If Google Translate Is Your Go-to For Multilingual Customer Support, Think Again!

You can never underestimate the importance of customer service.

?Shep Hyken - Customer Service and Experience expert, conducted the 2020 ACA Survey , where respondents were asked whether they would switch brands or companies for better customer service. The response was a resounding "yes" from 96% of customers. Wait, doesn't that mean almost everyone?!

As you grow your business, you need to intensify your focus on building and maintaining strong customer relationships. Companies that aim to make their mark globally understand the need to interact with customers, solve their queries, and receive feedback from customers worldwide in their native language. According to CSA Research , 3 out of 4 buyers are more likely to purchase from a brand again if after-sales customer support is offered in their native language.

Engaging with customers in their preferred language makes them feel valued, and it fosters better communication and understanding between you and your customers.

Better understanding + Faster Solutions = Client Satisfaction (...and higher CSAT scores) ?? ??

But hold on. Offering multilingual customer support is easier said than done. So, how do you start?

Many customer-support teams hire agents specialising in languages for which they receive a high volume of customer interactions or tickets. However, there are many languages for which companies receive a low volume of tickets. At this juncture, brands often turn to automation or machine-based translation to scale up their multilingual interactions. ?

There are many ways brands can provide multilingual support - what you choose can make or break your brand. Free machine translation engines like Google Translate, though widely available and provide instant translations, but the quality of these translations is...uhm...well..average at best!?

Basically, if you rely on Google Translate to understand the customer complaints in foreign languages or reply to them in their native tongue, you risk your brand reputation on a near-constant basis.

Google Translate supports the translation of 109 languages, but not all language pairs are of equal quality or reliability.

Studies have shown that the accuracy of Google Translate heavily favours European languages, such as German, Dutch, and Italian, but for certain other languages like Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi, for instance, Google translate misses the mark by a long shot. ?

We decided to do a little test of our own:

We decided to Google Translate a typical customer service phrase from English to Hindi. The translated phrase we received was highly inaccurate. Take a look:

In Hindi, the phrase is translated to 'My command is wrong'. *Eye-roll*

In the phrase we entered, 'order' means the product received. But in Hindi, 'order' also means giving someone a command. These faults occur due to a lack of context, a major let-down in machine translations!

This is merely one simple sentence translated. Imagine how this can cause major confusion and cause the service team to spend their time, energy, and resources on the wrong issue.

Google Translate is not a smart choice for businesses that interact with customers from South Asia, where languages like Bengali, Hindi, Urdu are more common (refer to the above image). The translation quality worsens exponentially - and that's WITHOUT adding in any slang or cultural-specific expressions!

Need more reasons why you should stay away from machine translations? Here we go:

1. Google Translate only allows users to input up to 5,000 characters for translation at one time. This presents a problem when translating resources such as FAQs, knowledge base articles, and whole web pages since 5,000 characters will rarely be enough. You would eventually need a human to divide it into chunks of text and translate each section, which means investing time and effort in a tedious task (plus, take into account the time you need to proofread and double-check it).
2. Another drawback with Google Translate is that it doesn't provide the option to request a retranslation. If a support agent enters text to Google Translate and doesn't find the final translation accurate or suitable in the given context, what are they supposed to do? There is no scope for improvement or process to trigger a different translation. In dire need, the agent may find themselves conflicted on how to respond.
3. Lastly, when cutting and pasting support content into the Google Translate web portal, that content is subsequently stored by Google. It's even available to be called back up in the "History" option. Support chats and e-mails frequently contain personal data from customers, who won't look kindly on companies pasting their private information in a public portal where it is vulnerable to a breach. Here's what a former Engineer of Google had to say about Google Translate's privacy breach .

Maybe machine-enabled translations are improving with time and are nearly accurate, but do you really want to risk it? Even slightly incorrect translations can cost you your reputation, lead customers astray and even land you into legal trouble.

Here's a little tip - opt for human translations instead.

Customers want to talk to a human who understands them and can offer a personalised solution. Be it customer ticketing, e-mail conversations or Live Chat - a human can do it better.

But finding a native translator for every language isn't an easy feat - you need to collaborate with an LSP with designated project managers, a well-established network of linguists and an excellent track record!?

Partnering with a human language service can help you target higher - higher sales, higher customer satisfaction and higher brand loyalty in the long run.

Maybe, in the future, machine translations will get better, maybe they won't, but your customer support shouldn't hinge on that. Take a smart decision - invest in multilingual customer support provided by humans and see the difference it makes in your brand's upliftment.?