Bilingual Demand
As Seen in the Chat Room
The demand for good customer service is higher than ever, especially when many consumers feel they are not receiving the customer service they deserve. Having at least someone who can speak and read Spanish, and other languages in some cases, or having some sort of program to translate customer interactions is also becoming an expected feature for all companies.
In the Outsell Live Chat Center we now have more English and Spanish speaking agents than English speakers alone to meet the demand for 24/7 bilingual assistance for all of our participating dealerships.
We decided to include the bilingual option and hire Spanish speaking agents after seeing the demand coming into chat. Several times a day a customer would come in either immediately speaking Spanish or asking if the agent could conduct the chat in Spanish, which could cost the dealership a potentially viable lead.
“Demand is being driven by an increasingly global economy as well as a large share of non-English speakers in the United States.”
This is not a new development. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, starting from 2008 and continuing until 2018, employment of translators and interpreters in the US is expected to increase by 22%.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the disconnect between demand for foreign language speakers and plans to learn a foreign language. People entering higher education and the job market are not taking advantage of opportunities to learn Spanish or Chinese despite the increasing demand for those and other language speakers.
Employees with those language skills are going to become much more valuable in the coming years due to lack of availability, while the demand on companies to provide at least bilingual assistance to customers will only keep increasing as well.
How are you being smart about bilingual demand?
Photo By: David Vignoni
