4 Reasons to Offer Multilingual Customer Service

If you are just getting into the global marketplace, you might be wondering if it’s worth it to include multilingual customer support in your budget? The answer is a resounding yes! There is an obvious benefit to your local customers in that they get to interact with your business in the language they’re most comfortable with. However, multilingual customer service also provides powerful benefits to your company. The following describes four of the most significant rewards you’ll gain by investing in multilingual customer support.

It Builds Trust and Loyalty

When you invest in multilingual customer service, you foster a feeling of loyalty on the part of your customers. People are more likely to purchase from a company that offers post-sales support in their own language. Also, providing multilingual support encourages trust in your product or service and leads to brand loyalty. It’s not hard to see why when you put yourself in the customer’s shoes as follows.

• When you want customer service from a company, you need to be able to communicate clearly. You want to believe that your concerns have been clearly understood, and you want to be able to completely understand the service rep’s response.

You Get an Edge Over Your Competition

Providing multilingual customer service will help you compete with your rivals who are offering the same level of service and give you an advantage over those who aren’t. Remember that buying isn’t just a logical decision; emotions come into play too. This is especially important if you operate in a highly competitive or over-saturated business environment. Think about how many times you have chosen a product that’s slightly more expensive because you got great service or because you were provided with better support options.

It Can Lead to Greater Sales Opportunities

Offering multilingual customer service does not only improve relationships with your customers, but it can also expand your marketing opportunities. For instance, by only providing information or support on your products in English, you’re seriously placing limitations on your ability to attract more customers. For example, if your business operates in the European Union, you may have potential customers from 28 different countries browsing your website or app. By not catering to the language needs of these different customers, you are basically denying yourself a whole lot of potential sales.

Efficiency and Productivity Are Increased

Many businesses rely on phone contact for sales and customer support. If telephone communication is straightforward and easy, you cut down the time spent on a single customer. The faster you can close the sale or provide support and move on to the next customer, the better it is for your bottom line. Something as simple as an accent can create misunderstandings and add unnecessary minutes to a call. By investing in a team of multilingual employees, you minimize these kinds of errors and maximize the productivity of your entire company.

• Note: This also goes for written communication, such as email or chat.

Native Multilingual Customer Service

When offering multilingual customer service, it’s essential to use native speakers of the local language. Native speakers are able to interact with your customers by speaking their language fluently. This greatly simplifies communication between you and your customers and makes for a more natural customer service experience.

• The Japanese, for instance, much prefer speaking with native Japanese speakers and easily pick out non-native speakers. Another example is Switzerland, where Swiss German speakers prefer a native speaker rather than a German speaker from Germany or Austria.

Start Expanding Your Customer Service Today

The above are just a few ways your business will accrue benefits from providing multilingual customer support. Translating your customer support material is crucial to customer success! If you’re ready to collect these rewards, contact Localize today. At Localize, we pride ourselves on providing international businesses like yours with top notch localization tools.