If you’ve taken the time to translate your website to reach customers in other countries, you’re likely aware that there’s no “one-and-done” when it comes to translation.
Not only is it crucial to make sure your content is localized, it’s also important to have it localized to specific regions (especially important in languages like Spanish where slang and a lot of the language changes depending on the region you’re in).
Common Sense Advisory found in their study “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” that an astounding 75% of non-native English speakers are more likely to buy something if post-sales support is in their own language.
And interestingly enough, this holds up regardless of a person’s proficiency in English. People who speak no English are 77% more likely to make a purchase, while even confident English speakers are still 64% more inclined.
Websites, user reviews and post-sales support were the most important content to localize. You may well do the first, but do you do the rest too?
If your business relies on recurring purchases or your LTV is higher than just one purchase, you should seriously consider offering customer support in your customers’ native language.
Offering tailored, individual support for your customers is a sign of respect, and it’s one that won’t go unnoticed. In addition to pleasing your user base and increasing sales, it’s also great for your reputation (which pretty much always leads to more customers and more sales — but you knew that).
FAQs and Email Support
A good starting point for almost any business is an FAQ or Help Center. In general, they can reduce your customer support resources, especially if you get the same questions from people over and over again. And, if your money is tight, you can consider starting with FAQs for now and explore other options down the line if you need to.
Find out how you can automatically translate your Zendesk content with Unbabel.
The next most common is email support. This allows you to offer individualized help to your customers and it’s generally convenient for both sides. There are two good ways to do this: the first is to hire a multilingual support team.
The second is, of course, to use Unbabel, which provides fast, fully integrated translations of customer support emails. This is definitely the most efficient and cost-effective way to offer multilingual support.
The third is… well, you could assume everyone should just speak English. Good luck with that.
Source: https://unbabel.com/blog/multilingual-customer-support/