As the world becomes more connected, the need for businesses to expand their reach across cultures and borders has become a necessity and not a choice anymore. But, this brings a challenge of connecting with global customers in their language, which means providing customer support in multiple languages.
According to an ACA study, 96% of customers say they will stop using the product because of bad customer service. One of the factors could be the language barrier. so, where does the answer lie? The answer is that companies should start choosing helpdesk software with multilanguage support.
In this blog, we will walk you through, what is multilingual support. What are the benefits of multilingual support? What is machine translation, what is the need for multilanguage support? and how does machine translation work in the helpdesk?
What is Multilingual Support?
Multilingual support is a customer support that companies provide to improve their overall customer experience. The goal is to overcome the hurdles caused by the language barrier so that customers at a global level can easily communicate and can convey their problems without any language gap.
It can be done in several ways, such as recruiting people who are fluent both in writing and speaking multiple languages , using machine translation software, or outsourcing it to a company that specializes in multilingual customer support.
Irrespective of language, cloud-based customer support is a long journey that starts after purchase. After the purchase is done , a customer might have several questions regarding the product or the purchase, they might not know how to handle the product, or how to use it, might have questions regarding return or exchange, or may experience some problems.
Offering customer support throughout the customer lifecycle and making sure they are satisfied with their purchase and your ticketing system after the product is bought is a way to bring customer engagement, retain them and make them your brand’s ambassador. When your customers come from all across the globe, multilingual support comes in handy that make sure that everyone is receiving an equal level of service quality, without language hindrance.
What Are The Benefits Of Multilingual Support?
Multilingual customer support provides several benefits for businesses that want to extend their presence to a global and more multicultural and diverse customer base. We can’t imagine a company to reach global customers without multilingual support.
The benefits of multilingual support are:
Enhanced customer satisfaction:
Providing customer support in a customer’s mother tongue is a great way to boost customer satisfaction. Offering support in multiple languages helps you serve in more countries and hence helps you expand your global presence.
Wider reach:
Having multilingual service desk system offers your business an opportunity to enter into different markets and demographics. This increases your customer base and there is always a possibility of growth.
Localization:
When you are offering service in different countries, a lot varies in terms of culture, preferences, and sentiments. Localization makes sure that you’re providing multilingual customer support in the most welcome and preferred way.
Better Customer Retention:
Customers whose queries are solved in their native language are more likely to stay, become loyal to your brand and also recommend your business to their friends and family. So, it will become easier for you to retain customers while getting new ones.
Increased competitive Edge:
Offering services in multiple languages like Faveo does, will surely set you apart from your competitors because it shows that your company is committed to its customer satisfaction, no matter where they are in the world.
What Is The Need Of Multilanguage Support?
As we already know that there is fierce competition for going international among the businesses, and with this the demand of multilingual support has increased. Customers prefer to receive support in their mother tongue, and it doesn’t matter where your company is located in the globe.
This expectation not only brings convenience for them but is a way of developing trust, offering clear communication and also customer satisfaction. There are several ways of providing customer support in multiple languages like hiring people who know multiple languages or recruiting native speakers for each country or region but that becomes very expensive and outsourcing it to call centres becomes complex to handle and manage.
But, what will happen when the demand increases during the peak period? considering all these situations, it is feasible to have multilingual support that does not rely on hiring employees who speak multiple languages or outsourcing it to call centres.
And, the solution lies in Machine Translation.
What is Machine Translation?
Machine translation is a powerful tool in helpdesk software that has come to fill the gap caused by the language barrier. By utilising artificial intelligence and natural language processing, Machine translation can translate customer queries and support responses into multiple languages.
How Machine Translation Works in Helpdesks
Language Detection:
When a customer query occurs, the software automatically detects the language.
Translation:
Thereafter the query gets instantly translated into your support team’s primary language.
Agent Response:
Here your customer support team can respond in their native language.
Reverse Translation:
This response is again translated into the customer’s language before being sent.
Quality Assurance:
Many machine translation helpdesk tools integrate a final review just before sending it to the customer.
The entire process helps your cloud-based support team to handle queries from customers worldwide, which increases efficiency and at the same time customer satisfaction.
Benefits of Machine Translation in Global Support
Cost-Effective Scaling
Machine translation helps you scale your support team without the need to hire additional employees for a new language. This makes it possible to expand your business cost-effectively.
Faster Response Times
Translation becomes easier with the quick response of agents to queries with the help of machine translation. This reduces the response time and improves customer satisfaction.
Consistency Across Languages
Machine translation makes sure that the brand’s voice and values remain the same across all the languages, and to maintain the same voice in all the languages is humanly impossible.
24/7 Availability
Machine translation is available all the time, and your customers can get responses at any hour of the day, this is valuable when your business is spread across the globe.
Improved Self-Service Options
Companies can translate FAQs, and knowledge base in multiple languages and offer self-service to customers, which will empower them to find the solution to their problem on their own.
Best Practices for Implementing Machine Translation
To leverage the benefits of machine translation in your helpdesk software, you can take into account the following best practices:
Hybridization
Combine machine translation with human post-editing, this leaves no scope for error and ensures 100% accuracy.
Train Machine translation
Always feed your Machine translation tool with correct terminology so that it becomes more accurate over the period of time.
Implement Quality Checks
Periodically review the system to improve the quality of machine translation by periodically setting the review in your ticketing system.
Educate Support Agents
Provide training to your support agents to write clear and concise answers to queries to get an accurate translation.
Offer Language Options
Always keep an option of switching to human responses if customers are not satisfied with machine translation responses.
Conclusion
Multilingual support using machine translation is essential if you want to expand your business at global level. It helps you reach customers worldwide and provides you an edge over your competitors.
