All You Need to Know About Multilingual IVR for Regional Outreach

Gone are those days when a majority of businesses used to be confined to just one location. In today’s age, organizations not only run operations across many locations but they serve customers belonging to different linguistic backgrounds.

That’s why contemporary businesses must be multilingual. To paraphrase noted psycholinguist Frank Smith, using just one language sets one in a corridor for life. Communicating in multiple languages opens a lot of doors along the way.

Just as the technology revolution enabled businesses to be more global, it can also enable them to become multilingual. One of the easiest and most effective ways is by leveraging multilingual IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems.

In this blog post we will discuss multilingual IVR in brief, starting from what it is and how it works to its benefits for contemporary businesses as well as the best practices for implementing the right multilingual IVR.

If you are an entrepreneur or a professional this blog post will offer a wealth of insights on multilingual IVR systems. So, let’s get right into the blog post and find out more about the sophisticated technology. Read on and you will be glad to do so.

What Is Multilingual IVR and How It Works?

Multilingual IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is a feature in call or contact center software. As the name suggests, it offers callers a wide range of language options and enables them to select their preferred language. By choosing the preferred language, callers can avail self-service options or interact with a call center agent who is proficient in that language.

A multilingual IVR system may look complicated but it’s quite simple in terms of the way it works. When callers contact a company, the multilingual IVR feature embedded in the call center software presents multiple language options to choose from.

It can be the native language (or native languages) of callers as well as major global languages (such as English, French, or Spanish). That gives callers the freedom to choose their most preferred language.

After the caller selects a language, the multilingual IVR system routes the call to an agent who can communicate in the language fluently. If you call the customer care number of any reputed company after the greeting and salutations, the first thing you will listen to is options to choose your preferred language.

For instance, if you call a telecom company, you will be told to press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish, press 3 for French, and so on. That’s nothing but multilingual IVR systems in play.

Benefits of Multilingual IVR

Multilingual IVR has come as a boon for all types and sizes of businesses across industries. Here are some of the key benefits multilingual IVR systems offer:

1. Improved CX

For contemporary businesses Customer Experience (CX) and customer satisfaction matters a lot. Multilingual Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can increase customer satisfaction. 

By delivering personalized customer service, customer interactions, and a wide array of self service options in customers’ preferred languages, the right multilingual IVR system enhances customer satisfaction by leaps and bounds.

2. Higher Customer Retention

As per various studies, it’s five to seven times less expensive to retain existing customers than attracting new ones. For businesses, customer loyalty and customer retention is the key to survival. This is where multilingual Interactive Voice Response systems prove to be extremely useful. 

By delivering multilingual support, IVR systems gauge diverse customers’ linguistic preferences. Not just that, it can also understand customer preferences, customer needs, and customer behavior.

3. Wider Reach

It’s quite obvious that communication in multiple languages gives contemporary businesses a wider reach. Let’s discuss how. Organizations that run their operations in international markets will need to speak with customers from different linguistic backgrounds. That includes non English speaking customers. 

By leveraging the right multilingual IVR systems, businesses can run multilingual contact centers and provide multilingual support to their diverse customer bases.

4. Enhanced Brand Reputation and Trust

Just imagine a situation where a company provides multilingual support and personalized communication to its customers as opposed to an organization that doesn’t. Which one is more likely to earn customer trust? The former of course. 

A business that allows its customers to communicate with them in their preferred language is better equipped to satisfy customers and increase their trust in the brand.

5. Higher FCR Rate

What happens when a customer contacts a call center and finds that they can’t communicate in the language they are comfortable with? Well, it would require customers to make more rounds of calls to get their issues and queries resolved. It would result in customer dissatisfaction. 

However, by routing calls to the right agents, multilingual IVR systems increase first contact resolution (FCR) rate of businesses. Customers only get to speak with those agents who understand and can communicate in their preferred language. This increases the FCR rate.

Best Practices for Setting the Right Multilingual IVR

Before going live with a multilingual IVR system, businesses must ensure that they know and implement the best practices. Here are some of those.

1. Select the Key Languages for Your Business and Customers

Can you guess how many languages there are in the world? As per Ethnologue, a language documentation resource, there are more than 7,000 languages spoken globally. When it comes to selecting languages in your multilingual IVR system, you could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of languages. But you must select the most important ones based on your location and the geographical and demographic factors of your customers.

2. Conduct Surveys and Take Feedback

You can conduct customer surveys and take customer feedback to select the most appropriate languages for your multilingual IVR system. When you ask your customer bases about their language preferences and language priorities, you are in a better position to make the right choices.

3. Leverage AI Tools for Cost Efficiency

When it comes to generating pre-recorded voice messages or text options for your multilingual IVR system, consider leveraging AI-powered tools. Even though such tools won’t be able to replace natural talent and the human touch, they are cost effective. A majority of these tools can generate voice commands as well as written real-time texts. AI is a game changer as far as communication is concerned, and you would be better off using it.

4. Test, Monitor, and Iterate

After generating the pre-recorded messages and text options, it’s time to find out whether or not they work in real world conditions. Conduct limited tests and seek customers’ feedback. Use analytics to monitor performance. If the actual results fall short, iterate and repeat the process.

5. Integrate with CRM System

Once you select the final script, it’s time to integrate the multilingual IVR system with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Doing that will not only help you track customers’ previous requests and communication history but also their language preferences as well as the most suitable agent for them.

All In All,

In today’s globalization age, language should no longer be a barrier between businesses and customers. Contemporary businesses must do whatever it takes to communicate with their customers’ preferred languages.

This is where multilingual IVR systems prove to be extremely useful. Businesses that handpick the right multilingual IVR systems not only benefit from the tools’ sophisticated features but also in putting robust processes in place.

If you are an entrepreneur or a professional, you must make sure that you choose the right multilingual system for your organization.