| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you use Google Earth to see where your clients are based? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you use Google Earth to see where your clients are based?".
This poll was originally submitted by Tom in London. View the poll results »
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When dealing with a new potential client, one of the first things I do is checking the address.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Teresa Borges wrote:
When dealing with a new potential client, one of the first things I do is checking the address.
I am often amused to discover that an agency with a glossy-looking website, illustrated with pictures of corporate-type people enthusing over some document or other, is actually the back bedroom of a rundown family home in a remote suburb of a forgotten city.
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 18:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
Do you use Google Earth to see where your clients are based?
Only rarely, when I'm curious. I more often try to figure out what the PM looks like (i.e. recent photo), and obviously if they have Facebook, I might get sucked into browsing their other photos. I had thought a few times that I should save these photos to my client database, but then I'm reminded that it would contravene GDPR.
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I check clients in the Companies Register if they are Danish. It does not tell me much, but it is easy and free. If they have a valid VAT number, I can give them the benefit of the doubt, and check in other ways. I have never thought of using Google Earth to see whether their address actually exists or tallies with other information they may give. Thank you for the tip!
Many vanish into thin air if I get as far as mentioning my rates... Others have been recommended by colleagues, so... See more I check clients in the Companies Register if they are Danish. It does not tell me much, but it is easy and free. If they have a valid VAT number, I can give them the benefit of the doubt, and check in other ways. I have never thought of using Google Earth to see whether their address actually exists or tallies with other information they may give. Thank you for the tip!
Many vanish into thin air if I get as far as mentioning my rates... Others have been recommended by colleagues, so I know they are reliable. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 18:35
English to German
| It depends on... | May 5, 2020 |
...whether I get any whiff of seediness or doubts of financial solvency during the initial communication phase.
In this case, I may check their existence and appearance on Google Maps/Earth (as well as on other portals like LinkedIn, Glassdoor etc.).
| | | | | Appearances are not everything! | May 5, 2020 |
Tom in London wrote:
I am often amused to discover that an agency with a glossy-looking website, illustrated with pictures of corporate-type people enthusing over some document or other, is actually the back bedroom of a rundown family home in a remote suburb of a forgotten city.
I do not know how much you could deduce from my address, though I hope you can't see it! It is a small road in a sleepy tourist town. All too quiet in these Covid-19 times, and among other things my collection of books would not impress sticklers for tidiness, but I hope I provide a professional service in spite of appearances.
| | | | | I prefer to use the power of the mind | May 5, 2020 |
Literally all my current clients have the word Norwegian, Danish or Swedish in their name, which I think could be a clue...
Or maybe I am being naive...😂
There seems limited value in tracking down an agency’s registered office (which could very well be that of a lawyer or spouse anyway)...
And fancy offices may well be paid for with lower rates for translators...
Why not put the time into getting repeat work from existing clients in instead?
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Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 18:35
English to German
Tom in London wrote:
I am often amused to discover that an agency with a glossy-looking website, illustrated with pictures of corporate-type people enthusing over some document or other, is actually the back bedroom of a rundown family home in a remote suburb of a forgotten city.
I also find it amusing when a company with a nice, shiny office in a posh part of town and pretentious gas-guzzlers parked in front turns out to be offering peanuts.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Jan Truper wrote:
Tom in London wrote:
I am often amused to discover that an agency with a glossy-looking website, illustrated with pictures of corporate-type people enthusing over some document or other, is actually the back bedroom of a rundown family home in a remote suburb of a forgotten city.
I also find it amusing when a company with a nice, shiny office in a posh part of town and pretentious gas-guzzlers parked in front turns out to be offering peanuts.
It must be because I'm an architect. I always want to see the building, the place, the environs, the city. Having visited (virtually) the premises of an agency, I often continue exploring the wider place. By these means I have (virtually) walked along the streets of a thousand unknown places I shall never visit. It all enriches the mind. Context.
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Tom in London wrote:
Teresa Borges wrote:
When dealing with a new potential client, one of the first things I do is checking the address.
I am often amused to discover that an agency with a glossy-looking website, illustrated with pictures of corporate-type people enthusing over some document or other, is actually the back bedroom of a rundown family home in a remote suburb of a forgotten city.
Impressive, my version of Google Earth does not show back bedrooms Do you have a special edition for architects?
Anyway, the actual location of a company does not matter as much as it did. Many translation firms are half-virtual; not only their translators are spread over all the world, their PMs and other permanent employees often are too. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. And in pandemic times, big and pompous office buildings are half empty anyway.
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Yes, I do. I always thought I was the only onw. Haha.
I love to see the different places where my clients from all over the world come from.
There are some really nice towns I did not know before.
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I have certainly used Street View to see clients and agencies, no doubt they have looked me up too.
Not that they'd learn much ....
| | | | Helen Shiner
France
Local time: 18:35
Member (2008)
German to English
+ ...
Having recently moved house and done a lot of searching on Google maps prior to visiting properties, I can vouch for the fact that many postcodes and/or addresses do not show up in the correct place on Google maps. We seem to live in places delivery drivers can't find, the refrain always being, "but Google maps took me somewhere else entirely". I would not rely on such a search to tell me anything myself.
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In today's world of business unclarity of not straight deception, how can you begin to work with someone without checking their website, their physical location, and their record in the Blue Board?
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