Dealing with customers who don't know English well

Then use Google translator !!!:agree: I have done this with different languages and most of the time it works for me!!!:)
 
Most of our customers come from US where we are located, some of them can't speak English, they speak Spanish.

Now we are considering if our Spanish speaking customers are increasing then we will hire a Spanish speaking staff to assist them. Here, customer is always a king :)
 
I can cope with it pretty well if im honest, I had someone that had a stroke, and was properly able to communicate at about the same level of English, as some customers can, I find it helps me a great deal when talking to our customers.
 
You need to evaluate this on a case by case basis. I would say giving personnel attention and writing in simple English can help them understand you better.
 
We use (smile) our daughter in law to translate our Spanish speaking clients, as what was said before....

You can really make a mess of things as some translators give/use the wrong inference at the wrong place in the sentience.

This really will get you in trouble!
 
I will handle conversation with all sort of users. Even these ones whos speaking skills are not good :) Understanding eachselves is one of the key to success isn't it? However such an opportunity of talk is very rare but it is not an end of the world. Need just to make more efforts to deal with it :) Customer will for sure appreciate it :)
 
If a customer is communicating through confusing or "broken" English, it might be a good idea to use an online translating service. These are in no way 100% accurate, but you can get a more specific idea of what the problem is. Then you can reply in English (so the user has your response with the correct intention) or offer both English and translated versions.
 
Most of the time if your firing back and forth emails then even if they don't speak fluent English then at least you don't have to deal with pronunciation issues.
 
I deal with it by?

Google Translator for my website, Translates everything to there prefered language.

Secondly, I use translator to find out what they are saying, and how to assist them further.
 
Wow, there are a lot of interesting comments and responses here. I just wanted to add my two cents that I agree the language barrier isn't as bad as it used to be.

I had some major issues with my computer not too long ago and had to contact Dell support. Speaking from the customer side, I could never understand them when we talked on the phone because they were from other countries. While the phone conversations frustrated me, dell also had a live chat option, which I preferred using a lot more since I could more clearly understand the people tryng to help me.

As long as customer service has multiple methods to communicate with a customer, this shouldn't be as much of an option. Even if a person does not speak very well, normally they can use text accurately enough where people will be able to understand what they are saying.
 
Not a problem, takes longer time and it is fine with me. Perhaps the most dificult part is at the very beginning then becomes easier once they are familiarized witht he tools and functions.
 
You just need to be patient dealing with customers that can't speak English properly. Yes Google translate does help but I don't really personally relay on to it I always paraphrase what my clients said to confirm what they said and for them to feel more comfortable talking to me.
 
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