Even before the pandemic changed how we live and work, people from around the world were constantly looking for tools to help streamline their processes. Companies that can provide user-friendly and intuitive tools that workers can start using without previous knowledge or training, will have a leg up when it comes to marketing and selling their products. One way to achieve this is by localizing online tools into a variety of languages. 

Let’s look at a few different ways that you can make yours stand out and how the localization of online tools can come into play. 

Taking Advantage of Helpful Features

Many workplaces rely on communication tools to keep their teams connected from a distance. These tools include valuable features that can help users collaborate on projects, stay organized, and communicate easier. However, if these features are not accessible in a language the user speaks, there’s a chance they can only guess what the feature does or how it can be used. 

Slack is one company that understands the importance of the localization of online tools. They elaborated on their experience introducing new languages to Slack and explained that they don’t just translate the language used in their tools directly, but take regional needs into account. 

Helping Users Work Faster

Users running into a language barrier is one of the easiest ways to slow down their workflow. Many virtual tools allow users to do great work and do it faster. It’s a shame more people can’t take advantage of them because of a language barrier. By providing users with tools in their native language, these apps have the potential to reach more users, increase their revenue, and provide a better experience to their existing customer base, that may be just using the tool as best as they can. When companies invest in localization, they make their tools more effective for their customers, which can increase their use of the tool and their brand loyalty. 

How to Provide Multilingual Customer Support

To take your tools to the next level, offering multilingual customer support can ensure that the majority of your customers have access to the help they need to get the most out of your online tools. While integrating multilingual customer support sounds overwhelming and expensive, it doesn’t have to be. Customer support solutions such as chatbots, working with a translator to conduct customer support over email, and translating key resources (such as help documentation, FAQ web pages, and knowledge bases), are all affordable ways to incorporate multilingual customer support.

The post The Importance of the Localization of Online Tools appeared first on Terra Translations.

If having a multilingual customer support team is out of reach, there are other ways businesses can give their customers the support they need without having to hire a whole team. Before diving into how to implement multilingual customer support, it’s important to remember that “multilingual” doesn’t necessarily mean covering 15 different languages. Businesses can start small by prioritizing the markets they want to target and can add languages as they become more comfortable with the process. 

1. Utilize Chatbots

If you have chatbots on your website that can answer customer questions, it can be helpful to localize these chatbots to your key markets. Chatbots can provide support 24/7 and are less expensive to implement than hiring live customer support. Localization to your target markets is important, as direct translations may not be enough to get the job done and can cause you to run into cultural faux pas or awkward translations. These chatbots can customize your support offerings by collecting data about the issue the customer is having and assigning it to the right team member. This can help stretch your customer support resources farther.

2. Translate Your Knowledge Base

Many websites have helpful Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) pages that their customers can turn to when they have a quick question. If you can get ahead of the most commonly asked questions by answering them on your FAQ page you can save a lot of time and money on live support services. Translating the FAQ page to suit your most popular markets is a great way to offer support across different languages. This is one of the least expensive options for offering multilingual customer support. You can work with a translation team who has native speakers in the language needed on their team to perfect this page.

3. Provide Support Over Email

Phone support can be expensive and customers can get frustrated with long wait times, so it’s a good idea to consider offering email support in different languages where customers can ask questions or send requests. There are integrations that allow these emails to get machine translated so that the support team can understand what it is that the customer needs. They can then write a response and send it to an external translation team that only translates that personalized response. As these are usually short texts, the team can get the translations back very quickly and send it to the customer. By providing translated responses, communication will be improved and the customer will feel more confident that your brand can meet their needs. 

Implementing a multilingual customer support strategy can feel overwhelming, but it’s important to remember you can start small by tackling your top markets first. As your business and resources grow, you can always expand your multilingual customer support options!

The post How to Implement Multilingual Customer Support Without Hiring a Team appeared first on Terra Translations.

Some Industries are Thriving

Some industries are taking a huge hit right now, such as travel and in-person entertainment, but others are thriving. Many of the businesses that were on the rise before are the ones that are holding strong during the pandemic. Food delivery services, online shopping, and streaming entertainment platforms are continuing to provide their convenient services right now. If someone didn’t appreciate these businesses in the past, they are likely to see the appeal now. Nielsen found that staying home can lead to an almost 60% increase in how much content consumers watch, which in theory will increase the demand for access to more content with consumers taking advantage of different streaming services.

Businesses that rely on subscription models, particularly entertainment services, will likely see the largest impact post-pandemic as they may retain their subscribers even once life goes back to normal. Gaining a new customer is typically five times more expensive than retaining a current customer, which means that subscription model-based businesses that fill toiletry, video game, television, or food needs may see a strong business boost from social distancing.

Why Customer Experience Matters More Than Ever

While some businesses may be profiting off our current predicament, others are struggling alongside their consumers. How brands treat their customers during this difficult time will likely have a lasting impact on how consumers interact with them in the future. Airlines for one are suffering massive financial losses right now, but so are their customers. Air travel is notorious for having limited cancellation policies and poor customer service, which consumers are tolerating less and less when they feel their health and financial well-being is at risk. The airlines that have a compassionate customer experience right now will be more likely to build trust with their customers and have them willing to come back once normal travel resumes.

A Global Shift

One way to ensure a positive customer experience, is by making connecting with consumers easier on a global scale. The sharing of information is more important than ever before and through the use of proper translation and localization efforts, you can build trust with your consumers as well as service them in the best possible way.

From a user experience perspective, the entertainment and tech industries in particular could benefit from increased efforts to translate and localize movie and television subtitles, video games, and apps. Many people are turning to self-improvement efforts to pass the time right now, so e-learning course creators may find that adapting their courses to serve multiple languages can increase their potential customer base.

Many businesses can benefit from professional translation services, whether they make their manuals, instructions for use, or webinars more widely available. No matter what industry you work in, we can all agree that bringing more people closer together sounds pretty good right about now. 

The post Current Consumer Behavior Shift Creates Customer Experience Improvement Opportunities appeared first on Terra Translations.