Poll: Do your clients use messaging services like WhatsApp or Telegram to communicate with you? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do your clients use messaging services like WhatsApp or Telegram to communicate with you?".
View the poll results »
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All my clients communicate with me by email. I’ve used occasionally Whatsapp to communicate with colleagues. I haven’t used Skype since my daughter returned from Mexico last year…
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:26
Spanish to English
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I prefer e-mail for everything. I don't even like using the telephone nowadays. And I rarely answer phone calls when I'm working.
Having said that, one client tried to contact me via WhatsApp and phone yesterday. I politely reminded him that I prefer using e-mail so that I have a record of all the details (my memory is getting worse the older I get). He was very understanding.
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 17:26
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Mostly just to remind me of a mail | Nov 22, 2022 |
My telephone number is known to clients, and so I have had clients contact me via WhatsApp out of the blue to ask me if I've received their e-mail. I then fire up my computer, read their mail, and respond to their mail with a mail.
I don't use my phone for mail (not for sending messages, anyway), but I do have a mail app set up that downloads my mail and gives me a notification whenever something comes in.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:26
Member (2008)
Italian to English
question "Do your clients use messaging services like WhatsApp or Telegram to communicate with you?"
No.
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My clients get in touch with me via email, except for only two, who are personal friends. And I prefer it that way.
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John Silva
Brazil
Local time: 12:26
English to Portuguese
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I like to keep the communication via email.
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Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 17:26
Member (2016)
English to German
Usually it's all via email.
However, I've been involved in projects with several other translators working simultaneously, and we used a Skype chat to communicate amongst ourselves, which was very helpful. Sometimes, the client chimed in.
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One client in particular likes to check with me on the phone before settling details with an end client, and there have been others over the years who use the phone.
But apart from that, they use e-mail, which suits me fine! I can see the text, think about it and answer when I have time.
I dislike smartphones and apps - they distract me and do not always respond to my fingers! My phone lives a life of its own when I am not looking, I am sure of it.  ... See more One client in particular likes to check with me on the phone before settling details with an end client, and there have been others over the years who use the phone.
But apart from that, they use e-mail, which suits me fine! I can see the text, think about it and answer when I have time.
I dislike smartphones and apps - they distract me and do not always respond to my fingers! My phone lives a life of its own when I am not looking, I am sure of it. 
[Edited at 2022-11-22 10:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Definitely yes! | Nov 22, 2022 |
Many of my clients (if not most) contact me via WhatsApp. They even send me their files via WhatsApp, or just send a message asking me to check their email.
I used to dislike it, but I had to get accustomed. In some
cases, I tell them that I cannot send any specific information as to the cost because I am not in my office, and they understand it.
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| Keep 'em separated | Nov 22, 2022 |
Agree with another post about keeping a "paperless trail" with emails.
As to WhatsApp, I use this only for faraway family and friends. Of course some of those friends are French and will let me know they're referring me to a client, but that client invariably contacts me by email.
No thanks to blurring professional and personal! (I would never last at one of those tech giants that likes to make their offices so attractive that employees.... never.... go... home...)
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jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 11:26
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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Claudia Aguero wrote:
Many of my clients (if not most) contact me via WhatsApp. They even send me their files via WhatsApp, or just send a message asking me to check their email.
I used to dislike it, but I had to get accustomed. In some
cases, I tell them that I cannot send any specific information as to the cost because I am not in my office, and they understand it.
Maybe that's because WhatsApp is more popular where you are based. It is not much used in the USA.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 17:26
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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jyuan_us wrote:
Maybe that's because WhatsApp is more popular where you are based. It is not much used in the USA.
Yup -- I sometimes have to adapt content for my target audience during translation due to assumptions made by American authors about how the world works. E.g. whether sending an SMS or receiving it is free or charged to the sender or the recipient. It makes sense that it would be true the other way around as well. https://www.basicthinking.com/usa-whatsapp-unpopular/
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