Unbabel Blog

Translating foreign-language support tickets has never been easier.*

#unbabel

Unbabel for Zendesk is a productivity app that enables Zendesk agents to respond to support tickets in their customers’ native languages.

Agent workflow is unhindered by the additional translation functionality: a foreign language support ticket arrives and is accepted by an agent who machine-translates it into her preferred language, allowing her to immediately understand her customer’s need. She can then compose her reply in English and Unbabel it so that her customer receives the response in his most confident language, simplifying her workflow and increasing his satisfaction.

Long gone are the days of relying on Google Translate to answer your customers’ most difficult questions, like what music to listen to or when Justin Bieber will hit puberty. Unbabel for Zendesk frees you up to detective actual problems, like the mystery of the bouncing, exploding ball.

Curious? Intrigued? Dying to translate support tickets?

If you’re interested, have any questions, or just want to show us some love, be in touch with us (in any language) at [email protected]!

Your customer support agents can all be multilingual

Using Unbabel's Zendesk app, customer support agents will be able to communicate with customers in various languages, while (1) everyone reads and writes tickets and responses in their native language and (2) the agent's workflow remains essentially unchanged. 

The workflow

Imagine your agent receives a ticket in a language they don't understand. 

With the push of a button, they can get an instant machine translation of the ticket.

This allows the agent to get a basic understanding of what the customer is asking.

To reply to the customer, the agent uses the internal note adding #unbabel before the answer.

The agent then submits the ticket exactly as they normally would.

Within minutes Unbabel posts the human translation as a public reply, responding to the customer in their native language. The agent does not have to return to the ticket to post the Public note.

This process is repeated until the ticket is resolved.

Without the #unbabel the internal note works "as usual". With the #unbabel, the internal note is translated to the original ticket language and posted as a Public reply.

What you end up with is a set of alternating public / private comments in which the public ones are always in the client's language and the private ones are always in the agent's language. 

Notice that since the usage of the core Zendesk functionality stays the same, any customizations you have made to your Zendesk install (triggers, other apps, etc.) should continue to work as they did before.

Sign up for the beta program

So we’ve got a translation API. Big deal. It’s not about having the API, it’s about what you can do with it!

Here is a cool integration we built this week. Hope you like it.

The project is open source on Github here.

Why would you want this?

Are you collecting information using a Google Form? Are you sourcing content from multiple places and aggregating it on Google Docs? Do you scrape content from one place, save it on Google Docs and use it somewhere else? (By the way, our friends at Kimono are great for scrapping stuff.) Are you an excel addict, who just needs to see it all organized in lines?

No matter what the case, with this tool you can use Google Docs’ Excel to order and collect translations.

5 steps to use the Unbabel Translation API to translate using Google Docs:

create your spreadsheet

create an Unbabel account (if you don’t have one yet)

top up your account (daaah...)

send us your the information so we can sort you out

use!

Step 1 - Create your spreadsheet.

Name each column (you will not be able to change that) and decide which column you would like to translate.

Let’s say you are crawling twitter for your fans in Turkey.

You know they’re name, location, number of followers, etc, but what you really want to know is their description, you want to understand who they are and why they are following you, and how to get more like them!

So from this list, you want to translate column C.

Share this spreadsheet with [email protected] (you’ll need one spreadsheet per language.)

Step 2 and 3 - Create an account and top it up

Create an Unbabel account and top it up.

Step 4 - Send us the request and information

Email us at [email protected] with the following information:

your Unbabel email

your Unbabel API key (it’s at the bottom your dashboard page)

the exact name of the column(s) you want to translate

Step 5 - Use

We’ll give you access to a page like this one.

Where you can request the translation of your sheet, see the status of the translations you requested before, and request more (as you add more lines to your spreadsheet).

As lines are sent to Unbabel, a status column at the end of the spreadsheet shows you what's going on.

And the translated information will appear on the columns to the right, in this case, just one column to the right.

That’s it. Crowd Translation One Click Away!

In a recent YCombinator diner a mentor described how in the early days of a company's life it is important to find out who are our friends and who are our enemies.

At YC we've found many friends! Founders and companies who have been using our product, giving us feedback, inspiring us everyday to work harder and better as we grow Unbabel.

