Scalable, Cost-Effective and Real-Time Multilingual CX: The Key to Elevating Travel Experiences
Personalization goes beyond knowing a customer’s birthday and sending the typical, generic ‘Happy Birthday’ email. When it comes to raising the bar in CX, travel and hospitality brands are constantly looking for ways to delight their customers through bespoke experiences that exceed expectations and foster customer loyalty. Every step of the traveler’s journey is an opportunity to wow a customer – from the booking experience to the luxurious amenities in a hotel room – but the best way to make customers feel cared for, understood and valued is by servicing them in their preferred language. According to industry data, 29% of businesses cite losing customers because they did not offer multilingual support, and 70% of end users say they feel more loyal to companies that provide services in their native language. The message is clear. Personalization, particularly when it comes to communication, is not just a nice touch, but an expectation that enhances the brand interaction.
Why Multilingual CX is a Must-Have in Travel and Hospitality
- Global Customer Base: Travel and hospitality brands cater to customers all around the globe who have diverse linguistic backgrounds.
- Cultural Sensitivity: Multilingual support allows companies to provide tailored services that take cultural preferences into consideration, leading to a more culturally sensitive and inclusive customer experience.
- Competitive Advantage: In a competitive industry like travel and hospitality, multilingual support is the key to keeping up, but to truly standout, delivering customer service without language barriers makes all the difference.
- Customer Satisfaction: Providing support in a customer’s native language can greatly improve the overall customer satisfaction levels. When customers can communicate easily, they feel connected to the brand, leading to higher levels of satisfaction.
- Critical During Unexpected Travel Incidents: It’s already extremely stressful when travel plans go awry, but it is even more frustrating for travelers when they are scrambling and are unable to speak to an agent in their preferred language, which only amplifies their frustration.
Obstacles When Setting Up Multilingual Support
Hiring language-proficient staff across multiple locations is expensive as the training, scheduling and management of small, distributed teams can be complex and inefficient. For instance, accent neutralization training alone can take 2-3 days. Whether it is peak travel season or there is an uptick in demand for CX support due to an unexpected travel incident (weather, flight delays or cancelations, virus outbreak, etc.), travel and hospitality brands want the flexibility to expand or contract their CX workforce. But adding multilingual support is an extra layer that is not necessarily easy and cost effective to set up. When some brands are required to double in size, and especially on the fly, rising to the occasion to help frustrated and anxious travelers during a time of crisis is a defining moment for customer loyalty.
AI-Powered Solutions Save the Day
Although customer acceptance and adoption of AI and automation technologies may vary, the world is heading in this direction, and companies must be prepared. With today’s technological advancements, AI-powered tools can now translate text and voice accurately in real time and in many languages and dialects. Translation tools are powered by natural language models that are localized to meet the needs of every market through AI. With the use of translation technology, a single agent can deliver multiple languages from anywhere in the world via any channel. In some cases, these translation solutions can save companies up to 50% in operational expenses. For instance, by reducing language-related delays, the resolution process speeds up while significantly reducing costs, improving the quality of the delivery, and enhancing customer satisfaction. By eliminating the friction from language barriers, service is more efficient and faster, solidifying customer loyalty, and reducing the cognitive load from agents so they can focus on their soft skills and emotional intelligence, ultimately impacting a company’s ROI in a positive way.
Global companies servicing any language other than English benefit from this kind of technology, particularly when it comes to difficult-to-source languages like German, Nordics, Cantonese, Japanese, Hebrew, Mandarin, and Portuguese.
Effective Communication Builds Trust
Whether it’s booking travel, addressing concerns, providing personalized recommendations, or greeting guests upon arrival, brands that are serious about winning over their customers are investing dollars and resources to provide top-notch service in each interaction. And at the end of the day, travel and hospitality companies are seeking to establish one thing with their customers – trust. Why? Because people will always buy and engage more with companies they trust. A study from Deloitte shows that trusted companies outperform their peers by up to 400%, directly impacting the bottom line. Therefore, removing the language barrier is crucial because a breakdown in communication is, essentially, a breakdown in trust.