PGLS Pulse: February 2025

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the PGLS Pulse: your source of timely and thoughtful news about the language services industry.

Global Growth, Local Impact: Delivering Exceptional Customer Experience Across Borders

In today’s global marketplace, customer experience plays a pivotal role in determining a brand’s success. For instance, 17% of customers will stop using a brand after one negative experience, while positive experiences can boost customer loyalty and drive revenue growth. As businesses expand globally, language and cultural barriers present challenges in delivering consistent, positive experiences.

To stay competitive, companies must prioritize language access and adopt a global mindset that ensures local adaptations, creating equitable value across markets. This requires a strategic blend of advanced technology and human expertise, where AI tools assist in scaling operations, but expert linguists ensure cultural nuances and context are preserved.

PGLS empowers businesses to overcome these challenges with comprehensive language services, helping them build trust, retain customers, and deliver a seamless, consistent experience across borders.

Industry Insights

PwC Consumer Intelligence Series: Customer Experience is Everything

Imagine losing a quarter of your customers in a single day—permanently. That’s the reality of one bad customer experience. Customer experience ranks high among purchase decisions, with 73% of customers listing it as a critical factor, just behind price and product quality. Alarmingly, 17% of customers will abandon a brand after one bad experience, and 59% after several negative encounters.

On the flip side, delivering exceptional experiences pays off: businesses can command up to a 16% price premium on products and services while fostering increased customer loyalty. For nearly 80% of American consumers, the key elements of a positive experience include speed, convenience, knowledgeable assistance, and friendly service.

Yet, many companies focus on flashy designs and cutting-edge technology. While important, customers expect technology to simply work and only notice it when it fails. Ultimately, these innovations mean little if speed, convenience, and accurate information are missing.

Language barriers can disrupt customer experiences, resulting in lost sales and a damaged brand reputation. Download our free eBook to learn how localization and multilingual support can reduce customer attrition, enhance loyalty, and drive revenue growth.

Read more from the study here.

Harvard Business Review: How Global Companies Can Create a Consistent Customer Experience?

The rise of online global marketplaces has made it easier than ever for companies to expand into multiple countries, often right from their inception. Publishing a blog post, launching a mobile app, or running digital ads can quickly establish an international presence, giving rise to “global native” companies.

However, building a truly global company is now more nuanced and complex. If customers in one region perceive less value than those in another, it alters how they view your offering. The goal isn’t to make experiences identical but to create local adaptations that provide equitable value across markets. To create truly localized and equitable experiences, it’s essential to adopt the GLOBE mindset early in the journey.

• Geography-agnostic: Is the project designed to meet the needs of customers across multiple geographies, rather than being centered on one market?
• Linguistically inclusive: Have we addressed the language and literacy needs of customers in the local markets we serve?
• Operationalized: Are the plans tailored to account for local differences, preventing friction for local teams during execution?
• Balanced: Are resources—such as funding and headcount—equitably allocated to support our priority markets?
• Empathetic: Have we engaged with customers and local market leaders to genuinely understand and address their needs?

PGLS offers comprehensive language solutions to facilitate seamless communication across diverse markets. These include, translation, localization, interpretation, and workforce language training. We empower businesses to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers, enhance customer experiences, and achieve their strategic objectives.

Read more here.

CSA Research: The Global Enterprise Content Production Line

In today’s globalized world, the success of enterprises relies on their ability to create, refine, and deliver content that connects with diverse audiences across languages and cultures. This process is like a manufacturing production line, with different departments — legal, logistics, marketing, product development, support, and training — working together to craft a polished, market-ready product.

Localization is crucial, going beyond simple translation to adapt content for cultural, legal, and market-specific needs. While AI can quickly translate large amounts of content and create a draft for human refinement, it falls short in handling cultural nuances and context. This is why expert human oversight remains essential.

AI should be viewed as a tool to complement human expertise, not replace it. By integrating AI thoughtfully into language services, businesses can boost efficiency, scale operations, and create content that resonates globally — helping global enterprises stay competitive and culturally relevant.

PGLS enables global companies to deliver consistent and equitable customer experiences through translation and localization services in over 200 languages, seamlessly adapting to local markets while preserving a unified global brand.

Read more here.

For Linguists

Nimdzi: Future Outlook on AI and Human Translators

The language services industry is set for a major transformation over the next decade, driven by rapid advancements in AI. Emerging tools like large language models (LLMs), AI-enhanced machine translation, speech recognition, and synthetic voices are being integrated into localization workflows. These technologies aim to boost efficiency and productivity.

Human expertise remains essential for handling mission-critical content. To stay competitive, translators must adapt to new technologies, diversify their skills, and specialize in niche areas. Building direct client relationships is also crucial for long-term success.

Additionally, translators who can handle complex tasks such as quality control, workflow orchestration, project management, and language technology integration will be in high demand.

Read more here.

Job Opportunities

We are always looking for talented language professionals. If you are a translator, interpreter, or language instructor, PGLS wants to work with you! Explore our open roles here.

PGLS Updates

• Watch Episode 2 of The Language Access Lectern, where Mark Byrne speaks with Tim Fournier, Student Support Specialist at Baldwin Community Schools, on supporting multilingual learners.
• Brett Weaver , Language Access Consultant at PGLS, shares how manufacturing translation services drive global growth and compliance in this blog.
• Patrick Evanson , Director of Localization, shares the importance of manufacturing translation services for technical documentation in this blog.
• Mark Byrne, Language Access Consultant at PGLS, shares best practices to optimize K-12 language access planning in this blog.
• Clare Schmitt , VP of Marketing and Communications, explores four key trends for global go-to-market planning in 2025 in this blog.
• Get our free eBook to learn how manufacturing enterprises can enhance safety, efficiency, quality control, and compliance in global manufacturing with tailored language solutions.
• Explore our language access guide to advance safety, efficiency, quality control, and compliance in manufacturing.

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