Airpair is one such friend. We're happy to be part of the Trusted Partner Community Experts being launched today. You can learn more about it on Airpair's Blog and on Techcrunch)

Why are we in it? 

Unbabel is an online translation service with built-in smart machine learning and community-based crowd translation. The Unbabel API is a REST API that allows you to order translations and get them back via an endpoint. Our cofounders João and Vasco want to help you get started both with crowd translation and with using our service.

Eager to start communicating with your users in different languages?

What is localization?

Localization describes the process of adapting a product to a specific language or culture so that it seems natural to that particular region. True localization extends beyond simple translation, and includes language, culture, customs, technical and other characteristics of the target locale (1).

The web has opened doors to new international markets, and created a global platform for communication, collaboration, and expression. While making information available in other languages and taking cultural differences into account requires good planning and execution, for the benefits to be profound you need to engage with your users in their language too.

Research Supporting Localization (2)

Nearly 30% of the U.S. economy is now engaged in international trade.

50% of U.S. growth since the end of the recession in 2009 has come from exports.

Globally, 72.4% of consumers are more likely to buy a product with information in their own language.

56.2% of consumers say the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.

A 5% increase in customer retention rates can increase profits from 25% to 85%.

How Does Localization Lead To Growth?

By using consumers’ preferred language and factoring in cultural norms, companies are able to dramatically increase their market size and potential revenue.

Benefits of localization:

Make products and services available to a larger audience

Increase customer confidence in the product or service

Decrease likelihood of market loss from a competitor

Increase customer retention through community building among groups who share a language and culture

Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with regional search engines

“This year, a company will be able to speak to 80% of all internet users by translating content to 11 languages.” (3)

The Localization Process

When choosing a localization strategy, businesses should consider financial implications in addition to quality requirements. Before translating and localizing your website, it’s important to determine in which locales your efforts are most likely to provide a good return on investment. Will you translate to spanish, portuguese, or other languages/markets? The next step is to begin the localization process for those markets.

4 Steps to Localize your business:

Translation

Cultural Consideration

Ensure your localization strategy is consistent with your brand

Put in place the tools to translate dynamic content (emails, on F.A.Q., forums and social media.)

Translation

The first step in localization is translation into the target language. That’s now easier than ever with Unbabel’s translation solution. Unbabel is able to achieve a cost-effective, reliable translation by combining machine-powered with human-powered crowd translation methods. Every text is reviewed by at least three native bilingual speakers to ensure accuracy.

Cultural Consideration

In presenting your brand to another country, it’s often necessary to adjust the tone of your messaging as well as visual and text presentation. Different locales place importance on different factors. For example, while some countries appreciate in-depth explanations, others prefer a strong visual. Some cultures are primarily focused on individual gain, while others value the advancement of the whole.

Brand Consistency

It’s important to consider your branding in the localization process. In creating your marketing strategy, decide where you want to prioritize localization and where maintaining your brand’s core messaging is essential.

Communicate

From the moment your website is localized, users will expect you to speak their language. Make sure you have the tools in place to communicate with your users by email, on social media, forums, etc, so as to really increased retention rates. Unbabel can help you in those communication needs with seamless integrations using our API and simple translation requests by email.

PS: yes, we know, the unbabel.com website is not localized. It will be and we'll post here about how we do it! :)

notes:

GALA, “What is Localization?” (http://www.gala-global.org/view/terminology?page=5)

2 Rosetta Stone, “The Business Risks of Language Barriers” (http://corporate.rosettastone.com/content/business-risk-of-language-barriers-infographic)

create an Unbabel account

top it up

forward the email to [target language country code]@translate.unbabel.co, e.g. [email protected]

Below is a detailed step by step guide.

--

Translating a small piece of text, like an email, a facebook post or a 500 word blog post can be more cumbersome that writing the initial content itself! This is because you need to take your content from one place to the other, copy-paste multiple times, fill in forms, log-in, log-out, in some cases you even have to pay minimum fees, so translating 15 words is just not a possibility.

Our focus is to make the translation process as smooth and seamless as possible.

So, if you want to translate an email, what if you email it to Unbabel?

Here is how to order a translation by email at Unbabel:

Your international user base is growing and you have localized your app. Your users write to you in their own native language.

Here is a typical email you might receive:

In many cases, a quick google translate translation done like this...

