Multilingualism refers to the ability to speak more than 2 languages. According to the Journal of Neurolinguistics, more than 40% of the world’s population is bilingual, whereas more than 15% are multilingual. But to tap into the diverse demographic, how do companies leverage bi/multilingual strategies?
Let’s find the answer!
Multilingualism in Customer Services
Multilingualism in customer services refers to the support staff’s ability to communicate with the customers in more than 2 languages. This unique element makes any business customer-friendly.
Examples
We have several examples of companies and businesses incorporating multilingual customer services. Airbnb’s ‘#OneLessStranger’ campaign was a part of their marketing tactic that allowed people to share their experiences in their own language. Their Machine Translation facility translated and displayed the content seamlessly.
Amazon supports several languages on their platform with each location having a dedicated website. A few internet providers allow customers to communicate in different languages.
Cox, a US internet provider, is an example that does not only offer support services for Spanish customers through Cox Servicio al Cliente en Español but also has a dedicated support team for hard-of-hearing customers!
How Companies Handle Multilingualism?
Multilingualism has so much potential and companies are already taking great steps to implement it effectively:
1. Leveraging AI Tools
AI chatbots in customer services are already making waves in the industry by enhancing positive customer service interaction and reducing the workload for the team. However, companies are also using AI tools to calibrate multilingualism.
These AI tools use machine-learning algorithms and learn from the patterns of communication used during the chat. In addition, using Natural Language Processing (NLP), the bots can quickly understand the context and switch languages accordingly.
The agents use these tools to calibrate chats as well as minimize the workload, allowing the AI bots to handle most escalations. The bots understand the extent of the problem and relay only the important tickets to the agents.
2. Engage Diversity
Providing multilingual customer services means creating a diverse team. Agents from various backgrounds are added to the team, which fosters a sense of pluralism within the team.
3. Demographics-Based Targeting
An organization cannot provide support in all languages. Hence, in order to support multilingualism in customer services, companies carry out a demographical analysis. This includes analyzing the market and the customers that the company is targeting.
It’s one of the common processes of every organization that wants to enter a market. The analysis helps companies pinpoint the languages to incorporate within their customer services.
A detailed analysis shows which language is more important to incorporate to expand the customer base. For instance, English is the most common language used for customer communication.
In addition, this assessment elaborates on high-impacting languages. From the most spoken to the one with the most ticket volume, companies use this evaluation to determine the best pick for the company’s dynamics.
4. Multi-Channel Integration
Implementation of multilingual customer services across various channels is another challenge for companies. In terms of multi-channels, the company decides on the feasibility of the system.
From email to phone call interactions, and chat support to social media communication, companies implement multilingual chatbots to ensure seamless implementation. The chatbot used is decided based on its compatibility.
If the chatbot chosen is not compatible with multi-channel systems, then it’s of no use. Hence, organizations ensure that the bot chosen has cross-channel integration. Once the bot is integrated, it’s trained using the data of the company i.e., package information, queries received, etc.
5. Monitoring and Optimizing
The administrator keeps checking on the chatbot’s performance for all stages (before and after the launch). This is done to ensure that it performs optimally according to the company’s requirements.
Suppose, a company is focusing on Spanish customers during certain hours. At the designated time, the administrator ensures that the bot(s) remain functional across all channels. This process also includes robust performance tracking for several reasons:
- Ensuring optimal performance
- Managing issues
- Picking up insights for improvements
As highlighted earlier, the bots require training, which is why companies spend a great deal on training these bots to perform effectively.
Wrap up
Multilingualism is one of the prominent ways of engaging customers, and companies are now leveraging it to perform better than their competitors. Using the abovementioned methods, the companies handle the requirements as well as balance performance and customer satisfaction effectively.
