Importance of Multi-Lingual Customer Service
The advantages that your customers will enjoy when you offer multi-lingual customer service almost go without saying. After all, you’ll be providing valuable customer support to all your customers, whether they’re native English speakers or not, and that is an obvious benefit to them. But what you may not realize is how your company will benefit from providing that support as well. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important to provide multi-lingual customer service.
Customer loyalty
There’s no faster way to build a loyal base of customers than to provide top-notch after-sales service. For your non-native-English-speaking customers, that means offering customer service support in their native language. And when you have loyal customers, they’ll be much more likely to be return customers, even if your competition offers the same product or service for less money.
You’ll beat the competition
Speaking of competitors, providing customer service support in multiple languages will keep you one step ahead (at least) of your competitors who don’t. Remember that clients and customers don’t just choose who they’ll buy from based on price. In fact, studies show that how much you’ll pay plays only a small role in which company you’ll choose to do business with. Particularly in this day and age, when we all work in a global marketplace and so many of our customers – whether inside this country or not – speak a different language, providing to notch customer service support in your customer’s language will bring those customers back to your company (and NOT your competitors) time and time again.
Increase employee productivity
It’s a simple fact and one that many of us have experienced as consumers: if a customer service rep doesn’t speak your language fluently, it can take a LONG time to resolve an issue over the phone. Not only is that frustrating for the customer, it also means that your customer service personnel will be spending an inordinate amount of time on a single customer. When it comes to after-sales support, the more customers we serve, the better, so making sure your employees can communicate in the language of your customers will boost the productivity levels of those workers.
Increase sales
Providing multi-lingual customer service is only one part of the equation. If you’re going to serve non-native-English-speaking customers after the sale, then why on earth wouldn’t you support them before the sale? Make sure your website is multi-lingual as well, along with your product descriptions, packaging, instructions, etc. Remember that customer service support is much more than having employees answer phone calls. In fact, your website can be one of your most valuable customer service tools. Just think about how often your customers will visit your site for a variety of information about both buying new products as well as to find out more about products they’ve already purchased. Providing a multi-lingual website will, without a doubt, increase your sales.
As you contemplate all the advantages of offering multi-lingual services to your customers, the task of achieving that may seem daunting. But you’re not in this alone. In fact, when it comes to providing multi-lingual services of any kind, it’s best to leave this job to the professionals. Interpreting and translating isn’t just about converting one language to another – it’s also about being aware and respectful of cultural differences between people who also happen to speak another language. That’s called localization, and it’s a vital part of providing any type of multi-lingual support to your customers.
The best place to start down this multi-lingual road is by contacting a reputable translation company – preferably one who employs native speakers who have some experience within your industry. Explain your needs, and let the professionals at the translation company take it from there. It may take some time, but the rewards you’ll receive from becoming a multi-lingual company will be worth every minute!