This week, our favorite client, Mr. Stefan Wisiak, let us know that he was moving into a new position with another company. IMaGE Vienna, where he has been since 2001, runs the very successful Schoenbrunn Palace Concerts with the Schoenbrunn Palace Orchestra in the Orangery of the legendary yellow Schoenbrunn Palace. It’s the end of an era for us, and we will miss this relationship dearly, which is proof that outstanding working relationships with direct clients are certainly possible and very gratifying for both sides. We will continue working with IMaGE, but we wanted to share the profile of the person who has made this working relationship so terrific:- Name: Stefan Wisiak, Director of Strategic Marketing and Corporate Communications, IMaGE Vienna
- Date of first contact: February 2005
- Found us: Online
- Needed: Translation of general terms and conditions. Our quote was a bit high for him, so we gave him an unprecedented first-time client discount (we really liked him). It was a small discount, and have never had a discussion about price since then. Mr. Wisiak is also the only client who gets the standard “favorite repeat customer” rate. It is still well within our range, and everyone is happy.
- What we do: Original German-language copywriting for website, print, brochures, promotional booklets, etc. Translation of all these texts, in addition to legal texts, contracts, event announcements, banners, posters, etc. into English and Spanish.
- Frequency of contact: Daily, sometimes several times. Weekly projects.
- What we appreciate about him: He really values our professional services, takes our opinions seriously and completely integrates us into his international marketing strategy. He’s fiercely loyal (as are we), and even though he gets inundated with unsolicited quotes from less expensive translation professionals, he wouldn’t consider hiring anyone else. He’s always available, responsive, and incredibly friendly and easy to work with. He's fantastically well organized and always on top of things. He always treats us as the fellow professionals that we are.
- How we built the relationship: By being reliable, available, creative and resourceful. We consistently overdeliver, and tell him up front if we don’t think we can accommodate a deadline. We work holidays if necessary and interrupt vacations for short projects. Mr. Wisiak knows that we won’t merely execute what he wants, but we will brainstorm all day to come up with ideas for him to market the Palace concerts to an international audience. We are not only language services providers, but we also act as consulting partner for the international strategies.
- The bottom line: Customer relationships like these are rare, and when they happen, they are incredibly valuable to both sides. We are lucky and honored to have worked with Mr. Wisiak.
Mr. Wisiak has already promised us to get in touch with us when he is settled in his new position, so we might end up with two clients instead of one. For now, we are sad to see the daily contact with Mr. Wisiak come to an end. At the risk of sounding corny: he has been such a large part of our professional lives that we will miss this working relationship dearly. We wanted to take this opportunity to tell him – and everyone else here – that we really appreciate his business and his trust.
1 comments:
Thanks for sharing.
This is a proof that no tool can replace the value of business relationship between people.
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