A multilingual call center team is good to have but managing one can be more complicated that you might think.
The growth of your business is something that you have always envisioned. Perhaps you have thought about setting up shop in other countries. You can make this expansion a whole lot easier by having a multilingual call center team.
As exciting as it is, global expansion also increases the demand for support that speaks the customers’ preferred language. But your provider may encounter some multilingual call center challenges, too. Still, not all hope is lost.
Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at five obstacles that multilingual call centers need to manage. Then, we will also talk about ways to overcome each of them and keep your diverse customer base satisfied.
The Rising Demand for Multilingual Customer Support
The globalization of business has empowered customers to expect personalized service in their native language. No matter where your business is headquartered, you have to be able to cater to what anyone needs.
Using English as your business’ main language may have worked years ago, but it’s not going to cut it these days. To keep up with this demand, you can try constructing a support staff made of people who can speak other languages. But this raises further issues, such as the size of the team and language choices.
The other way to deal with the original problem is to have an outsourced multilingual call center team. This way, you can deliver consistent customer support while you focus on improving your other services and products. So long as your outsourcing partner can work around these multilingual call center team challenges, your customers’ loyalty is as good as yours.
1. Communication and Language Barriers
One of the most obvious and challenging aspects of running a multilingual call center team is managing communication barriers. But what you don’t notice right away is that these barriers can form either internally or externally.
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Internal Communication Difficulties
Internal barriers occur when everyone in the multilingual call center team doesn’t share a common language. When this happens, members might find it challenging to collaborate on tasks, share feedback, or even participate in meetings effectively.
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External Miscommunication
Meanwhile, external barriers exist when agents who aren’t proficient in a certain language struggle to understand customers. For example, a frontline staffer uses literal translations of the caller’s words rather than trying to comprehend the context.
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Overcoming this Challenge
To overcome this challenge, call center team management needs to invest in language training programs. In addition, there should be internal communication strategies—like sharing a common language—to minimize misunderstandings. Finally, cultural awareness training should accompany translation tools to prevent agents from missing any context.
2. Maintaining Consistent Quality
In a single-language call center team, quality assurance (QA) processes are straightforward. In a multilingual call center team, however, QA processes should maintain high standards across different languages.
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QA Complications
Implementing an effective QA process for different languages can be such a hassle. This is especially true when managers evaluate calls in languages they themselves do not speak. But what makes this issue worse is when QA teams lack the linguistic diversity required to monitor calls accurately.
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Translation vs True Multilingualism
A common mistake in multilingual customer support is relying too heavily on direct translations rather than truly understanding the call. Incidentally, simply translating scripts or training materials from one language to another can lead to robotic or impersonal interactions.
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Overcoming this Challenge
To maintain consistent quality, call center team management should consider employing native-speaking QA staff. Alternatively, they can recruit someone who knows how to speak any of your required languages. Moreover, AI-powered language analysis tools can be used to assist in identifying performance issues.
3. Cultural Sensitivities and Differences
Culture deeply influences communication styles, decision-making, and expectations in customer service interactions. Therefore, managing cultural sensitivities is a less obvious but equally important component of running a multilingual call center team.
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How Culture Affects Communication
Different cultures have distinct communication norms that can impact how customers expect to be treated. For instance, while some cultures appreciate a direct approach, others might find it rude. If agents aren’t careful enough, it could flip the customer satisfaction score upside down.
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Managing a Multicultural Workforce
Even the call center agents themselves have unique cultural norms they follow. As such, they have varied expectations regarding work ethics, communication styles, and conflict resolution. Call center team management has to make sure that these cultural differences are acknowledged and respected.
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Overcoming this Challenge
When providing multilingual customer support, agents’ responses should meet cultural expectations. For example, customer interactions in some regions may require more formality, while in others, a more casual tone is acceptable. Once again, cultural awareness is key.
4. Recruiting and Keeping the Right Talent
Scouring the job market for agents for a multilingual call center team is extremely hard. Not only must agents be fluent in multiple languages, but they also need to possess the necessary customer service skills to handle calls professionally.
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Finding Qualified Agents
The recruitment process for a multilingual call center team is often more rigorous than that of a single-language team. Applicants who want to be a part of such a team must possess multilingual skills, customer service expertise, and cultural awareness. Because of this, call center team management will struggle to find candidates in an already small talent pool.
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Retaining Multilingual Employees
Employee retention is another significant hurdle for multilingual customer support teams. After all, handling complex interactions in multiple languages every day could cause agents to burn out.
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Overcoming this Challenge
Sure-fire ways for call center team management to keep its agents include competitive salaries, benefits, and opportunities for career advancement. Moreover, offering language development programs can incentivize agents to stay with the organization for longer. Finally, building a supportive workplace culture is a must.
5. Technology and Tools Integration
A multilingual call center team needs technology to keep operations efficient. However, not all tools can be adaptable for multilingual customer support. There could still be a need to customize them to accommodate the linguistic needs of both agents and customers.
