Bilingual Call Centers Provide Broadest Call Answering Services

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As more Spanish speakers enter the U.S. market, bilingual call centers are positioned to generate more profit for their clients by handling calls in this market’s primary language. For years, call answering services staffed mainly – or only – English-speaking receptionists. Those will no longer work in today’s world.

A bilingual call center provides the same services to both English- and Spanish-speaking callers. When a company contracts with a call answering service that offers bilingual services, the company can greatly increase profits by moving into a much larger market.

Bilingual call centers offer 24-hour answering services, message-taking, incoming call management, live phone answering, order taking and order fulfillment just like any other call answering service. Census statistics show that there are more than 36 million Spanish speakers in the United States. Many of these surely speak English as well, but those for whom Spanish is their primary language are more comfortable speaking it when on the phone and doing business.

When a call answering ...
... service staffs only people who are fluent speakers of both English and Spanish, the communications process runs smoothly. It eliminates lost calls during the process of transferring the caller to someone who speaks their language. But it’s not enough to have English and Spanish speaking staff – a true bilingual call center will have staff who are bilingual themselves.

Everywhere you look you see more and more product packaging and signage in English and Spanish. There is much business to be done within the Spanish-speaking market, and hiring a bilingual call center to manage your communications is an important step. Call answering services that cater to both linguistic markets can generate far more profit for their clients than call answering services whose staff speak only English.

Another consideration here is that whatever language a call answering services representative speaks, it must be spoken clearly and not in a hard-to-understand accent. Bilingual call centers that are properly managed make sure that all speakers talk clearly and plainly to prevent the customer from becoming frustrated and possibly ending the call.

The value of excellent customer service can’t be over-emphasized, and by hiring a bilingual call center, your company can be assured of not only making new customers but also retaining the customers you already have. Nobody likes to do business with call answering services that constantly transfer their calls and make the process tedious. Nobody likes to feel that they’re not number one, which is a constant problem with call answering services that staff only English speakers or not enough receptionists who speak Spanish.

Just how much money is spent in the United States within the Hispanic market? In 2008, it was $870 billion – and that’s expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2013. These statistics alone, which were reported by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at The University of Georgia, show the value of bilingual call centers as opposed to call answering services that speak only English.

Janet Livingston is President of Customer Contact Services, a telecommunications company providing a full array of bilingual call centers services and telephone call answering services throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and has been in the call answering services business for more than 35 years.