Google translate is something that the majority of us are very familiar with. At some point in our life, we have seen the need to use this free multilingual machine translation service due to a number of reasons. Perhaps, the common reason is our inability to understand or respond to someone who speaks a different language.
This is acceptable for ordinary occasions. Not all of us has the time and resources to learn a new language, anyway. But for businesses to use this method to communicate with their customers, using an automated translator is utterly inappropriate. Machine-based translation services do not guarantee a hundred percent accuracy which could disappoint or frustrate customers. Instead of being helpful, it can give them a nightmarish customer service — unconsciously giving them the wrong advice or solution to their problems. Worst, imprecise translations could also turn you into a laughingstock on social media if one of your customers shared it to his or her friends. You wouldn’t want to get known as a company with erroneous grammar, would you?
Instead of relying on automated translators to reply to your customers from other countries, what you can do instead is to hire someone who speaks fluently the languages of your foreign customers. Offering multilingual live chat is an excellent way to facilitate proper communication and deliver excellent support to customers from different geographical locations.
Multilingual live chat serves a wider market
The presence of a multilingual live chat option on your website does not only guarantee you of outstanding customer service, but it will also give you the opportunity to serve a wider market. There are studies and surveys that would back it up. Some of which are listed below:
- Of 2,400 online customers who participated in a survey by Common Sense Advisory, 52.4 percent said that they only buy products in their native language. Certain countries like Japan and France received a higher result of 60 percent.
- Another Common Sense Advisory report in 2016 revealed that 74 percent of consumers have a higher tendency to repurchase if the company uses their language in after-sales care.
- A 2014 report by ICMI found out that 71.5 percent of customer service leaders believe that support in a customer’s native language increased their satisfaction with customer support.
- Quality scores also increase when customers receive support in their language, according to another ICMI and Lionbridge study.
In short, a multilingual live chat service not only improves customer experience but also increases your ability to increase revenue. Investing in this feature guarantees business owners a higher return on investment than supporting customers only in one language.
How should you start?
How would you know if it’s time for you to provide multilingual support? Try to assess your business and your market through these following points:
Market
Where do most of your customers come from? Are the numbers of your customers who speak another language growing? What percentage speaks a different language? Are you receiving high revenue from that market? Will adding a multilingual live chat option strengthen and increase your market there?
Goals
Do you have plans to expand into another market? What is the main language in that location?
Budget
Are you financially-ready to provide this service? How do you allocate your funds for this? Will you hire an in-house employee? Or will you outsource this instead?
Taking these factors into account will allow you to make better and wiser decisions. What’s important now is knowing that relying on translators could possibly harm the reputation of your business. Entrusting this to a person who really knows your business will increase consumers’ trust, improve satisfaction, and bring in better results.
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