When we think about multilingual customer service, we see an obvious benefit to the customer. They get to interact with your company in the language they’re most comfortable with. But what if we told you that providing multilingual customer service options also provides huge benefits for your business? Well, it does. Multilingual customer service is a two-way street, offering tailored support to your clientele and powerful business advantages to your company. In this article, we explore 4 of the biggest benefits of investing in multilingual customer service.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER
Before we start, here are some important points to remember.
NATIVE IS BEST
If you’re offering multilingual customer service, do so using native speakers. Native speakers have a natural command over their language, allowing them to interact with people freely and fluently. This simplifies communication between you and your customers, and ultimately makes for a more natural customer service experience. Apart from that, you may also find that buyers in some cultures simply want to talk with a native speaker, regardless how well-trained your non-native rep may be. Speaking with the Harvard Business Review, Priceline CEO Darren Huston once explained that the Japanese, for example, are really good at picking out non-native speakers, and simply prefer to speak to native Japanese speakers instead. The same happens in the UK and Europe. Swiss German speakers, for example, usually prefer speaking with other Swiss staff than German speakers from Germany or Austria.
DON’T FORGET YOUR WEBSITE
When we think about customer service, we often think about interacting with customers directly via phone, email, chat, or in person. But it’s important to realize that your website is actually a really powerful customer service asset as well. The internet is a part of our daily lives. Whether we’re browsing home deco ideas or scheduling a plumber, chances are we’re doing it online. And while many people like interacting with a customer service rep in person, others also like getting their answers quickly and easily over the internet. This is especially true among younger demographics. Most younger consumers are more likely to check your website for answers before they try to contact you via phone. Hence, you’ll want to make sure your website offers the most comprehensive support possible. And going multilingual is an important aspect of doing so.
4 REASONS TO INVEST IN MULTILINGUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE
Now that you understand the importance of using native speakers and expanding your multilingual approach to your website, here are 4 benefits to investing in multilingual customer service.
1: IT BUILDS LOYALTY AND TRUST
One of the greatest benefits of investing in multilingual customer service is this: You strengthen the loyalty of your customers. Statistics from a 2014 report show that 74% of customers were more likely to purchase from a company that offered post-sales support in their language. The same report also found that over 58% of businesses that offered multilingual support had customers that were more loyal to their brand because of it. And when you think about it, it’s not hard to see why. Just put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
When you receive customer service from a company, you want to make sure you’re able to communicate clearly. Whether it be a complaint or simple troubleshooting, you want to make sure your concerns are clearly understood while also making sure you completely understand the company’s response. Being forced to communicate in a language that you’re not 100% comfortable with makes for an unenjoyable customer service experience, no matter how good the service or rep really is. By providing multilingual customer service, you eliminate that problem and allow your customers to get clear support, which ultimately allows them to place more trust in your products, services, and brand.
2: IT GIVES YOU AN EDGE OVER THE COMPETITION
So, we’ve made it clear that multilingual customer service helps build customer loyalty and trust. What if we took it a step further and told you it could also help you beat your competition? Here’s how. Customers value their business and they expect the same from the company they’re about to give it to. This is because buying isn’t just a logical decision, it’s an emotional one too. How many times have you chosen a product that’s slightly more expensive simply because the salesperson or staff members provided you with great service? Or how many times have you actually chosen a product simply because the company provided better support options than its competitors?
It’s undeniable; customer service influences us as buyers. And by investing in multilingual customer service options, you’re giving yourself a major advantage over your competitors. This is especially true for companies working in highly competitive or over-saturated industries. If you can offer customers tailored support in their choice language, you greatly increase the chances of them choosing you over your competitors.
3: IT EXPANDS YOUR SALES POTENTIAL
Offering multilingual service goes far beyond improving your relationship with your customers. It can also greatly expand your market opportunities. You wouldn’t start an online men’s shoe store that only stocked 3 shoe styles in 4 different sizes, right? After all, you know that men’s foot sizes and tastes vary greatly. Instead, you’d want to stock a wide variety of styles in a variety of sizes in order to maximize your sales potential. Well, the same goes for customer service. By only offering support or information on your products in English, for example, you’re seriously limiting your ability to acquire more customers.
However, by conducting some basic research on the language trends among your target audience and tending to those results, you have the ability to expand your business much further. This is especially true for European online businesses. In Europe, it is very common to order products from neighbouring countries and have them delivered. That means that, even though your business is based in The Netherlands, for example, you may have customers from Germany, Italy, Spain, and even the UK all browsing your stock at once. By not catering to the language needs of these different customers, you’re basically saying ‘no’ to a whole lot of potential sales.
4: IT BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY
We’ve focused a lot on the sales and revenue benefits of offering multilingual customer service. Now, we’ll clue you in on how it can also make your business run more efficiently. Many businesses rely on phone contact for sales, customer support, and other forms of communication. And one of the biggest goals of phone communication is driving down the time you spend on a single customer. The quicker you can make a sale or provide support and move on to the next customer, the better.
One of the best ways to maximize your time when speaking to customers over the phone is to speak their language. Something as simple as an accent or misunderstanding can scramble up content and add valuable minutes to a call. By investing in a dedicated team of multilingual employees, you can minimize these types of errors and ultimately maximize the productivity and efficiency of your entire company. Note: This doesn’t just apply to phone communications. It also goes for written comms like email or chat support, as well as the content of your website. The faster you can communicate to your clients, the better.
START EXPANDING YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TODAY
Above are just a handful of ways your business can benefit from multilingual customer support. If you’re ready to take the leap and harness these benefits for yourself, contact us today. At Yuqo, we pride ourselves on providing online businesses like yours with everything they require to meet the language needs of their customers. From design to writing and translating, our expert team can help you communicate quickly and effectively with your customers. Check out our website for more information about our services; speak with one of our friendly staff members to start localizing your business today.
