Written by: Ethan Rome
Client communication is important in building relationships between your business and its customers. Moreover, with increased connectedness, businesses have the task of building these relationships with clients from all over the world. However, this can prove daunting without effective communication. This means an exchange of clear, concise, correct, complete, and reliable messages between you and your customers. For global businesses, this means incorporating the same in messages sent to people who speak different languages and are drawn from different cultures. So, how can you ensure better client communication in a global business? This is where translation comes in. In this article, we discuss how translation enhances client communication and the best practice to achieve what you want.
Why is translation important?
Translating is simply converting your messages to the target languages of your customers. You might also need to translate foreign messages that you receive from your global customers into your own language. Moreover, translating these messages enhances communication in the following ways:
It enhances understanding
There are several reasons for client communication. One is to win the customers over and turn them into regular buyers as well as your brand advocates. Another reason would be to gain knowledge about a particular market through market surveys. For communication to be effective, it is paramount that the recipient of the message understands what the message is saying. Translation allows you to speak the native language of your clients. This way, they can understand what you are saying in a language that they are comfortable with. For instance, creating questionnaires in the native languages can fetch you more valuable answers and insights than you would if you were using another language. Likewise, translating the answers can give you a better understanding of what the clients are saying.
It helps build client trust
We are living in an era where clients want to do business with brands that they can trust. They are more willing to connect with businesses that resonate better with them. Speaking the customers’ native languages resonates deeply with them. They can see you as a trustworthy brand that goes out of the way to reach them in a way that they prefer. Additionally, they feel valued just by speaking their languages. As a result, clients are more responsive to your brand message. They are likely to listen to you and give you a chance.
It helps reach a wider audience
You can’t term client communication as effective if you haven’t reached the customers that you are targeting with your message. If you stick to just one language, you are limiting your audience reach. On the other hand, translating your message to multiple languages puts no limit on the number of people that you communicate to effectively.
Work with an expert
When it comes to translation, most companies opt to use machine translation or do it internally with employees who speak the target languages. While this saves time and money, it can cause mishaps that can be costly down the road. One of the best practices in translation is hiring professional translation services. These experts are helpful in the following ways and more:
- Professional translations – It is not always that words translate to their direct meaning in the target language. Skipping professional help is likely to get you a final product that is full of incomprehensible sentences and other embarrassing mistakes. Unfortunately, these can look bad in the eyes of the clients and you might end up losing the business.
- Deeper culture understanding – There are words, visuals and images, and the like that might appear okay to you, but offensive to clients who come from different cultures. Professional translators have a deep understanding of different cultures. They can use this knowledge to eliminate such nuances that might cost your business reputation.
- Subject matter experts – Regardless of your niche, you can find translators who are good in your field. This means translations that capture the subject matter in a professional way, which enhances clients’ understanding.
Conclusion
When communicating with global clients, translation is the communication tool that you need for effective communication. Speaking your clients’ languages not only ensures precise understanding but also ensures that the message resonates better with them. However, it is important to avoid cutting corners as it can be costly. Ensure that you find a reliable translation company to work with. This can guarantee you professionally done translations that will impress your clients and encourage them to engage with your brand.