Onboarding a Business Client: The Process

• Aug 25, 2020
• 5 min read

For the last year, PaperTrue has been diversifying its clientele to work with businesses that require editing work. So far, we have collaborated with educational publishers, agencies providing technical content, and educational consultants. We also hope to branch out to manufacturing industries, pharmaceutical companies and translation agencies that regularly outsource editing work. 

One of the main motivations for this shift is the changing landscape of the broader publishing industry. The rise of digitization, coupled with the current healthcare crisis, has opened up opportunities for professionals across the industry to collaborate with each other towards producing better publication material. Establishing long-term tie-ups through outsourcing means that the publisher and editors can focus on their respective specializations to publish better material. PaperTrue, as experts of language editing, are also a part of this phenomenon. 

In this article, we hope to lay out this process between PaperTrue and a business. How does a business sign us up as a vendor? How do we manage businesses as clients? How are contractual agreements negotiated? These are some of the questions that we will answer in this article. 

Signing up with PaperTrue

We usually find our clients either by lead generation or they directly approach us via email with specific requirements. To give them an understanding of how things proceed at PaperTrue, we initially offer them a sample edit. 

While we generally restrict the sample edit to 300 words, we tend to extend the word count for business clients. This allows the company to understand PaperTrue’s internal processes, provides transparency, and allows them to gauge whether we are the right fit for their work. 

Following the sample edit, the firm and PaperTrue proceed to negotiate a contract that is suitable for both parties. Since each firm has its own specific requirements that need to be catered to, this is where there is scope to really plot out the details. Specifics about word count per month, special pricing deals and other logistical processes are negotiated. Due to the nature of flexibility across deals, we do not offer the rates specified on our website. Instead, we offer flexible pricing options that are consistent with the company’s requirements. We also offer discounted rates for larger, more long-term contracts. There are also options for prepaid and postpaid payment. 

The Logistics of B2B Contracts 

Once all the terms and conditions of the contract have been agreed upon, the firm signs a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and the official contract. They are then assigned a point of contact as a project manager from the Customer Service department, who is responsible for communication regarding editing requirements, logistics, and billing procedures. This person would act as a bridge between the firm and the editors assigned to them. A member of the Operations team is also assigned to the firm to ensure that all internal processes and communication is smooth. 

The Editing Process 

As a business client with a long-term contract, your work will be edited on a priority basis. Each client is assigned a team of editors, a Senior Editor, and a Managing Editor. This three-tier system will ensure multiple thorough reviews that will eliminate grammar and language errors, and enhance the overall quality of the text. 

PaperTrue has a three level editing process, each of which focuses on different aspects of editing. 

• Level 1, which is proofreading, focuses on technical issues like grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and formatting. 
• Level 2 editing is more in-depth, and focuses more on language clarity, word choice and coherence within paragraphs. 
• Level 3 focuses on larger structural concerns such as the overall organization of the document and language quality. 

The initial round of editing is standard to all clients. The assigned editor(s) work by the requirements/guidelines that have been specified by the firm, and edit the documents accordingly. Each editor maintains an in-depth stylesheet that contains said requirements and revisions requested by the company. This allows us to understand where we can adapt and improvise our work, but it primarily helps us maintain consistency in format and language throughout all the documents. 

The work is then reviewed by the Senior Editor. In the event that changes to the documents are required, the SE sends the work back to the editors or makes the changes themselves. Once the SE sends their seal of approval, it then goes through to the Managing Editor, who does a quality check. After thorough review from the editors in all three tiers, the work is sent back to the company within the stipulated deadline. The edited document(s) can be downloaded from the dashboard of the firm’s account on PaperTrue’s sites, or, upon request, can be directly e-mailed. 

Post the initial editing process, we hold a feedback session (via call) with the client to address queries and (potential) pain points. The call would generally be held between the points of contacts of the firm and PaperTrue. We discuss feedback and give them more clarity about who we are and the work we do. This call is yet another way for PaperTrue to establish transparency in our editorial and logistical processes. 

This call allows the client to provide positive and negative feedback: whether (and why) they liked our work, how we can further improve it, and solutions for pain points that are negotiated and offered based on what’s suitable for both parties. We also take the opportunity to reexamine the contract to discuss future collaboration and the time-frequency in which they would occur.  

Post-Service Support 

A writer-editor relationship is never a one-time relationship. This is the guiding philosophy that helps us establish systems of post-service support to all our clients. This is why, even after we have delivered edited work, we have open channels of communication with PaperTrue. If anyone should have further queries or grievances, we will be happy to be of service to you via phone, email or chat. Additionally, we also provide a free revision period, within which clients can approach us for further edits. Since our business clients’ documents are edited on a priority basis, our post-service support is also equally prompt in these cases. 

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Rishi

Rishi was a zealous student at IIT Bombay when he realized, firsthand, the power of good language in effective communication. As part of this belief, after a brief stint in a hedge fund, he co-founded PaperTrue in 2014.