“Para Español, oprima dos.”

With 1 in 10 US residents speaking English “less than very well,” and demographic trends predicting a more multilingual population in the future, most US insurance carriers have explored the possibility of taking calls from non-English-speaking customers using phone interpretation. But what about the customer – or prospective customer – who doesn’t call?

Are your self-service channels available in the non-English languages your customers prefer? Here are five reasons to consider professional translation for online resources.

1. Empowering Non-English Speaking Customers to Buy Online Could Increase Revenue 

In 2016, J.D. Power reported that “74% of shoppers use insurer websites…for obtaining quotes and researching information.” For shoppers who don’t read English, this takes your carrier out of the running unless your site is available in other languages. 1 in 4 shoppers then go on to buy their policy online, without ever calling a contact center – phone interpretation alone may not win you their business.

J.D. Power also reports that the “1 in 4 shoppers” figure is up from 1 in 5 just two years earlier in 2014. With the near-ubiquity of smart phones, and younger drivers replacing baby boomers behind the wheel, expect the trend of increased online shopping for insurance to continue for the foreseeable future, including for non-English speakers.

2. Customer Satisfaction Depends on Online Self Service

Fast Company and Survey Sampling International report that “70% of consumers expect a self-service option for handling commercial questions and complaints.” And 90% of respondents answered “Speed” when asked “What is important when you have an issue with a company that needs to be resolved?”

Harvard Business Review found that 57% of all inbound contact center callers had already been to the company web site and failed to find the answer they sought. Many customers would prefer not to call but are forced to by a lack of self-service/online resources.

For non-English-speaking customers, self-service channels won’t be useful unless they’re professionally translated. Offering self-service in each of the world’s 6,000 languages may be impractical, but translating versions of your site into the top 10 languages spoken in the US would cover 97% of US residents.

The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) surveyed hundreds of contact center leaders, and confirmed that most believe multilingual support has improved customer satisfaction. 80% of these leaders also expected a lack of availability in a customer’s language to negatively impact satisfaction.

Now that you’re familiar with some of the benefits of translating online resources into multiple languages…