The global nature of products & services and the rise in purchasing power of developing countries have increased the customer base of an ordinary business. Imagine a scenario. A prospect or customer calls up a business to ask for clarification or information but is unable to communicate due to differences in language. This peeves the customer as he feels unimportant and his problems are resolved. He leaves your business or worse moves to your rival business

How do smart businesses tackle such problems? Simple. They ensure that the call center they hire offer bilingual services at their call center.

So now if you are the business who has hired an ordinary call center for customer support, remember you just lost a prospect or a customer. And I’m sure that in these hard times you feel like I do- Each and every customer is important.

Changes in demography along with change in State policies have increased the need for efficient models of providing language services to people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). The sharp rise in the Latino community in the US has increased the need for Spanish language Customer Service Support. There is a steep demand for bilingual employees in all industries – healthcare, education, finance, sale and marketing. Employees with knowledge of English and Spanish are sought after. Other languages sought out are –German, Japanese, and Russian.

Since the world has become a global village using the vehicle of internet, it’s very important for the companies to target customers from all over the world. It would mean to be well versed in their language.

There is a need for bilingual customer service support system in call centers. This has led to formation of bilingual teams by Managers. The job description states the criteria of knowledge a minimum of two languages. It is deciding factor in selecting staff members. The business class or companies seeking customer are responsible for language assistance. They cater to the needs of the clients such as providing interpreters and translators. Telephonic services use bilingual staff to cater to the needs of LEP. Shortage of bilingual staff and trained professional interpreters are considered to be a resource constraint. In order to be successful the language needs of the customers are identified and steps are taken to introduce language access at the first points of client contact, for example at the front desk.

The bilingual staff performs multiple roles. Individuals with conversational proficiency in a second language may provide limited telephone assistance at the front desk while those with greater proficiency may interpret during interviews with the clients. In the field of medicine or other clinical needs assistance in the language of the patient is a must, even more so if the patient or person seeking information is LEP. The bicultural translators who act as cultural brokers provide accurate translation in a clinical sound culturally relevant manner.

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