Most importantly, you need to be coordinated and consistent with your customers, across all their native languages. It’s not safe to assume that every customer is able, willing or comfortable to communicate in English. That’s why a multilingual customer experience is quite simply the last word when it comes to looking after your customers and your business.

There’s no doubt that customers will prefer communicating with you in their native language.

And that ease of interaction has proven benefits. According to ICMI’s 2014 report, 72% of respondents said their customer support satisfaction was increased when it was offered in their native language.

Customer loyalty is hard to win and easily lost. But it can be the making of your company, and continue to provide returns on investment over time.

The same ICMI report showed that 58% of customers said their loyalty to a brand was increased by being offered support in their native language. And since 94.5% of customer service managers said that customer loyalty is important, why wouldn’t your company want to take advantage of it?

According to the 2017 CCW Executive report more than 70% of businesses intend to invest in multilingual customer support. In today’s increasingly competitive market, companies who don’t offer multilingual support will stand out for all the wrong reasons.

Ecommerce has not only changed the way people shop, but has also opened up the geographical locations of customers. A boutique in Reykjavik, Iceland can easily have customers in Tianjin, China. Shipping to worldwide locations can quickly be arranged through a wide range of air, sea and road options.

Offering support in your customer’s native language will not only increase satisfaction for your current buyers, it will also encourage other speakers of that language to make a purchase.

A 2014 Common Sense Advisory report showed that the more language-local content available throughout the customer experience, the greater the likelihood of purchase.

Angry customer communications often arise from frustration - and, understandably, communicating in a non-native language can add to this.

The option of native language interactions may help reduce anxiety, and result in a more relaxed customer. According to Esteban Kolsky, the Principal and Founder of ThinkJar, an advisory and research think-tank focused on Customer Strategies, if customers are not happy, 13% of them will tell 15 or more people. It’s easy to see how a tense, difficult conversation in non-native English will almost certainly be taken into consideration when spreading the word about your company.

The 2011 census showed that 4.2m people in England and Wales spoke a language other than English at home.

By offering multilingual support in these target languages, you can increase positive customer experience by considering the needs of the wider customer base in the United Kingdom alone. © Pole To Win International, 2017.

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