The nearly 8.1 billion people living on our planet today speak more than seven thousand languages. While most of these languages are spoken by a large population, some are spoken by only a few individuals. 

Language issues can be somewhat challenging. You understand that communication is key to your interactions with clients; thus, how can you improve their experience by incorporating multiple languages into conversations? 

Multilingual customer support is the ticket!

An effective strategy for breaking into new markets and retaining existing ones is providing services in multiple languages. This is becoming increasingly clear to many growing companies seeking innovative CS solutions. 

Communicating with your clients only in their language will help your business. While this may provide a rapid return, it demands spending and resource allocation.

Even though 25% of the global population using the internet speaks English, it is far from the most prevalent language. To enter new markets, businesses must staff their customer service departments with individuals fluent in more than one language or seek assistance from a skilled BPO.

Today, we’ll review some of the benefits of multilingual support and how your company may use them to grow.

But first, let’s get into some basics!

Multilingual Support – Brief Introduction

Customer service available in more than one language allows businesses to meet the customer’s needs in a better way. Part of the process involves responding to questions and fixing problems via different mediums, such as phone, chat, and email. 

Offering multilingual support is a must for businesses with a variety of customer bases. It helps establish confidence as well as devotion among customers.

Business success depends on communicating with consumers in their local language. Multilingual support guarantees customer satisfaction because customers can receive service in their chosen language. It also facilitates entry into new markets, which broadens a company’s potential clientele and ultimately leads to more sales and expansion.

By accommodating varied language preferences, businesses can enhance their worldwide customer service, customer experience, and relationship building. Any company looking to improve its customer support management would benefit from having multilingual support.

Thanks to developments in NLU and machine translation, it is much simpler for multinational corporations to improve their multilingual assistance. These tools allow businesses to translate texts swiftly and understand spoken language. 

Language Barriers: Challenges to Global Business Growth

Companies face tremendous difficulties overcoming linguistic barriers as they aim for global expansion. The multiplicity of languages spoken worldwide complicates effective communication with prospective clients and business associates from diverse linguistic origins.

Being limited to just one language limits a company’s potential customer base, which is a major barrier. They limit their growth potential by being unable to interact with different audiences and tap into new markets since they only speak one language.

When people deal across borders, language barriers also make mistakes and misunderstandings more likely, costing a lot of money. Companies that want to grow into new languages have to pay more for translation services, which are not cheap.

Businesses must find ways to overcome language challenges if they want their communications to reach customers worldwide.

Client turnover is partly fueled by language hurdles and prolonged by a lack of multilingual clients. Here is how it might influence your brand:

• Language limitations lead to a lack of clear communication and understanding. Customers might get the wrong message or representatives may give them incorrect information, which could lead to unpleasant results.
• Customers may feel frustrated and have a bad experience if representatives cannot effectively communicate with them because of language barriers. This, in turn, reduces the likelihood of repeat business and support for the brand.
• Intercom found that 29% of companies lost clients because of a lack of multilingual support, highlighting the importance of sales KPIs and the potential loss of business possibilities.

Consider Shopee as an example. Since the company is dedicated to helping customers in multiple languages, it has become a leader in the Philippines’ online shopping business.

Reasons Your Company Needs Multilingual Content

CSA Research indicates that most online shoppers, specifically 76%, are inclined to purchase from businesses that provide information in their native language. But that’s just one benefit out of several that we will discuss below! 

Companies can get even more from multilingual support by considering the following:

1. Promotes Developments in Revenue

Multilingual customer support is an important advantage because it can significantly boost sales. 

Online purchases will account for 22% of total retail sales by 2024, up from 18% in 2020, as reported by Statista. Customers can easily go from one merchant to another if unhappy, unlike when only physical shops were available. 

Suppose you own an online store selling products on Amazon and wish to enter a new country or region. In that case, you’ll need to hire a multilingual staff and translate all of your content to accommodate customers who speak languages other than English. This could potentially double or triple an online retailer’s sales growth.

2. Widening Horizons Around the World

The benefit of multilingual marketing is likely most apparent in this case Translating your marketing materials into multiple languages improves your communication with various audiences from different cultures. It lets you reach more people and gives your business more ways to make money.

Consequently, your chances of seeing an increase in both company growth and revenue are highly increased. However, be aware that information in multiple languages expands your audience worldwide and can introduce you to new cultural markets in your backyard.

3. Improving Efficiency and Saving Funds

An affordable solution to address customer concerns and assistance requests at all times, multilingual chatbots, are available 24/7. Automating routine processes and answering frequently asked questions can help businesses save time and money. This reduces the pressure on human support staff.

Hiring and training multilingual human agents is no longer necessary because chatbots can manage client queries and provide service in multiple languages. Businesses may boost customer happiness and loyalty with a multilingual chatbot because it streamlines operations and allocates resources more effectively.

4. Ensuring Customer Happiness and Devotion

Think back on your comfort when you found out someone in a foreign country could speak your language. Enter the corporate world with that same mindset. Communicating with clients in their original tongue goes beyond merely meeting their needs. It forges an emotional bond!

Consequently, consumers who have shopped with you before become devoted patrons, and those who have shopped with you again become enthusiastic brand champions.

