Every year an average of 3,000 new words are added to every language. That means that if you service customers in five different languages you stand to lose 15,000 words a year if your translations are not correct.
On Oct. 2, we had the opportunity to talk about language, translation, localization and customer service with Greg Stoller of the Boston University Questrom School of Business on the “Language of Business” show.
During the show, which can be viewed here, we spoke with Stoller about what can happen when a company fails to focus on providing customers with quality translations. Quite simply, poor translations affect revenue, customer experience, and can increase customer service costs.
As Language IO Co-Founder Kaarina Kvaavik explained, “If you speak Japanese and all your transactions are in Japanese, you’re more likely to buy your product from a company that speaks your language than one that doesn’t.”
By speaking the right language well, you can actually draw customers to your businesses, which positively affects revenue.
“If you can provide information in your customer’s language, they will be much happier,” Kvaavik explained. “This means they may not only become repeat customers, but may also bring other customers to you.”
Finally, customers who can get service in their language on your website by reading well translated frequently asked questions (FAQs), might not have to contact your support team for information. As many of our clients have seen, this often translates to cost savings.
“We have one client that provides multilingual customer support in nineteen languages using our software, which has reduced their support costs by more than 40 percent,” Kvaavik said.
Kvaavik speaks of Language IO’s software suite that produces human and/or machine translations directly through customer relationship management (CRM) systems so customer service agents can translate responses in real-time.
In addition to helping international companies, Language I/O also helps companies that only serve US-based clients. With more than 30 million people in the US speaking Spanish, the need for domestic translation services has increased.
To hear more about translation and how it can impact your business, contact us!