Due to the current business climate, global expansion may not be at the top of every organisation’s to-do list. However, as companies look toward the future, growing your business globally might become a top priority. It’s no secret that scaling your business will be challenging. Not only will you have to conduct thorough research of the new market, but you’ll also have to understand international transactions and local laws and regulations. While all of these priorities are important when expanding your business, perhaps the most important is being able to properly communicate with your customers around the world – without the interruption of a language barrier. Conversing freely with international customers can be the determining factor on whether or not your company will flourish in expanding markets.
Through chat translation technology, organisations can chat with customers, no matter the language barriers and without the need to employ a team of linguistic translators. This allows your company to save money, time and effort – all while translating in real-time.
While the idea of expanding your business internationally presents exciting opportunities, it also brings an entirely new set of challenges your company must consider. Incorporating live chat with foreign language capabilities into your communication strategy can help you better converse with customers both domestically and internationally. Let’s take a look at how chat translation can assist in scaling your business.
Improve Customer Experience
While you’ve likely considered your technology’s impact on a new market, many customers utilising your product or service may need additional support. Live chats have been around for nearly 50 years, however, it wasn’t until 2016 when people started to take notice. Fast forward to today, it is uncommon for companies to not have a live chat on their website where customers can speak with a company representative and have their questions answered immediately. Additionally, it is something customers are now expecting from businesses. A recent statistic shows that 79 percent of customers utilise and prefer live chat functions because they don’t have to wait on hold to hear back from a customer representative. To create a great customer experience, it is not only crucial for companies to implement live chats into their communication channels, but when expanding to a new market, it is imperative that the live chat feature is equipped to communicate with customers in their native language – helping to improve both your customer service locally and internationally.
Communicating with a customer in their native language can alleviate the frustration and confusion that can come from language barriers. Oftentimes, when reaching out to a customer support team, customers are hoping for a quick interaction where they can ask a question and receive an answer immediately. When a company has to get a translator involved, it can often delay the response time and leave the customer feeling frustrated. With chat translation technology, an interaction can be translated in real-time, allowing the customer to quickly get a response from the customer support representative and go about their day.
Save Time and Money
In any type of business, communication is essential to success. From communication within your company to communication with vendors – without communication, your trust, productivity and performance will suffer. It is the same with communication in customer relationships. Great communication with customers can increase your popularity and build trust to make tricky situations easier. Clear communication is essential so customers know what to expect and what they are getting with a product or service.
For many businesses expanding, the alternative for using chat translation technology is hiring a translator. However, hiring a translator can be costly and time-consuming. Initial recruitment costs aside, there is an additional factor of ongoing remuneration. A translator is oftentimes a specialist, which means they can be limited in their language scope, speaking one or two languages at most. So while this may
work in one country, if you have businesses in multiple countries, you will need a much bigger bilingual team to cover all the areas served. As you are expanding your business, where you are investing and spending your money is essential – investing in chat translation technology can allow you to get more bang for your buck.
In addition, live chat deployment doesn’t take a ton of effort. There is no need to go through a lengthy onboarding or recruitment process and it has no long-lasting effect on a product’s infrastructure. With most chat translation technology, it can be quickly downloaded and is usable that day. Live chat technology can also be helpful in the upskilling of employees. Through live chat technology, reps can become multilingual communicators as a translation tool can help expand their range.
Increase Overall Sales
For many companies, the main reason for their expansion is to increase revenue and boost sales. We’ve talked about how difficult it is to expand globally, but without the ability to speak to customers in their native language, you could be setting your business up for failure. When a customer is waiting minutes or even hours for a reply, they will likely go somewhere else – which is costing your company business. According to a recent survey, Kayako reported 79% of businesses said that implementing live chat resulted in increased customer loyalty, sales and revenue.
Live chat can be a game-changer if it is used correctly. By providing customers with a rapid solution to answer their queries, live chat can boost conversion rates and in turn, increase revenue. In fact, a study by eMarketer found that more than 60% of customers would return to a website offering live chat as it is more informative and helpful than emails and phone calls.
In 2020, we learned that sales efforts can be difficult without effective communication. If you can speak to more customers, you can sell to more customers. Many customers who utilise live chat are either considering making a purchase or in the process of making a purchase. So, communicating with these customers at this point of their buying journey is crucial. For many companies, the answering of a question can be the deciding factor between a sale won and a lost sale.
Businesses that have identified the importance of foreign language chat are already steps above their competitors. International communication can have a tremendous impact on a business. Expanding communication so that it reaches global markets is what is going to make your business stand out and in turn, increase revenue.
Chat translation is essential in helping support your sales efforts around the world. Today, customers are no longer limited to being local. Now, customers are spread out to all corners of the world. Without chat translation, businesses are limiting their potential for growth. By incorporating chat translation into your business strategy, you will see a dramatic impact in your customers’ experience, the time and money saved as well as a boost in sales.
Guest Blog from Jason Smith, Sales Engineeer, CallTrackingMetrics
