CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE IMAGES
WHEN ENGLISH IS NOT YOUR CUSTOMERS ’ FIRST LANGUAGE
All our customers deserve our empathy , but the ones who write to us in English when English isn ’ t their primary language deserve a heaping helping .
For human kindness reasons , we should empathize with the extraordinary effort non-primary English speakers are putting forth to register a complaint or request help in a language they don ’ t understand well , or maybe at all .
And for practical reasons , we should write responses non-English speakers can accurately translate or more easily construe themselves because we want to prevent repeat contacts that tax our contact centers .
Written channels are the first choice channels for customers whose primary language isn ’ t English . They choose text ,
14 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
WRITING SIMPLY , AIDED WITH VISUALS AND LINKS , IS KEY .
live chat , and email because these channels create written records they can refer to later . And also because speaking on the phone in a language you can ’ t produce or understand well is torture .
Here are eight tips for writing responses or templates that are easier to understand for customers who struggle with English .
WRITTEN CHANNELS ARE THE FIRST CHOICE CHANNELS FOR CUSTOMERS WHOSE PRIMARY LANGUAGE ISN ’ T ENGLISH ...