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The U.S. Hispanic Market - Part 2
The Language of Customer Service

by Tom Milligan, CEO, Marque Dos - March 25, 2013

The U.S. Hispanic Market

Part 2: The Language of Customer Service

By Tom Milligan
CEO, Marque Dos

Last month, I wrote about the rapid growth, impressive buying power, and growing clout found in the U.S. Hispanic market. The article concluded with the following statement: “Every year, while marketers spend billions to attract the Hispanic consumer, surprisingly few have even investigated—let alone implemented—what it will take to retain their Hispanic customers.”

In today’s article, we’ll explore the first of three keys to retaining your Hispanic consumers: language.

To understand the importance of language in customer service, I’d like you to imagine two scenarios:

1. When calling a company for customer service, you dial the toll free number, hear a ring, and hear someone answer in some language you don’t understand. “Do you speak English?” you ask. “Mimi si kuzungumza Kiingereza” comes the reply, which in Swahili means, “I don’t speak English.” After speaking English more loudly and more slowly, they still don’t understand so you come to the conclusion that you’re not going to get the level of service you deserve and hang up.

2. When calling a company for customer service, you dial the toll free number, and hear a menu asking you to select your language preference. After choosing English, you hear ringing, and then a voice mail message asking you to leave a message and telling you that your inquiry will be processed and your call returned within 2 business days.

I don’t think anyone reading this article would find that level of service acceptable. If you experienced this type of service, I’m sure you’d never buy from that company again and would tell your horrible customer service story to dozens of your friends and family.

Our team recently contacted several hundred of the top U.S. companies and learned that fewer than 20% of those contacted offer a Spanish language option that routes to a live Spanish-speaking agent. 80% either don’t offer a language menu, or they offer a menu, but route their Spanish-speaking callers to voice mail.

Ask yourself:

• Should Hispanics consider this level of service acceptable?
• Would you expect them to be repeat customers?
• Is your company in the 80% and if so, do you believe they’ll recommend your company to their friends?

If your company is part of the 80%, find an outsourcer that specializes in Spanish language customer service. If you’re already outsourcing your Spanish customer service, make sure your outsourcer is providing the level of service you pay for and your Hispanic customers deserve.

There are many things to consider when selecting an outsourcer for your Spanish language customers, but today I want to stick with language.

Imagine you’re interviewing outsourcers for your English programs and you run across an outsourcer with great prices, great terms, and agents that speak English—but nobody on the leadership team speaks English.

If the leadership team doesn’t speak English, how can they effectively monitor, coach and improve their agents’ effectiveness? How can they add value to the call center operation if they don’t know what the agents are saying or how they’re treating your callers? How can they ensure your program is a success if they don’t understand what’s being said?

Unfortunately, they can’t do any of those things. All they can do is review call reports and rely on others to improve agent performance.

If you wouldn’t subject your English-speaking customers to this scenario, why would you do it to your Spanish-speaking customers?

About Marque Dos
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT USA, with operations in Spanish-speaking homes across the United States, Marque Dos is the only dedicated Spanish language teleservices provider on U.S. soil and the exclusive provider of C.A.R.E.™ (Culture & Accent Routing Engine), which matches callers and agents based on mutual culture and accent—critical factors in customer satisfaction and sales conversion.

Tom Milligan, CEO of Marque Dos, has spent 23 years in the call center industry as a Manager, Owner, Sales Executive, and Consultant, providing him in-depth access to call centers in every industry and on several continents. Milligan is a pioneer in the at-home call center model, opening his first at-home call center in 1999—years ahead of the industry—which was chosen as the inbound call center for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games. His fluency in the Spanish language is a result of many years of dedicated service within the U.S. Hispanic community.

For more information about Spanish language call center services from Marque Dos, please contact Tom Milligan at 801.913.2420 or via email at tom.milligan@marquedos.com.




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