Imagine this.
You just started expanding your business reach outside of your main office’s location.
One day, a client called asking for help, but they were speaking in Thai, a language that’s foreign to you and your in-house staff.
Unfortunately, during that five-minute call, your support rep was having a hard time understanding the client and eventually failed to address the client’s concerns properly.
Realizing that your staff is not prepared or knowledgeable enough to speak in her native tongue, the client is left disappointed and decides to hang up the phone knowing that it would probably take forever to receive any solution to their problem.
There are several businesses whose market consists mostly of English-speaking individuals.
Don’t get this all wrong, though. Since English is the most universally spoken language, a support team that is well-versed in speaking this language gives you an edge in establishing a strong rapport with your target audience and lays a foundation for a successful customer help desk in a globally competitive market.
At the same time, the lack of versatility over different languages can be very dangerous and counterprogressive. The failure to fill in these lapses can compromise your overall user experience. You need to know that expanding to a multiracial audience and work setup means you need to cater to audiences of all languages. Keep in mind that aside from English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani are some of the most frequently spoken languages across the globe.
Communicating with someone who speaks a different language beyond your team’s fluency can disrupt the fluidity of your operations. This is especially true when it is a technical concern that requires troubleshooting or a step-by-step resolution. True enough, there are clients who may have some background in speaking English, yet their limited vocabulary and accent may make it a challenging feat for customer support agents to understand what they are saying.
If you want to expand your business beyond your geographical area, the need to have multilingual capabilities is important now more than ever. If you don’t know where to start, this blog might be of great use!
Read on to know why you need to incorporate multilingual capabilities into your existing customer support, learn how you can benefit from it, and figure out the ways to get started!
Why Add Multilingual Features?
Here’s a quick overview of the most notable reasons why you should consider embracing the advantages of adding multilingual features:
1. Heightened Customer Experience
With the capacity to establish a personal approach with your international customers through responding with their native language whenever they reach out to you, customers will feel valued. Doing so significantly improves customer retention as well as increases the likelihood of them choosing your brand over your competitors.
2. Improved Marketing Structure & Better Branding
Leaving a lasting mark as a brand on a multicultural landscape may prove daunting. The global market is so diverse that cultural differences can affect the way customers perceive your brand.
Meanwhile, adopting multilingual features allows you to bridge the gap between your agents and your target audiences. It is useful in gaining a deeper understanding of how to stay aligned with globally inclined preferences.
Operating through different languages unlocks flexibility. When you have flexible operations, it allows you to create better branding and more relevant marketing approaches that are capable of catering to all types of demographics.
3. Coverage Extended to the International Market
The internet is a great way to establish connections from one foreign business to another. But relying solely on the English language is a rather obsolete (pardon the exaggeration) way to engage with prospective clients from non-English speaking countries. Ideally, you wouldn’t want to demand more from your customers. Instead, your goal should be to engage them instantly by showcasing that you have a good grasp of their native language.
What can you benefit from having a multilingual customer help desk?
This might be an overstatement. You’ve probably heard it or read it from other blogs, podcasts, and videos. But what can we say? Adding multilingual capabilities into your customer support help desk reaps tons of benefits. Still in doubt? Allow us to break it down for you.
1. Strengthen Customer Relationship
Albeit providing high-quality products and services are the key components to propel your brand to success, they are rather small contributors when it comes to fortifying your customers’ loyalty toward your brand.
It requires more than offering top-tiered items and assistance.
Remember, customers are your business’ lifeline. That is why providing efficient, accessible, and fast services proves instrumental in retaining loyal customers for your business longevity.
As such, incorporating multilingual capabilities into your customer support help desk allows you to accommodate and deliver quality services to more diverse individuals which then allows you to strengthen your relationship with your customers.
2. Improved Sales
A multilingual customer support helpdesk gives you the capacity to reach a broader group of potential clients. Since you can cater to different people on a global scale, it is easier for you to build awareness for your brand. In return, it boosts your business profitability at a significant rate
3. Cost-Effective
Forget starting from square one when acquiring customers. As you begin to scale your business reach in the global market more easily, it is easier for you to improve your international customer retention capabilities. By possessing a loyal and international user-base, your business saves more money.
4. Leaves an Impact on Customers’ Perception
Being able to engage with customers using the language your client feels most comfortable using changes how your customers perceive your brand. Not only does it leave a huge impact on their purchasing decision but also gives you an edge to stand out among your competitors. People will associate authenticity with your services, giving you a simple yet effective way to cast a positive shadow on your brand.
