a template you are going to use later”[A-Director]. The Director admitted that she is “very into quality” and prefers to “be strict with people”. This in part explains how Insight interprets the link between quality management and the quality of interpreting, as manifested in the quote below:
I can’t tiptoe around one person. I will try not to be that dramatic… but I am very demanding. All I want is for us to act in a way that we are seen as professional people, that we do the best job we can as interpreters, as an interpreting agency, as people who provide high level of customer services.[B-Director]
In the case where possibilities to cover the job seem to be exhausted, operators are still not allowed to decline any jobs at their discretion. There is a managerial ‘embargo’ on saying no to clients without the director’s permission.
I don't want you to make the decision, whether it can be declined or not, cuz you don't know if you know everyone [all the interpreters], you’re not gonna know all the things you can do, what you can push sometimes, because it depends.[A-Director]
Management authority is thus centralised in the hands of a few individuals owing to their personal network and exclusive resources (e.g. knowing who can be ‘pushed’, discussed in 5.2.3), rather than distributed in a system of checks and balances. Members tend to feel very bad when they fail to fulfil the requests, which the Director considers as a positive implication of their identification with Insight. She motivates the team to “aim higher and care more”, celebrating each win with company-wide recognition:
Often at the beginning we only aim to make one [assignment request] out of four, then we end up managing three or four…It’s too easy to just give up! [A-Director]
Surrounded and saturated by the morale-boosting organisational discourse, members of Insight spare no efforts in persuading clients to take the service on board. Tactics often used include suggesting the possibility of rescheduling to suit interpreters, negotiating for more response time, and in some circumstances, having managers drive interpreters to the workplace. A witty bargaining line is quoted below:
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May I ask you don't ask another agency until I get back to you? The interpreter is going to a lot of trouble for us, and we can really do with the job to be honest, with it being such a quiet week [A-Director].
In contrast to the managers’ “very-into-quality” claim [A-Mng] and a few preventative measures discussed, there found to be few quality assurance mechanisms in place to assess performance of interpreters. One item that remains mythical to many participants is the feedback they are instructed to collect from clients after each assignment is finished (Figure 7.1).
Figure 7.1: A Section of the Job Sheet of Insight
Observations show that managers only react to negative comments, as admitted by the Director:
Some of the things will be in an ideal world. You could have a development record for every single interpreter, see how, you know, the feedback is, and identify the training needs. It’s too hard… If it’s a bad comment, we will definitely follow up and it would be on the person’s record. If it’s an ‘okay’ or
‘average’, you just gonna take it as a ‘good’. [A-Director]
However, the use of nonexpert judgement on interpreter performance invites suspicion in the managerial practice. Interpreters feel those remarks can be “unfair” and “unreliable”, as revealed in a discussion on medical interpreting captured in the field notes:
B: I was in an appointment which was extremely difficult, a total nightmare. I think I did quite well, you know, and he [the medical staff] put me only a “good”.
I was thinking ‘Oh my god, I could’ve just spanked you on the face!’ What a hard work, believe me!
C: Some people don't have a clue what interpreting is about.
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A: Some feedback may be unfair.
D: Absolutely. Like maybe you don't know a word for once, they would really put you down. ‘You should’ve known everything’—but it’s not like that. You ask for explanation and they should work with you.
C: They use the short-cuts. I remember the doctor said, she has B sth PP, then I said, ok, BCP? -No no, BPP…
D: Do you know what’s the proper name for a slipped disk?
A: No, because slipped disk is what they use all the time.
D: But one doctor didn’t. In the appointment he used the medical term, herniated disk. I have no idea of the term.
A: He is annoying. I have never experienced someone like that.
D: I am SORRY, you know, but He is awful! [A-Mng-Int]
This reflects the institutional difficulty that constrains the work of interpreters. The lack of understanding of interpreter’s presence in communicative events prevent interpreters from working effectively. Moreover, agencies in general are short of reliable means to actually implement the quality control they claim, nor are they able to prepare new interpreters for the reoccurring challenges that others might have encountered in previous assignments. Obtaining feedback from clients seem to be more of a marketing strategy to impress customers than a way of monitoring interpreter performance.