What is the standards gap?
The standards gap occurs when you produce English content based upon existing German content. Invariably the German content gets all the attention, leaving the English content to be second-best. Although the German content may meet your business standards, the English content may not.
The standards gap may widen in situations when:
English content is translated by several different translators over time
This may create inconsistency and a lack of cohesion.
English content is hurriedly written by in-house staff
In-house staff may not have the linguistic skill, writing ability, time, or patience, to produce English content that attains your business standards.
English content is translated by machine translation and AI
Machine translation and AI can introduce errors, omissions and hallucinations into the text whilst sounding impressively fluent to a non-native speaker. This significantly increases business risk if it is not reviewed by a professional translator, as the fluency of the text makes it sound very convincing, even though the meaning may have been changed or lost.
Why does the standards gap matter?
If the standard of your English content is not consistent with your business standards international visitors may perceive the standard of your business to be lower than it should be. This gap could be dragging your business standard down.
Guests may opt out of your services
A standards gap could put visitors off participating in your services. If customers do not fully benefit from the services they have pre-paid for it lowers the perceived value of your offer.
It could lead to misunderstandings
A standards gap could mean there are discrepancies in your English content, which could lead to embarrassing exchanges with visitors, who may have understood your content differently than you intended.
It could dissuade potential visitors from booking
A standards gap could mean that your English website and online marketing content does not position your business on a par with your competitors, which could lead to you missing out on international bookings.
