Dealing with customers who don't know English well

I usually have one spanish speaking employee on day shift. This helps out a lot at least twice a week. These customers are informed when there is a Spanish speaking representative and the person's name so they can ask for them the next time they call. For the rest I recommend they put in a ticket as its easier to understand and translate through babelfish, a manager responds to these tickets in a very timely fashion to show them we are providing them support even though we have a hard time taking their calls. These customers then submit new tickets in the future and get put into thier own manager queue to be taken care of in a timely fashion.
 
In our last 6 yrs. hosting business, we have experienced very few cases where we are not able to communicated due to language, because almost all the world is now using English as universal communication language mode, that help us communicate.

Yes, agree while on phone we have different accent and pronounce differently, that create very minimal difference.

Multiple support system like Live Chat, phone, ticket and email help greatly to handle communication problems.
 
JamesCWilson said:
When you have a webhosting company, you may sometimes be contacted by a customer who does not understand English well or whatever your first language may be, which can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, or just general confusion. Some, usually larger companies make use of somebody who can translate for them, while many small companies may not have this option.

My question is, how good are you at dealing with this?
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I agree that there would be some misunderstandings, but if you are good enough, you will be able to read the mind of the customer. I haven't lost new customers due to the language issue.:D
 
In this world of internet and fast communication , i don't think language can be a barrier. If you have a real trouble in dealing with people who are not familiar with English( i hardly find any because many know at least to manage) you can find translators over internet for free for any language.
I met with a Croatian client once , i hardly understood what she said. But then i searched the internet for Croatian-English translator and wallah it works!! Thanks to internet!
 
I don't really think it is a problem for text-based communication. You can just use a simple translator to get the gist of the problem/conversation. I think that should be enough to get you through the difficulty and they will probably like the fact that you tried.

Things may become a little more complicated if you run into this problem over the telephone.

Like kashirakaze said, always check it back before you post!

Most of the time people wont sign up to your services if you have an English website and they can't understand English.

It has never really bee a problem for us and only comes up about once a year. And we get by when it does happen.
 
I would often end up re - writing a response a few times to make better use of easier words, etc. It's worth the effort IMO and I am sure they notice it (this is a good thing).
 
RSkeens said:
I would often end up re - writing a response a few times to make better use of easier words, etc. It's worth the effort IMO and I am sure they notice it (this is a good thing).
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I agree, if you remain patient and repeat the message in different ways usually it will make sense eventually.
 
virtbiz said:
Yes! I once used a Spanish translator, then translated it back to English and it wasn't even CLOSE to what I was trying to say.

Now we have staff resources who can help us with Spanish, German and French. I wouldn't say that we're corporately fluent in those languages by any stretch, but we are fortunate enough to be able to communicate.

We have also considered contracting with a professional human translation firm who could assist in near-real-time but as of this time we do not have the customerbase to support that expense.
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A decent translator is well worth the cost if you deal with a lot of clients who speak a foreign language. There is often so much lost with translator software.
 
I believe language barriers can be VERY frustrating, however what alot of hosts need to remember is if you take your time and be patient generally you will get a sense of what the customer is attempting to say to you. I think a little bit of time and patience is suitable to help out in this area.
 
I am thankful for never getting any support tickets in another language, sometimes with people who use (improper) shorthand that is just enough to make my head spin.

WSHM is right, patience can go a long way and while it may take a few more minutes to correct the issue or answer the question, it makes for a happier person in the end.
 
Oh yeah, we have this problem a lot. Communicating with tickets and live chat rather than on the phone helps. I find it's a lot easier to decipher text than audio.
 
One thing is certain and that is the folks who may not be that competent speaking English would mostly use the written forms of communications, mainly the email and ticketing systems, and so the important part to be done by you as the hosting account provider is patiently and clearly respond to the queries and questions received and happily have contact with your customers even if they send several emails.
 
I know both Spanish and Russian, so those two languages are not issues for us. With regard to other languages, we either try to make the best of the situation and reduce the number of advanced vocab words, or make use of a translation service if its really bad.
 
Well there are a lot of online translators that can be found in the WWW. There may be some problems with grammars or sentence structures, but the main thought is still there so it's all cool. And thank God, I have not yet experienced that kind of problem. :)
 
We have a person who its first language is Spanish, (that is me) so language hasn't be a problem so far as the majority of our clients are able to communicate in English or in Spanish

I would recommend using translators ONLY for just some small help like finding the meaning of a word.
 
Hello,

I think it is not a big issue. Just use online language translators and make your support available in all languages with best support service :)
 
We haven't really had an issue with this but I can see why it could be a problem. I think livechat/ phone support would cause more problems because there is no time to think. Sometimes reading a support ticket a couple of times will give you the right idea.
 
Well, unfortunately, we tend to turn away customers that can't speak English at least well enough to communicate. This is for no other reason than without good communication, we can't adequately get the details about their job, and then communicate what we've done to them.

I'm not saying they have to be English professors, but they need to be able to communicate to us what they want done, otherwise we run the risk of misunderstanding their request, and then making ourselves look bad in the process.
 
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