What to Look for in a Bilingual Answering Service

The main purpose of an answering service is to make sure your customers are getting assistance, even when you may be unavailable or too busy, or when your business isn’t open. Every time a customer calls you, it’s the perfect opportunity to improve your customer service. One thing that can improve your reputation and customer service is by communicating with customers in their native language. When searching for a bilingual answering service, there are a few things you should keep in mind and know what to look for, in order to get the best service.

Can Handle the Calls You Need: Your business may get a number of different calls, which can include appointment scheduling, event registration, help desk calls, and lead generation. When searching for a bilingual answering service, you need to make sure that they can handle the types of calls your business gets, in addition to just making sure they can handle these calls in another language.

Values Align: Since an answering service is going to be interacting with your customers, it’s important that your values are similar, no matter what language they are speaking. When researching a call center, learn more about the operating values and decide if these are compatible with your company. This goes hand in hand with commitment to customers and the expectations of the partners you work with in business.

Transparent Reporting: You want to make sure the calls that come in are getting the quality assistance and help that they deserve, even when you don’t speak the language. Your call center should provide you with customizable reports that contain data such as duration of calls, dropped calls, or number of calls helped. Reports may even be customizable depending on the data that is the most important to you. Detailed reports can be summarized weekly, daily, or monthly, or can be customized for a certain period of time. These reports can give you insights on when the most bilingual calls are coming in, so you can make sure you are staffed appropriately.

Clips of Calls: Recording the call, especially when it’s in a different language, can be helpful for a number of reasons. It can be used for training purposes and can offer examples of terminology and vocabulary that agents run across, especially if your business is in a specific industry. These clips can be useful to ensure quality control and discover ways that your calls can be improved.

By working with a bilingual call center, clients that speak another language will feel valued and it will improve the experience of everyone involved. Those who get great service from your business will tell their friends and family, so a bilingual call center can actually improve your business and give you leads you may not have otherwise.