As we know, there is a large population of Spanish speaking community in the United States, "The significant number of Spanish speakers in the United States places it second among the countries with the largest population of Spanish speakers". According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic population reached a record 60.6 million in 2019. They are the country’s second largest racial or ethnic group.
What do these numbers mean to U.S. Contact Centers? To provide good customer service to all their customers, including Hispanics, they need to offer Spanish customer service. But when it comes to efficiency, maybe a bilingual service is the best option. Here are 4 reasons why:
More Hispanics are Choosing to Speak in English
As we mentioned, there's a large population of Hispanics in the U.S., and while the majority still speak Spanish, their English proficiency level is increasing. Why is this relevant? A higher number of U.S. Hispanics are willing to be assisted in English. This doesn't mean you don't need to offer a call center service in Spanish. But, having bilingual customer service allows the customers to choose the language they feel more comfortable with it.
Customers Hate to Be Transferred
Your Spanish-speaking call center might be hurting your customer service experience. If your Spanish-speaking customers call your English contact center, they need to transfer to the corresponding call center or agent and vice versa due to the language barrier. Transfers can have a perceived risk of disconnection, a long waiting time, or getting to the wrong person. That is why customers hate being transferred. Having a bilingual call center agent can increase your FCR and customer experience thanks to the agents' ability to switch from one language to the other when needed.
Duplicated Efforts
If you have English and Spanish contact centers separately, you're probably duplicating efforts. You might have two numbers on your website, and probably you will also have to produce training material in both languages, as well as announcements, certificates, and so on.
With a bilingual operation, there's no need to duplicate efforts. You can use English as the standard language for your contact center, no matter the location. All your employees will understand and feel comfortable with it.
Cultural Affinity
Even though many Hispanics were born in the U.S., they grew up in a Hispanic home and adopted that culture and customs. Most Hispanics come from Central America; 63.2% of U.S. Hispanics come from Mexico. Their culture is unique. They have a mix between Latin American and U.S. culture. If you decide to expand your operation with a call center outsourcing in places such as Mexico with bilingual agents, you will realize they're also bicultural and relate with this diverse culture.
For example, at CCSI, you can find people that lived in the States for many years, and now they're a part of our community. They know and love American pop culture, celebrate the 4th of July, watch the Super Bowl, and so on. Bilingual agents can quickly build rapport with the U.S. and Hispanic people.
If you want to have excellent customer service, reduce costs and work efforts while increasing performance, Spanish only is not enough, you need to start thinking in a bilingual service. We know many companies look to outsource their Spanish-speaking contact center because it is cheaper. However, a more thoughtful alternative is to have a bilingual contact center.
It will prevent the issues mentioned above and help you increase performance, gain efficiency and improve your customer experience. In the long run, a bilingual contact center might help you reduce the cost even more since you can outsource not only your Spanish calls but all your inbound and outbound calls.
For a bilingual contact center outsourcing, Nearshore is a good solution. It can add value to your business, reduce your costs, increase performance metrics and customer satisfaction.
Call Center Services International helps U.S. companies establish high-performance Nearshore Contact Centers in Mexico by providing a World-Class Bilingual Workforce, State-Of-The-Art Infrastructure, and Proximity to the U.S. Learn more about CCSI bilingual workforce.