...will be enough to understand the problem.

So now all you need to do is answer. You go ahead and write the email in english but...

.. the thing is, machine translation just doesn't cut it when it comes to sending the text.

The resulting text sounds machine like, unprofessional, and sometimes it’s plain wrong…

So the solution is super simple: unbabel your email.

Email to PT for Portuguese, EN for English, FR for French, etc. You can even request the translation into several languages at the same time.

Delete the text you don’t need translated (like your signature) and click send. The Unbabel Crowd Translation community will get to work right away.

And then go get a cup of coffee, take your lunch break or a power walk, and your translation will probably be ready when you come back.

Before you go, you will want to check your inbox for a confirmation email, like this one:

The translation itself will arrive looking like this:

Easy, peasy!

PS: Currently we translate the following target languages:

To translate to English, email it to [email protected]

To translate to French, email it to [email protected]

To translate to Spanish (European), email it to [email protected] 

To translate to Portuguese (European), email it to [email protected]

Crowd translation is an approach to translating texts that harnesses the speed of multiple individuals working on a text concurrently. There are many different flavors of this approach, and consequently also many different perceived advantages and disadvantages. Let's examine the differences between crowd translation and traditional translations, and also shed light on the specific approach to crowd translation used at Unbabel.

The Rise Of The Translation Industry

As the web is helping make the world smaller, the needs for translation services has risen dramatically. The translation industry was valued at 34 billion US dollar per year in 2013, and has been growing at 20% per year over the past 4 years*.

Web companies compete in a global market and neglecting to expand into international markets can lead to copycats and competitive challenges down the road. Consequently companies need to provide localized versions of their services and interact with their customers in the local languages via email, on blogs, forums, wikis. But internationalization can be a costly and lengthy process, especially if the only options are hiring employees who speak several languages or paying $0.10 or $0.20 cents per translated word**.

The translation industry is ripe for disruption and numerous innovative translation models, one of which is crowd translation, are now challenging the traditional translation approach.

What Is Crowd Translation?

Crowd translation allows large projects to be broken down into smaller segments and distributed to a large group of people who produce the translation. It has been used by large web companies such as Facebook and Twitter and is many times equated with Community Translation, i.e., translation done by the users of a web product. In opposition, traditional translation services refers to professional, certified translators, who work individually on each project.

Speed - The most fundamental difference between crowd translation and the old translation method is that the later is considerably slower. This is because the time to complete the job is directly related to the number of people working on it. Crowd translation enables more people to work on your project concurrently, and as a result it is completed more quickly.

Cost Effectiveness - Crowd-sourced translation services harness bilingual individuals, many times un-vetted. This makes crowd translations considerably less expensive than traditional translation services that employ professional translators only.

Criticism of Crowd Translation:

Quality - Crowd translation is often considered the best option for projects where timing is more important than quality. The involvement of a large number of people, not all professionals, poses additional challenges to the quality assurance process.

Consistency - When crowd translation is the only step in the project workflow, there is potential for inconsistencies between the different bilinguals who are translating.

Management - Involving a crowd means managing a crowd, hundreds, maybe thousands of people who have doubts, need help and have different availabilities, personal goals and motivations. Specific tools are key to ensuring success.

How we deal with Crowd Translation at Unbabel

Who are the translators?

Unbabel selects bilingual individuals by a 2 step testing process. Initially each user is given five translation tasks used for evaluation of the user's ability in his or her selected language, which is followed by a period of evaluation and feedback provided by the community itself. The continuous feedback loop allows the crowd to learn and assures only the best users access paid translation tasks - currently only a little over 10% of the Unbabel total users has access to paid tasks.

Two-step Translation Workflow: The Best of Both Worlds

Step 1: Machine Translation Unbabel uses a machine translation to get an initial version of the text in the target language, which reduces the amount of human effort required for the translation.

Step 2: Crowd Translation Unbabel gives the machine translation to several "editors" who submit changes sequentially. Each editor corrects ambiguous words, grammar, and makes the text sound natural. Having more that one person work on each piece of text dramatically increases the final quality.

By starting with machine translation, Unbabel significantly reduces the amount of time the translation process takes. Using multiple vetted editors that edit until the translation is complete, enables us to deliver crowd translation you can trust.

