[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
Welcome to this video-lecture of Live Text Access:
Training for real-time intralingual subtitlers.
This is unit 4. Entrepreneurship and service competence.
Element 3: Business strategies.
My name is Julia Borchert and this lecture
is about professional interviews with customers.
The materials are created by SUBTI-Access and ZDF Digital.
This is the learning outcome: The trainee can prepare himself/herself
to conduct professional interviews
with customers and potential customers.
We will explore the topic by means of looking first
how to do a good preparation, a detailed briefing before the job
and in the end how to do a debriefing with your client after a job.
Let's start with the preparation.
Once you have identified potential customers,
the contacting comes next.
What do you need to consider before a first initial call?
Check all the previous activities of your customer on the internet.
Check the website to understand their potential needs.
Try to find out a direct contact person and number.
Observe in advance the following facts:
Calling around 09.30 in the morning or 14.30 in the afternoon
is quite often a suitable time.
Remember all details of your calls:
Like names, numbers, date, content and the next steps.
First check if the call suits your customer,
if you do cold calling for example.
Cold calling is a method of creating a business connection
without any prior contact.
What is your goal for the call?
Get in contact, present yourself, inform them about a new skill,
new developments in your field of industry?
And what are your key skills?
Deliver a good opening pitch.
The first step of the call is to introduce yourself.
Some people advocate the 7-second rule,
where you must introduce yourself, your company, and your purpose
in 7 seconds, otherwise you will lose the client.
After your short opening pitch try to find out
where your customers' needs are, by starting to ask questions
with care instead of starting your presentation.
Try to adjust your proposal, presentation or services.
Ask about their current operations.
Ask if they would benefit from your service.
And ask if they would be open for a follow-up call.
Leave your contact details.
Do not forget to put your address signature in emails.
This can be programmed in your email program to always occur.
Conclude with tact.
And after the initial call send a thank you note and a review.
Let's take a look at the briefing before a job with your client.
When you have convinced the customer to use your service,
it's important to make a detailed briefing.
You need to clarify every detail:
when, where, how long, the budget, the languages.
What is needed? What technical limitations?
Timing, partners involved, speaker booth available,
and reproduction rights.
Discuss with your client when the cost estimation should be presented.
Which output formats are needed?
All technical requirements.
What version of the subs is needed:
Maybe full text, slightly adjusted or condensed?
What is the main objective of the event?
Any need to adjust the live subs after the event?
What does the client needs afterwards?
A text, key notes or a script?
Before starting, ask for special vocabulary available,
or names of representers or other useful things for your preparation.
Talk about a possible testing or a rehearsal
and if special equipment is needed at the booth.
Try to discuss every little detail.
For example, that background noise should be avoided
or the parking situation,
security, registration, clearance of rights,
such as exploitation rights or anything else.
Now the debriefing.
Before you dive into your next event,
it is important to review the previous one with an event debrief.
An interview with the client after the job is very helpful
to improve yourself and to stay in contact with the customer
and maybe to receive a follow-up order.
Questions for the event debrief will better help you
to get the feedback and valuable insights.
Ask yourself and the client:
What went well and what was not optimal?
Based on this analysis, areas for improvement can be determined.
Record identified successes, lessons learned and the next steps.
And when asking what can be improved, possible answers can be for example:
the quality of the operation, the team constellation,
the technical equipment, or the method itself.
For a final and detailed identification of key successes
and lessons learned ask yourself and also the client
questions like these in addition:
How did we utilize technology at this event?
Was it a success?
What would you like to see happening at similar events in the future?
What were some triumphs at the event?
How can I replicate these successes in the future?
Were there any setbacks beyond your control?
Summary.
You never know what will happen when you meet a potential customer
for the first time,
and that uncertainty can lead to anxiety.
To make initial calls more comfortable
being well prepared is key.
When you have convinced the customer to use your service,
it's important to make a detailed briefing to clarify all details.
Before you dive into your next event,
it's important to review the previous one with an event debrief.
Exercises.
The exercises for this video lecture are in the Trainer's Guide
and the PowerPoint file.
Thank you for your attention.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
LTA - LiveTextAccess.
Universitat Auonoma de Barcelona.
SDI - Internationale Hochschule.
Scuola Superiore per Mediatori Linguistici.
ZDF Digital.
The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People - EFHOH.
VELOTYPE.
SUB-TI ACCESS.
European Certification and Qualification Association - ECQA.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Erasmus+ Project: 2018-1-DE01-KA203-004218.
The information and views set on this presentation
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the official opinion of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained here.