IT help desks & language barriers: how to empower your agents (and improve customer service)
Your company’s IT Help Desk is the high-octane engine that powers your workforce and supports your customers. To reach peak performance as a company, you need your IT Help Desk agents to be as fast and as effective as possible.
However, the larger your organization, the more difficult it becomes for your agents to resolve inquires in a timely and satisfactory manner. Especially when multilingual communication needs arise.
The more markets your company expands into, the more likely your IT Help Desk agents will require interpretation solutions. Even if you’re servicing North America, nearly one in 10 working-age adults— or 19.2 million people—is considered limited English proficient.
Ask yourself:
- Are you using the most efficient, most powerful interpretation solution available for your IT Help Desk agents?
- Are your customers and your workforce getting the IT support they need?
- And are your Customer Satisfaction (CSat) and First Contact Resolution (FCR)1 metrics as high as they can be? After all, a one percent improvement in FCR yields a one percent improvement in customer satisfaction2.
The old, inefficient IT help desk ways to deal with language barriers
More likely than not, your IT Help Desk agents will need to handle requests from users who don’t speak your agents’ language on an ongoing basis. Especially if your users and associates are globally distributed, or if you’re expanding into new markets.
However, one of the most common solutions is an inefficient, costly one: onsite interpreters. The longer your needs persist, the less viable onsite interpretation becomes.
There are times when onsite interpreters can make sense. The deployment of software upgrades, for example, can create predictably high call volume. However, once this need dissipates, onsite interpreters can rarely be utilized efficiently to substantiate their cost.
Another common solution is hiring a multilingual staff. This is a viable solution for some Fortune 500 companies with the appropriate resources, yet hiring a multilingual staff is not always practical for most companies.
The search for multilingual candidates who are knowledgeable in both IT and your industry is an arduous task. It’s time consuming, and quite often a fruitless endeavor.
These two solutions—onsite interpreters or hiring multilingual staff —may work for some IT Help Desks. And they may work for your company. But for the vast majority of multilingual IT needs, there is a smarter, less expensive, more efficient way to keep your customers and associates happy and productive.
The smart, business-building power of over the phone interpretation (OPI)
Over the phone interpretation (OPI) is an ideal option to help most IT Help Desk agents overcome language barriers. OPI is available on-demand, providing customers with immediate support while offering a cost-efficient solution to ongoing interpretation needs.
OPI gives agents a direct line to connect with qualified, trained, on-demand interpreters 24/7. Better yet, these interpreters can service more than 70 languages, and they are well-versed in your industry jargon and your company’s brand.
Here’s how it works. When an IT Help Desk agent needs to communicate with a user who may speak another language, they simply dial a dedicated, secure 1-800 phone number. They are then connected to an on-demand interpreter who is specifically trained for your company’s needs. That interpreter then provides seamless communication assistance between your IT Help Desk agent and the caller.
The benefits of OPI are many. Your company can take advantage of on-demand, cost-effective interpretation that can help you:
- Improve resolution times for peak productivity
- Improve CSat and FCR scores
- Create a happier customer base
- Grow your business’s reputation across multiple markets
- Expand your business into new markets
This is the power of Over the Phone Interpretation—an on-demand resource that can create an improved user experience while maximizing cost efficiencies.
Contact us today to see how our OPI services can help your company to expand into new language markets.
1First Contact Resolution: The percent of contacts that are resolved by a service desk on the first interaction with the customers. For phone support, for example, that means resolving the issue in a single phone call.
2Service Quality Measurement Group
Insights for global growth
