We talk a lot about multilingual websites and how to ensure you’re properly localizing your site over on this blog, but, what about when it comes to offering support to your customers in your new markets? 

Often overlooked when selling your products or services overseas is that your new customer base might want to receive help in the language of the new countries you do business in. 

According to the Common Sense Advisory, 74% of customers are more likely to repurchase or use services again when the support is available in their native language.

That’s a number not to be sniffed at! But, for companies still scaling, the idea of outsourcing or even hiring a multilingual support agent can be a little challenging in terms of budget. 

So, in this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of multilingual support and how you can use a cost-effective solution that keeps your customers satisfied. 

What is Multilingual Support? 

Multilingual support means offering the same support experience to your customers but in different languages other than English (or your local language). Your target markets should also benefit from support in their native language and have the option to choose their language.  

This can be achieved through outsourcing support, hiring multilingual support agents, or translating your support documents. 

Why Offer Multilingual Support? 

Selling or offering services in new regions and countries means you’ll now be serving customers in different languages. 

The truth is, if you’ve perfected your website localization, your new customers might not even realize your business isn’t based in their home country. So that means your new markets will be expecting the same level of quality customer support as your local users. 

Language shouldn’t be a barrier anymore and it doesn’t need to be. 

70% of customers are more loyal to companies that offer multilingual support
Source: Intercom

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Tips for Offering Multilingual Support

We mentioned it briefly in the intro, but if you’re a small or medium-sized business, chances are it won’t be feasible to hire or outsource multilingual support from purely a budget perspective. 

Sometimes it’s going to be necessary to stretch that budget to accommodate multilingual support, however, there are a few questions you might want to ask yourself before going down that route. 

What Level of Customer Support Do You Need?

If you’re doing business in multiple markets you may decide to focus on giving multilingual support to the markets that you’re seeing the most revenue from or where you’re basing the most market potential etc. 

Determine what support questions you’re receiving on a regular basis and if these are of a  complex nature - it might be a good idea to have someone that speaks the language on your support team. 

This is particularly true if you’re an enterprise with a large market presence. Having a local support team will be hugely beneficial. 

29% of businesses have lost customers because they don’t offer any multilingual support 
Source: Intercom

However, if you’re just entering new markets there’s one simple way you can give some level of multilingual support...

Localize Your Knowledge Base

A critical and key part of multilingual support is to offer your knowledge base in multiple languages. This is cost-efficient, requires little work on your side, and most importantly serves all your customers as you won’t need to make a decision based on budget. 

For any business starting to sell internationally - this is a perfect opportunity to create a knowledge base that’s full of your most asked questions. Then, using a translation solution like Weglot - you’ll instantly have a translated knowledge base in as many languages as you need. 

A knowledge base consists of how-to’s, FAQs, welcome information, videos, etc. So whilst it’s really easy to translate your written content, some companies may like to go the extra mile and provide translated subtitles on videos or even outsource a new voiceover. If you’re using Weglot you can easily replace these videos on your translated knowledge base docs to include the appropriate translated video version. 

‍Top tip: To make it even easier for your customers when reading these support documents - make sure you add in as many images as possible to help your customers understand the instructions. 

Benefits of a Translated Knowledge Base

So, let’s take a closer look at the point above and the benefits of translating your knowledge base. 

Enhanced Customer Experience

What better way to make your customers feel at ease by offering them a fully translated knowledge base in their local language? 

Giving the same level of customer experience to all your users is integral for maintaining retention rates and offering localized experiences to new markets. After all, customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. 

New Customers 

Many consumers can be put off from purchasing a product, service or app if they’re unable to receive customer support in their native language. 

A translated knowledge base makes customers feel confident that you’ll be able to help solve their questions. In fact, customers that receive good customer service are also more likely to recommend a product or service to a friend. 

Reduced Number of Tickets 

The number one priority for customer service teams is to of course reduce customer support volume. 

And, offering your knowledge base in more than one language is a guaranteed way to help as many of your customers as possible, quickly and efficiently, without the need for personal responses.  

SEO Indexing 

Don’t forget about SEO in all of this. Translating documents from your knowledge base means you’ll also be able to rank in new languages for those translated keywords. So you’ll increase your overall website traffic too! 

Next Steps

So, as we’ve established multilingual support is important for those entering new markets. Giving the same level of support to your new customers is likely to increase the chances of them purchasing from you again. 

We looked into the concept of outsourcing your multilingual support or even hiring internal multilingual support agents - however, this is likely only necessary for companies that are well-established in new markets and have the budget to do so. 

The next best thing? Offering your knowledge base in multiple languages. Quick, low cost, and incredibly beneficial to all your new customers! 

Sign up to Weglot for 10 days free and see how easily we can help you translate your knowledge base into more than 110 languages. ‍