Translating from English to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Turkish just got easier!

Get Started Here.

* Source: Language Services Market: 2013, Common Sense Advisory.

If you just want the goods here they are. For more info, keep on reading.

Here is the Unbabel API Documention 

Request a sandbox API key here or send email to [email protected]

Here is the Unbabel API Python SDK

Human Corrected Translations for 1 cent per word

For most companies, translation is a growing cost of being online. Hidden within every startup with an app in multiple markets, within every company that has a presence in more than one country, is the very expensive effort of making their content accessible to everyone. The localization and translation process is cumbersome, inefficient and very costly. We are trying to change that.

We combine machine translation with a crowd of humans that correct the output of the machine translation. Our goal is to use technology to reduce the amount of human effort required in the process and use distributed crowd translation to create efficiency.

One really cool thing about this is that it is not designed for professional translators only. We aim to include all bilinguals in the process, thereby giving anyone in the world who speaks more than one language, the opportunity to practice, translate interesting content and potentially make some money in the process.

This combination of humans and technology reduces translation prices to one tenth of the market average, increases the speed by 10x and maintains human quality levels.

Game Changer Low Price

We believe that the only way to democratize access to information in multiple languages is to provide quality translation at a very low cost. And the only way to do that is to use technology to make the process extremely easy for the humans in the loop.

We are starting with a shockingly low price because we believe we can make it worthwhile for our users, but our main focus is quality, so we will be experimenting with various factors to understand how to provide the best possible quality at the lowest possible price.

A big step forward in achieving this vision is creating easy ways to request and use translations.

Until now at Unbabel you could order translations on the website and via email. Today we are launching a beta version of our translation API.

Translation API

With the Unbabel API you can get text translated for 1 cent per word. We believe this is a game changer for translation, and that it will create entire new markets of content available in multiple languages.

The Unbabel API is a REST API that allows you to order translations and get them back via an endpoint.

In order to use the API in production:

Register at Unbabel

Top up your account.

Download the python SDK or use your favorite library to handle requests

Here is how you request a translation:

curl -H "Authorization: ApiKey username:api_token" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://www.unbabel.co/tapi/v2/translation/ --data 'data'

Where data is a dictionary with the text, target language, and some other options. Here is an example:

{ "text":"This is the best translation API ever", "target_language":"pt" }

Find out more in the documentation here. 

Signup for the beta here or just send an email to [email protected] to request an API key for the sandbox.

We currently have an SDK in python, but if you create an sdk in different languages, let us know, we would love to share that with the rest of the community.

Happy translations!

We're happy to announce we're rolling out a new Unbabel website.

Improvements include:  - You can now buy translations online. - You can request a translation just by sending an email. - Editors now have payments and have cash-out options.

What's so cool about Unbabel?

We made requesting a translation really, really, really, simple! As simple as sending an email: 

Create an account and top it up at www.unbabel.co

Send us the text you want to translate by email*; don't attach it as a separate document, send the text on the email body, as you would if you were writing to someone

... there is no 3, that's it! We're taking care of your translation, you'll get it back by email really soon.

What was that * up there? 

Currently we support the following target language orders by email: To translate a text to French, email to [email protected] To translate a text to English, email to [email protected] To translate a text to Portuguese, email to [email protected] To translate a text to Spanish, email to [email protected]

Unbabel's translation tasks are translated by a machine before being edited by the community. What makes a good edit?

Machine translation is far from perfect. It it will remain this way for a very long time. Human language is full of ambiguity, rich with culture, idiosyncrasies and paradoxes. A software to translate written text can only go so far. Its needs human help in several areas:

correct ambiguity: is right correct or on the right?

clarify gender: is it a he or a she?

don't translate names, brands, and places, even if they are the same as "normal" words

pick up on spelling mistakes

make it sound like something you would say

Unbabel is a platform is a Machine Translation Engine and a Crowd of Human Editors. 

In practice, each text is first translated by a software program, and then corrected by human editors. By editing the output of the software, Editors make sure the message has the same meaning as the original, can be easily understood and sounds natural. Basically, humans help the machine. 

Unbabel brings human quality translation to content that was virtually impossible to translate until now such as emails, wikis, forums and other user generated content. But, what's in it for the community of editors?