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Language Compatibility
A lot of call center tools are designed primarily for English-speaking users. Thus, these tools need to be adjusted to work across different languages. Unfortunately, doing this needs additional customization and can be resource-intensive.
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Dependability of Translation Tools
While translation tools can be helpful in bridging language gaps, they are not always reliable for real-time customer interactions. Machine translations often struggle with complex phrases, regional dialects, and context-specific language. As such, agents who rely too heavily on these tools may not deliver a high level of service.
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Overcoming this Challenge
Investing in platforms that allow for multilingual customer support is the first step that call center team management must do. These systems may include features like multilingual interactive voice response (IVR) and language detection.
Final Thoughts
Multilingual call center challenges, no matter how daunting, can still be overcome. Even with your diverse customer base, proper call center team management and cultural awareness should propel your business forward.
Consider understanding these multilingual call center challenges as well so you can offer better insights as you collaborate with your outsourcing partner. Addressing these challenges will help your outsourced support team be more consistent in serving customers.
How Open Access BPO Delivers Hassle-Free Multilingual Customer Support
Multilingual call center challenges shouldn’t be much of a concern for your brand, especially if you have a reliable partner with you. On that note, have you considered partnering with Open Access BPO?
We are one of the premier multilingual outsourcing firms in the industry, as evidenced by our mastery of more than 30 languages. This is made possible by our inclusive hiring practices, enabling people from different backgrounds to be a part of our team. In addition, we train our agents in cultural sensitivity to truly understand customers.
Our operations are recognized by organizations like the PCI DSS and ISO, so you can be sure our services are up to standard. But more importantly, our agents never forget to personalize every interaction and show heart in everything they do.
Contact Open Access BPO today and begin a partnership with us.
Research after research have shown that diverse teams, such as those in multilingual call centers, are more productive and creative than homogeneous ones. The caveat, though, is that they’re more difficult to manage.
Building a multicultural group is a must for call centers that want to reach diverse consumer sectors, particularly markets that don’t speak English. Deploying multilingual services would allow you to cater to international brands and companies that are planning to capture emerging markets.
The tricky part, however, is making culturally diverse teams work.
Although a hodgepodge of ideas brings about smart innovations, multiple perspectives can lead to plenty of friction. It can be difficult to forge and sustain harmonious interpersonal relationships within a heterogeneous team, and disagreements may get in the way of productivity and employee engagement.
Here’s an overview of the challenges you may encounter while managing cultural diversity in your contact center.
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Effective Communication
Some multilingual call centers opt to use English as their primary business language and for internal communication. This often works, but you may still encounter a few hiccups. For instance, differences in accents, level of fluency, and problems in translations may make it difficult for employees to understand one another.
More importantly, however, clear communication isn’t just about the language. It’s often harder for multicultural teams to completely make sense of others’ messages due to differing beliefs, traditions, and life experiences.
You need to bring your call center agents together in team building activities and other events where they’d connect with one another on a personal level. Aside from boosting employee engagement, this would let them find a common ground, helping make interactions a lot smoother.
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Conflicting Attitudes Toward Work
According to the Association for Psychological Science, one’s cultural background can affect productivity and attitude toward work.
It was previously hypothesized that Asians are generally more concerned about building relationships in the office than Americans and Europeans. This is perhaps due to Asians’ emphasis on interdependence and hierarchy, whereas the latter are more individualistic.
One team management strategy that would help you resolve this is to set project goals for the entire team. This would ensure that everyone is striving for the same objectives.
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Dealing With Interpersonal Conflicts
Although every organization has its fair share of disagreements, diversity in the workplace may result to even more conflicts. It may also be harder for multicultural groups to settle interpersonal issues.
If not managed well, this may hamper work progress, creativity, and productivity.
You need to take an initiative in managing these types of problems before they get out of hand. Make sure that all your call center agents know their role and value in the company. Increasing employee engagement through team activities can also help prevent misunderstandings among workers.
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Building Training Programs
Part of managing a multilingual call center team is ensuring that all employees’ needs—especially when it comes to training and work resources—are being met. Using a single training module for a multicultural group, unfortunately, often doesn’t work. Plenty of companies use this strategy as a cheaper alternative to conducting multiple coaching sessions for agents with different backgrounds. The latter, however, is far more effective.
Additionally, it’s best to hire multilingual trainers. This ensures that all your customer support policies and guidelines are clearly communicated across your diverse organization.
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Evaluating Performance
Rigorous quality assurance (QA) processes are crucial for every contact center. To maintain high-quality services, you need to evaluate agents based on the quality of their work and provide regular feedback. However, this would require you to hire multilingual QA agents. Otherwise, you won’t be able to thoroughly monitor and assess agents’ performance.
Although a costly move, this would boost your organization’s competence and allow you to build a positive reputation among potential clients.
As a multilingual call center, Open Access BPO has diversity and inclusion integrated in our corporate culture, enabling us to manage our productive multicultural workforce while we provide a safe space and equal opportunities for all our employees. Reach out to us and our business development team if you’re in need of a trusted multilingual expert manning your customer support.