Serving a global audience across many different communication channels and content mediums can prove a massive challenge for organisations. The responsibility falls to marketing departments to ensure the company’s branding and messaging remains consistent, yet relevant, to their local markets.
Through this upcoming series of articles, I will take a deep dive into some of challenges faced by marketers looking to sell and support their products and services in global markets. For the first article, I will look at the importance of real-time translation and how it can improve the customer relationship.
Introducing the importance of real-time translation
Communicating with non-English speaking markets has consistently been a challenge for UK businesses, and thanks to social engagement tools like Twitter, Facebook, chat sessions, web-based communities and forums it has become even more complicated.
Analysts estimate that more than 90 percent of all online community content is in English, but 72 percent of community visitors are not native English speakers. In addition to this, only 20 percent of non-native English speakers are comfortable with English-only support.
When looking at the data, it’s hardly surprising that 80 percent of customers would prefer to deal with an issue or query relating to a product/service in their native language. Communication across borders in different dialects is certainly not a new challenge for businesses. Previously, there were two options available to help address the language barrier. The first, set up costly, local contact centres and hire multilingual or native-speaking agents. The second, force customers to partake in English-only conversations and risk damaging the customer relationship.
Today, organisations that serve consumers must learn to embrace new communication mediums on a global scale, otherwise, companies risk alienating a buyer who has a host of alternative options available.
Building brand loyalty across global markets requires organisations to connect with their customers at an individual level. It might sound simple but supporting customers in their native language is a great way to make that connection. By investing in real-time translation strategies, organisations can improve their customer relationships and help drive ROI.
So what options are available for businesses looking to adopt a real-time translation strategy?
The most popular choices for businesses include: traditional Machine Translation, employing multilingual online chat agents or real-time translation software.
Human translation is a superior option, but it’s cost- and resource-prohibitive, and hard to provide in real-time at scale. Traditional Machine Translation (MT) is a more cost effective option and appropriate for large scale projects; however, real-time communications on chat forums or social media sites tend to include short-hand or abbreviations that can be difficult for MT solutions to register. Real-time translation software or automated translation is built specifically for online community applications and is more suitable for rapid response or high-trust situations, rather than individual projects.
Real-time translation solutions will not only safe-guard your company’s branding and help to keep messaging consistent, it could also go some way to improving customer relationships. Regardless of the method, the benefits to businesses and customers are undeniable. Data from the 2014 Parature State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey, found that 65 percent of consumers surveyed abandoned a brand after just one poor customer service experience. Offering support in a customer’s preferred language will help the customer differentiate your business from other sellers or service providers. If you have invested in real-time translation solutions ensure you make it known to your customers. The security of knowing they’ll easily be able to communicate any issues or queries could be the tipping point for a potential customer.
Immediacy and ease is key for customers. If you are promoting real-time communication responses it’s imperative businesses respond in a timely fashion. In addition, community users often use short-hand, abbreviations, or branded terms in their communications. They’re also less cautious about spelling and punctuation therefore your translation solution needs to be equipped to deal with these nuances.
If you are dealing with a non-English speaking customer, it’s likely they will have experienced past frustrations relating to communication and language translation. Whether you choose real-time translation software or decide to employ online chat agents, communicating in their local language can help meet and often exceed your customer’s expectations, resulting in brand loyalty and repeat business.
By Emma Durant, Global Marketing Strategist at Lionbridge.
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