Entering the “new normal”:
a guide to Wessex Translations’ remote interpreting services

As you may have already seen in our previous update, we are really pleased to let you know that we are still open and working as usual during this time. Our in-house project management and quality control teams have successfully moved to home working, while our translators are already seasoned work-from-home pros!

What about face-to-face interpreting?

Wessex Translations has been providing interpreting services for over 40 years in both public services and business settings, including for medical and social services appointments, court proceedings, business meetings, conferences and interviews. Our highly professional interpreters attend in order to facilitate communication, resulting in successful international business exchanges and essential access to information.

But with face-to-face meetings and events being cancelled or moved online, you may be wondering about your chances of being able to obtain an interpreter to assist with your now remote meetings and appointments.

We are happy to be able to reassure you that our usual interpreting services are still available. Our usual team of fantastic interpreters has moved online in order to continue providing the interpreting services that are crucial to many sectors.

We are here to help

Firstly, we are continuing to provide crucial interpreting services so that essential public services appointments can continue to go ahead (such as police, social services and NHS). These services are important to help non-English speakers be heard, communicate easily and have access to information, when they may be in a particularly vulnerable position.

Further to this, we know that many of our commercial customers are working extremely hard at this time to ensure survival of their business and as lockdown is slowly being phased out, may be looking to restart some of their operations – albeit in a more remote format. Our interpreters are available via video or voice call to support your international clients, interpret your presentation or assist with networking, just as they would have done in person. The move to an online service is testament to the professionalism and reliability of our team of interpreters.

Our interpreters are always carefully selected for your assignment according to their specific experience and knowledge of your field. This often leads to successful long-term interpreter-client relationships, with our clients being satisfied with the quality and reliability of the service provided. We are pleased to be able to continue providing this excellent service to our clients during this time.

Telephone Interpreting – an instant service

In addition, we are also launching Telephone Interpreting – an on-demand service providing our customers with immediate access to an interpreter, for those moments where you might find yourself in urgent need of language assistance.

The service is available in over 200 languages, with over 3200 interpreters all over the world, although many are based in the UK and the US.

Once you have created an account, it’s as simple as dialling the phone number, entering your access code and the code for the language you require, and an interpreter will join the line and assist with your conversation, whenever you need it.

While we always recommend booking an interpreter for your meetings and events in advance, enabling us to hand-select your interpreter, we know that there are times when this isn’t possible and immediate language assistance is required. This service is therefore especially useful for unexpected, urgent or out-of-hours phone calls (inbound or outbound) with your non‑English‑speaking clients. And it’s all charged at a simple per-minute rate and invoiced to you at the end of each month.

For further information on the telephone interpreting service or to set up an account, or to enquire about booking a remote interpreter, please get in touch at interpreting@wt-lm.com.

Written by

Ellen Digby