Poor customer service is the reason why 80% of consumers are ready to switch brands, according to studies. Seventy per cent of consumers are more loyal to companies that provide support in the language they are most comfortable with. Companies must offer strong support in the native language(s) of the regions they enter if they want to grow there.

5. Enhanced Interaction with Customers

Your chances of getting your target audience to engage with your brand may increase if you make content in their language. More than anything else, it helps you keep customers by making valuable relationships with them.

If you express something in a language people can understand, they are more likely to accept and interact with it. You should also know that offering customer service in multiple languages is a great way to get new customers and keep your current ones.

6. An Edge over the Competition

A strong competitive advantage might be yours when you can communicate in multiple languages, especially where your competitors might not provide multilingual material. Ultimately, it distinguishes your company as an approachable and customer-focused brand. Providing content in a customer’s favorite language is a certain way to win them over.

Snickers, a well-known international chocolate brand, has a marketing plan for the Indian market. They saw a meteoric rise in sales after adapting their marketing slogan, “You are not you when you’re hungry,” for the Indian market. 

The strategy’s heading is “Hunger acche acho ko badal deta hai,” which means “Hunger gets to the best of us” in Hindi. This meant the tagline was better suited for their target market in India.

7. Enhancing the User Experience

Another benefit of using multilingual content is that it removes hurdles caused by language. Visitors from other countries and those without a working language knowledge can easily use your website and get the necessary information. 

Consequently, if you want your website visitors and customers to have a great experience, investing in multilingual content is a good idea. 

Plus, they’re more likely to have a pleasant and trouble-free experience if they can use their local language to explore your website and obtain information. It has the potential to improve client retention and increase conversion rates.

How Asia Exemplifies in Multilingual Customer Support

The Importance of Multilingual Customer Service in Asia

Success in any market requires strong communication skills; this is especially true in Asia, with its diverse and linguistically rich landscape. Businesses that want to succeed in this region must provide multilingual customer service because many languages are spoken there.

Success in today’s multicultural marketplaces hinges on clear and concise communication, and Asia is a prime example of the importance of linguistic diversity. Even while English is the de facto global language, it could fall short when it comes to satisfying the varied language requirements of Asian customers. 

Given the wide variety of languages spoken today—including Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Bengali, Vietnamese, Thai, and countless more—it is crucial to assist clients in their native languages.

Bridging Linguistic Gaps with BPO Services

Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms’ multilingual customer support services have become an invaluable tool in the fight against this problem. These services provide support in various Asian languages 24/7, recognizing the importance of smooth interactions between businesses and their broad Asian audience. This makes clients feel valued and understood.

Beyond Customer Satisfaction: Building Cultural Bridges

Support for multiple languages has far-reaching effects beyond making life easier for customers. In addition to increasing happiness, bridging cultural boundaries and forging a deeper emotional connection with the company is possible through providing support in consumers’ home languages. 

Loyal customers are more likely to stick around when they know their needs are being prioritized by their favorite brands. It is important for breaking into new markets, leading to more return customers and positive word of mouth.

Real-World Asian Examples

Below are some big business names that hail from Asia and make the best use of multilingual support:

1. Alibaba

Alibaba Group, a massive e-commerce platform in Asia, offers multilingual customer service to ease foreign transactions. This has resulted in massive revenue growth for Alibaba and its sellers alike.

2. Grab

Grab is a Ubur rival and a tech unicorn based in Southeast Asia. The company is best known for using chatbots in its app. These bots can speak multiple languages to help users which improves efficiency and streamlines support processes to some great extent.

3. Samsung

Global technology giant Samsung is one of many companies that places a premium on providing multilingual customer service. When companies value language diversity, customers are more likely to have an emotional connection, which boosts happiness and loyalty.

4. Honda

To connect with people worldwide, Honda, a well-known car manufacturer, uses multilingual content methods. Providing information in multiple languages lets Honda connect with customers worldwide more deeply, which builds trust and loyalty.

5. Laneige

The Korean cosmetics company Laneige gets an advantage over its competitors by offering materials and services in multiple languages. With a plan focusing on the customer, Laneige stands out from its competitors and brings in a wide range of customers daily.

6. Agoda

Agoda, a Singapore-based Asian-centered travel platform, prioritizes multilingual content to enhance the user experience. Agoda makes sure that visitors from all over the world can easily use their platform by giving information in multiple languages. This helps keep customers longer and increases the number of people who love the business.

Conclusion

Providing customer support in multiple languages is necessary for any business looking to expand internationally in today’s thriving digital economy. Sales could decline and customer loyalty can fall without multilingual support, leaving competitors’ doors open to steal customers. 

It is evident from the above benefits that conversing with clients in many languages can give you a competitive edge. In the end, it will help your company stand out in a crowded global market without sacrificing the personalized service that customers crave. 

That is exactly what Asian giants like Honda, Samsung, Grab, Alibaba, and Agoda are doing!

Continue to go above and beyond for your clients by enhancing your multilingual support and clearing out ways for global expansion!

Author: Greg.B

Executive with 25 years of proven success in call center management and revitalizing business units. Proven career record of producing multimillion-dollar profits through pinpointing operational inefficiencies and encouraging the revitalization of employee morale and corporate culture change.