1) What type of growth in the near future are you expecting from bilingual services?
Over the past few years, we have seen a significant increase in the demand for over-the-phone interpretation services and language services in general. Based on trending data related to both population growth and growth in the buying power among minority segments, we anticipate even stronger demand for our services well into the future.
Projections that I’ve seen regarding minority buying power clearly indicate that these market segments will wield formidable economic clout. What’s also interesting is where this growth is occurring. Most people know that limited English-speaking populations are concentrated in about 10 key states, including California, Texas and New York. But we’re seeing the pattern changing as these segments spread out across the U.S. such as North Carolina and Idaho.
The statistics for the Asian market segments are particularly interesting because their purchasing power is expected to increase almost 3-fold from 2003 to 2007. It’s important to understand that Asians include consumers of so many national ancestries, languages and diverse cultures. These Asian segments attached great value to their cultural distinctions and that’s an important concept to appropriately execute on with any multilingual customer service strategy or your retention rate will suffer.
The key point is that minority market segments have been regarded in the past as “special” markets and accordingly given relatively little attention by corporations. But these segments are actually the fastest growing market segments. If I were marketing consumer-based products or services, I would be capitalizing on these segments.
2) What languages do you see as becoming more prevalent in the U.S.?
Well I think we are all aware of the rapid growth among some of the more traditional minority segments such as the Hispanic market, which is rapidly moving out of minority status. But, we’re seeing growth in languages of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as directly reflective of immigration patterns into the United States. This is not to infer, however, that companies should not be paying attention to population growth and purchasing patterns among multiple Asian, European and African cultures.
3) How much bilingual activity should a company have to justify bringing in a firm such as yours to assist their agents?
Certainly the first indicator is when a call center is unable to communicate in-language with its customers. It’s at this point that the call center needs to work with Tele-Interpreters to identify its multilingual customer requirements in order to ensure those customers receive the same service and quality levels experienced by an English speaking customer.
4) What type of selection criteria do you use for hiring bilingual agents? What special skills, outside of the obvious, do they need to have?
Our rigorous screening and hiring process (along with our training procedures) is the primary factor in delivering quality over-the-phone interpretation services and is definitely a key differentiator for Tele-Interpreters. Tele-Interpreters 2500+ interpreters are all based in North America. We hire only interpreters that have completed interpreter certification programs from recognized universities and interpreting institutions, such as the University of Arizona and the Southern California School of Interpretation. We also conduct additional interpreter testing to ensure they meet Tele-Interpreters’ standards. Interestingly enough, through this testing we end up passing only about 10% of all applicants. Once an interpreter is hired, the individual goes through Tele-Interpreters’ training program, which focuses on proper interpreting protocols, customer service skills, ethics and industry-specific training.
As many of our competitors have taken their operations offshore, they hire obviously from the indigenous population. These interpreters may have adequate foreign language proficiency (though it’s unclear whether they have language certifications from accredited institutions), but they don’t have excellent English-speaking skills. When interpreting, you need both language skills, and you need to have the appropriate cultural aptitude as well. In fact, we’ve seen recruitment for offshore interpreters where the advertisement stipulates “no experience necessary.” As a result, there is degradation in quality and a lengthening of the call, which adds additional costs and customer services issues.
5) As I understand it, you have a three-way call between the agent, the interpreter and the customer. Does the call loose some of its impetus or effectiveness in what could be construed as an awkward conversation?
There are unique protocols for interpreting via the telephone. The key is training of the interpreter in proper over-the-phone interpreting protocols. This training coupled with simple training of the company’s CSRs at the time of service implementation will ensure that the interpretation session proceeds effectively.
Within an over-the-phone interpreting call environment, there are distinct requirements, such as the necessity to interpret consecutively versus simultaneously. Most people are probably accustomed to the UN model of interpreting simultaneous to the foreign language speaker. This is where training of our clients’ CSR is important. And, there are built-in visual limitations that impair the interpreter’s ability to sense the situation that one can easily sense during face-to-face interpreting. Because of these special circumstances, interpreters must be well-trained. There’s a lot more involved than just hiring proficient interpreters.
6) What measurements, techniques, etc. do you use to insure the quality of the call?
Tele-Interpreters’ Quality Assurance Department rigorously monitors live and recorded over-the-phone interpretations on a daily basis, 24x7.This department is composed of veteran certified interpreters. And our quality assurance supervisors have multiple years of both professional industry experience and teaching background.
Tele-Interpreters utilizes a state-of-the-art non-linear digital monitoring system. Via our sophisticated monitoring protocol, our QA supervisors grade our interpreters on all aspects of over-the-phone interpreting skills, industry terminology as well as customer service skills. We also ensure that we constantly close the loop by supplying auxiliary tutoring to assure our clients are receiving the best interpreting service possible.
7) As a rather unique business, what have been the major obstacles that you have had to overcome in marketing your services?
One major obstacle is getting our clients to understand that there is a difference between using offshore interpreters versus outsourcing IT functions to an offshore call center. Some clients utilize offshore outsourcers for their IT programs and thus may feel that they can obtain the same customer satisfaction levels by going offshore with their language requirements. What we’ve continued to learn and receive feedback on is that while clients are achieving customer satisfaction levels with their offshore IT outsourcer, they are experiencing increased call costs and decreased satisfaction levels with offshore interpreter models. It’s typically at this point that clients approach Tele-Interpreters to partner on a solution that produces an immediate return on value. 100% of Tele-Interpreters’ clients, who have previously used offshore interpreters, have documented decreasing costs and increased customer satisfaction levels because of Tele-Interpreters’ continued investment in North American-domiciled interpreters and our commitment to interpreter quality.