Developing your own Multilingual Call Center may not be feasible for many small to medium sized business. Here are some considerations when using Phone Interpreting Services for multilingual call center support:
First of all, there is the investment question. When the organization is in need for multilingual call center support, the cost of hiring additional personnel to handle phone calls in different languages is typically not an option. We help organizations get started by adding phone interpreting services to their already existing support group. The cost of phone interpreting is based on the number of minutes used. This makes phone interpreting a direct cost option without any additional overhead. It also provides easy analysis of money spent per call. The trade-off is that your calls will last longer because information is relayed.
Another consideration is training of call center personnel. The clients we serve typically handle company specific information requires insight into systems, products and/or services. Outsourcing to a call center service requires that an organization hands over control over the process. Phone interpreting services does not guarantee that you get the same person every time and it does not integrate you with any training. However, for many call centers, our experience is that the combination of an expert English speaking (in our case) customer or internal call representative along with phone interpreting service works well in most situations. We work with call centers to find out how to handle inbound calls effectively so that there is no confusion on the caller’s part that they are dealing with an interpreting situation.
Phone interpreting services can add multilingual capabilities to your call center without any upfront investment. Plus, it provides you with direct costs per call to monitor the average investment in each service call. If you are considering adding multilingual capabilities to your call center, give us a call and we can set you up with an account instantly to get started. With our specialization in healthcare translations, we are also HIPAA certified so if you want to be compliant with Section 1557, this may be a solution for your healthcare organization.
If you do plan to hire multilingual staff, make sure to translate your training materials to be consistent with any software or terminology used in the field (Read: Why You Need to Understand Translation Accuracy). For instance, if you plan to add store support to your retailers in Canada, you’ll need to be aware of the systems and terminology used at those store locations in order to be effective in your communications. What is the terminology referenced on their systems? Is everything in French or are some systems have references in English? As with any training manuals or software, consistency is key. That’s where project management and expertise in Translation Memory technology comes into play. Our Translation Memory asset management is a vital process in keeping customer specific terminology and information consistent with materials that have previously been translated. Especially when we work on manuals or anything referencing terminology that may be used in the field, our project management focuses on uncovering what terms are already out there in the target language and then using that information in our Translation Memory and Termbase for future use. Good quality translation services thrives on long term relations to take on the demanding task of keeping everything consistent for a more effective flow of information.