5. Enhanced Productivity
Language barriers can heavily hamper your productivity. Using multilingual support is a powerful tool to break any language barrier present and diminishes the frustration alongside it. You don’t have to (embarrassingly) use Google Translate or take forever to get to the bottom of your customer’s concern. Consequently, it heightens your support team’s productivity, becomes more efficient when addressing customer concerns, maintains consistency in delivering high-quality services, and ultimately, speeds up your operations.
6. Reduce Errors and Misunderstandings
Perhaps one of the major drawbacks of not having multilingual capabilities is the inability to control margins of errors. When your team’s language fluency is limited to one, the higher the chances for errors and misunderstandings to emerge.
Fostering communication channels where your agents can speak with clients using their native language decreases the risks of committing errors when addressing their concerns. With a more scalable multilingual workforce at your disposal, the easier it is to reposition your client help desk support to handle different segments of customers in this multiracial setup.
Go Multilingual!
You might be wondering why some businesses in countries such as India, Brazil, Malaysia, and the Philippines are flourishing with multiracial audiences. By now, you must also be asking yourself the question: “What’s their secret for having such surges of international clients?”.
The answer is simple: They maximize the advantages of having multilingual features in their customer support services.
That is not to say that you should expect fast results. Perfecting multilingual services takes patience and a gradual process of carefully choosing where to invest. Take time to gain knowledge from your experiences. This will prove instrumental in predicting your next strategic move.
Of course, never say never. It is not yet too late to embrace this innovation. All you have to do is gain knowledge of how to use it accordingly. To help you get started, here are three noteworthy tips to consider if you are planning to adopt multilingual contact centers.
1. Get Familiarized with the Setup
Your support team must be acquainted with your clients’ needs. Remember, you are now operating outside your demographic boundaries. Most foreign-born clients struggle to communicate using English alone.
If you see that your current customer support team can’t cater to a particular language, the best course of action is to trace where all your foreign traffic is coming from. What countries generate more sales? What countries have the least sales generation? Does your support team have a hard time speaking with your clients?
Taking these factors into account will help you scale your team and reposition them to channels where you get the most sales. Use this as a stepping stone to reach other countries. By that time, it becomes easier for you to hire competent candidates to handle channels that generate the least sales. This chain reaction will effectively help you leverage your brand to be more efficient in your current working setup.
2. Resort to Native Speakers
International clients vary from one person to another. Some prefer English when engaging with your team, some may be knowledgeable speaking basic English, but may ultimately prefer speaking using their native language. Some clients can be very meticulous, too. They favor speaking with a representative from their country of origin. Say, a client from China prefers to speak with a native Mandarin speaker.
The reason being that they feel more comfortable when communicating with someone who can speak using their native tongue. When establishing multicultural communication, your agents must consider adding the proper tone, a vast vocabulary, and appropriate racial customs into the equation. That said, tapping or hiring native speakers proves essential if you want to maintain global competence.
3. Utilize Chatbots and Live Chat
Staying ahead on a multiracial setup can be very challenging. Your human operators can only work on a given time frame. It can be very overwhelming for your in-house workforce to provide 24/7 assistance.
Thankfully, advancements in technology have you covered. With the emergence of conversational AIs, you can utilize chatbots and live chat software that support smart translation tools to handle inbound inquiries even during peak hours. Best of all, these communication tools can take over once business operations are over.
Not only does it highlight convenience and ease of access, it also provides quick resolutions to your clients. Moreover, some chatbots and live chat widgets can be optimized to support languages depending on the client’s browser language or country. It is useful in providing proactive assistance to clients in a sense that bots can handle repetitive queries or translate concerns in foreign languages in real-time, while your agents prepare viable solutions for your customers. All in all, it will make your in-house efforts much easier.
The Multilingual Magic
Language shouldn’t be an obstacle to reach global success. Rather, it should serve as the bridge to gain global competitiveness.
Adopting multilingual contact centers may give wonders to your business. From improving your customer rapport, generating more sales, to enabling you to leave global footprints—the benefits of incorporating multilingual capabilities into your customer support service are almost endless.
The capability to be one with your target clients is essential in gaining leverage and competitive advantage. It is true: Magic lies in satisfying and delighting your foreign customers’ sophisticated demands with efficient and conversational customer assistance.
But bear in mind, always be sure to improve your existing multilingual capabilities from time to time and devise smarter ways to go beyond your customers’ expectations. See to it that you have a rich knowledge base to cater from one language to another. Doing so secures and fortifies your position to help you thrive and survive this globally competitive landscape.
This does not stop here. There is still so much to learn on how to be globally competent. But we’ll leave that to you. As your business grows, you will be acquainted with the different ups and downs of expanding to a multiracial working setup. All you have to do is to adapt and break those barriers.
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