CRM implementation for a translation agency: an exclusive interview with the CCO of MK:Translations

Companies that specialize in translation and localisation services have very specific customer relationship management needs. On one hand, they need to maintain constant contact with their clients, address their issues, and respond to inquiries. On the other hand, they must efficiently manage a large volume of orders, monitor project deadlines, and ensure proper execution of work. How can they control the quality of all these processes and even more?

A CRM system becomes an essential tool for optimizing and increasing the productivity of a translation agency.  It brings the automation and systematization of many processes: managing the customer database, tracking order statuses, analyzing work results, and much more.

In this article, we will examine a real-life example of CRM implementation in the leading Ukrainian localisation and translation company, MK:translations. We will talk to the agency’s CCO, Serhiy Ventskovskyi, to learn about the results and the impact it has had on the team’s work.

Serhiy Ventskovskyi — CCO MK:translations

• How did the MK:translations company originate and grow?

The history of MK:translations began in 2014 with the opening of the translation bureau Mister Kronos. It was a small business with a few employees, focusing mainly on translating personal documents. Over time, the market and customer requests changed, we gained experience, and saw opportunities for further development. Therefore, the focus shifted to servicing businesses—both Ukrainian and foreign. The translation bureau evolved into the modern translation company MK:translations.

New services have been added and the number of executors has increased: 80% of our regular translators are native speakers from different countries and time zones. Popular requests now include website localisation, localisation of games and applications, translation of audiovisual content and specialized translations (legal, economic and financial, industrial, medical, artistic and marketing).

At present, MK:translations  also helps companies to promote themselves in foreign markets by providing multilingual copywriting services, SEO optimization of websites for different markets and development and implementation of marketing strategies. Leading Ukrainian and foreign brands are among our clients. 

How did you realize that implementing a CRM system was necessary for the further development of the company?

As the company grew, we faced a number of challenges, the most important of which was the unstructured and dispersed data about customers and their needs. This had several negative consequences:

1. Difficulty in interacting with customers and the absence of a unified system for tracking and maintaining their history.
2. Time lost in searching for the data you need.
3. Increased number of manual operations.
4. Reduced efficiency of internal communication between company departments.

All of this made it difficult to work with customers and led to inconsistencies in service and delivery. We realized that without systematization and automation, we risked losing potential opportunities and damaging the company’s reputation.

At the beginning of our optimisation journey, we chose Terrasoft’s CRM, but due to an unprofessional integrator, we spent almost a year and over 5,000 euros (a significant amount at the start of the war) and ended up with stress and fear of losing the entire database we had worked on for 8 years. Later, we realized that it was important to consult CRM implementation professionals right from the start and to analyze the systems that did or didn’t fit our processes and tasks. Nevertheless, thanks to a great team, our brains and our experience, we were able to overcome the situation and come out even better than we planned at the start.

What was the CRM implementation process like for MK:translations?

CRMiUM’s  integrators share their experiences:

MK:Translations asked the CRMiUM integration team to help us select and implement a solution that took full account of the company’s specific needs and requirements. It was necessary to ensure a smooth transition from the previous CRM, in particular Bitrix24, to a new one, while preserving all initial information.

The first step was to conduct a thorough analysis of the company’s business processes, focusing on their specifics, marketing strategies, customer relationship management methods and sales. This made it possible to determine that the most optimal solution would be to implement Pipedrive CRM, with Zoho Analytics serving as a crucial addition for data analysis and visualization.

In addition, our team successfully implemented the following:

1. Described methods and logic for integrating Pipedrive CRM with the Protemos billing and process management system, ensuring full automation of translation and localisation processes. This optimised data exchange and ensured their seamless operation.

2. Implemented three main sales funnels in the CRM, which complement each other and allow for effective management of all sales aspects and predictable growth:

• New customer sales funnel: Identifying customer needs, presenting products or services, agreeing terms of collaboration and closing deals
• Sales funnel for existing customers (support/accounting): Provide technical support, manage current orders, resolve issues and agree changes to existing contracts
• Cold sales funnel: Generating leads on LinkedIn, contacting prospects, developing relationships and converting them into customers

3. Set up an online chat using Lead Booster to ensure communication with website visitors and capture prospects

4. Connected Ringostat telephony. Set up UTM tag transfer through call tracking and information about the website from which the call was made

5. Configured advertising and sales reports and dashboards in Zoho Analytics, integrated with the client’s various advertising cabinets and Pipedrive CRM

6. Configured reports and dashboards for advertising and sales in Zoho Analytics, integrated with various advertising cabinets of the client and Pipedrive CRM

Thanks to a comprehensive approach to CRM implementation, MK:translations significantly improved the efficiency of its business processes.

MK:translations – Results and Plans

• How do you see the impact of CRM implementation on your team and working processes at the translation agency?

CRM implementation helped us organize and track interactions with clients, speed up request processing, keep a history of inquiries and important project details. We have several ways of receiving orders: email, phone calls, messengers, forms on the website, and now all requests flow into the CRM, minimizing the risk of losing a lead.

We can better understand customer needs and requirements, create more personalized and tailored offers, manage sales funnels, set up email campaigns, collect reports and track key performance indicators. CRM has also improved internal communication and collaboration within the team, as all necessary information is centrally available and easy to find and share when needed. Specialists from different departments are involved in project execution, which increases productivity and reduces potential errors in work processes.

• Do you plan to expand integrations with other programs or services to further improve your CRM’s functionality? 

We have ambitious plans to scale and enter new markets, so in the future we need to enhance the CRM by integrating with tools that help us work more efficiently with leads, such as Intercom, Missive, Leady and others.

Integration with Microsoft Teams (where all internal team communication currently takes place) will make it easier to plan and run meetings, as information about deals, people and projects will be available to all specialists involved.

We are also interested in integrating with LinkPort or LinkMatch as we see LinkedIn as a powerful lead generation tool.

In conclusion:

Considering the above case, it is important to highlight that every business has its own unique characteristics, so CRM implementation should be based on a thorough needs analysis and meet the specific requirements of the business. Some organizations may require a wide range of system capabilities and additional integrations to efficiently manage a large volume of orders, automate processes and ensure easy access to customer data. Others may only need basic functionality to achieve their goals. In order to select the most relevant solution, we recommend using the services of professional integrators such as CRMiUM.