Jan 25 2012

Answering Service or Bilingual Answering Service – That is the Question

Category: Outsourcing, Regional Answering Service

For companies based in regions of the United States of America with large Hispanic populations, it is imperative that both English and Spanish speaking callers can be served. When hiring an answering service, you should not settle for only a portion of the operators being able to speak Spanish. Transferring a caller from one operator to another can seem clumsy and unprofessional.

When deciding on an answering service, choose to hire a completely bilingual service or settle for a regular English-speaking only call center. Presenting your company as accommodating Spanish speakers, while staffing a call center that is just partially bilingual, will end up giving your company a bad reputation for not being able to handle calls in a timely manner. When a customer telephones your company, they do not want to be transferred because the operator they reached initially cannot speak their language fluently. This can be frustrating and might even be embarrassing for the client.

This leaves you with two viable options: You could hire bilingual staff members to answer all phone calls, or you could outsource your calls to an answering service that has a bilingual call center.

If you decide to go the route of hiring your own staff and setting up an in-house call center, you may end up spending more money than you actually need to. Beyond the salaries and benefit expense of bringing on additional staff, you also must accommodate for the increased office space requirements, furniture and equipment costs, and training expense. In addition, it can be difficult to find employees for an in-house bilingual call center who are experienced in your industry in addition to speaking Spanish and English fluently.

Fortunately, there are cost-effective alternatives available. A bilingual answering service is the perfect solution for your business. Every call that the service answers on the behalf of your business will be handled professionally, whether in English or Spanish. This professional service is billed on an as-needed basis, saving you a great deal when compared to developing your own salaried staff of call center operators.

When a client makes a phone call to your company, and the operator answering is capable of speaking to them in their home language, your company will reap the benefits of having a 24-hour bilingual answering service. Providing attentive customer service, fluently in two languages, is definitely the best way to take care of your clients needs and keeping them happy.

There is no need to go through the hassle of recruiting employees who can speak both Spanish and English fluently to staff your call center. Similarly, you need not go through the added expense of operator training and telecommunications equipment costs that come with running an in-house call center. By choosing a cost-effective bilingual answering service, your business will be able to provide both English and Spanish language customer support from the moment you start.

Bilingual answering services can offer more than just basic telephone answering and message taking services. There are many options to choose from; any service offered by a traditional English-only answering service can also be provided by an English/Spanish answering service as well. You need not ignore one aspect of your answering service needs because you need Spanish language support. Bilingual call center support includes everything from bilingual appointment setting to virtual receptionist functionality.

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One Response to “Answering Service or Bilingual Answering Service – That is the Question”

  1. Top 10 Contact Center Solutions Part 2 | Answering Service Blog
    January 29th, 2012 @ 4:15 pm

    [...] Will my clients be talking to operators located overseas who don’t speak English well? Will callers know they are talking to someone at a contact center?This is a common concern expressed by those considering an answering service for their business. Most people have had at least one bad telephone experience with a call center located overseas. Although many call centers are located in countries such as India and the Philippines, a significant portion are located in the United States and Canada. In addition, not all overseas call centers provide poor quality service. Similarly, the fact that a particular call center is located domestically does not guarantee a minimum quality of servicefor that provider.Contact center solutions: With regard to language fluency concerns, it is worth noting that many call centers provide multi-lingual answering service. This is an important feature for many businesses that serve a multinational or multilingual clientele. In the United States, bilingual English/Spanish answering service is the most commonly offered service of this type, but other languages such as French and Korean are sometimes supported. Although English-only call centers usually suffice, many companies depend on bilingual answering service. [...]

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