Key Takeaway: Telephone interpretation allows call centers in healthcare, auto, insurance, and finance to support their customers with a non-English language preference (NELP) on demand, without hiring bilingual staff for every language.
A call center can staff Spanish-speaking agents and still get a call in Vietnamese, Amharic, or Tagalog tomorrow morning.
Languages spoken in any given region shift over time, making forecasting which languages customers will need on any given day difficult to determine with certainty.
Chinese and Tagalog, for example, have grown steadily since 1990. Chinese speakers in the U.S. have increased by nearly 160%, while Tagalog has grown by 127.9%, according to the 1990 and 2024 Census.
Telephone interpretation gives call centers immediate 24/7/365 access to qualified interpreters. This helps organizations accommodate changing language needs, support customers in languages they do not staff internally, and meet customer expectations.
Telephone Interpretation Is Ideal for
Unpredictable Volume Spikes
Call centers face unexpected call volumes from several factors. For language demand, these spikes can be caused by variables like:
- Shifts in language demographics
- Immigration trends
- New customer acquisition
- Customers who speak a language of limited diffusion with no historical data capture
Language service providers (LSPs) offer on-demand telephone interpreting 24/7/365 for call centers in hundreds of languages. Having an LSP in place will help your agents be ready to handle language demand outside of predictable trends.
Speaking Your Customer’s Language Can Help Resolve Concerns at First Touch
Your customers want their issue solved the first time they reach out. First-contact resolution builds trust and loyalty to your brand, and research cited by HubSpot suggests that 67% of customer attrition is preventable if issues are resolved on first contact.
Language barriers make first-resolution contact more difficult. When customers cannot explain their concerns clearly or struggle to understand next steps, interactions may require additional calls, transfers, or follow-up contacts.
Supporting customers in their preferred language helps reduce these communication barriers and creates a smoother service experience.
Hot tip: Be mindful of how NELP customers prefer to communicate.
While phone calls may meet some needs, other NELP customers may prefer a text-based channel to communicate.
If a large percentage of your NELP consumer base prefers digital channels, think about creating multilingual self-service content. If individuals receive information about products in their own language, they’re more likely to buy — a whopping 76% of respondents to a CSA Research survey stated as much.
Your Customers Want You to Speak Their Language When They Call
Customers increasingly consider language support as part of a good customer experience.
Unbabel surveyed 2,754 consumers globally and found that 71% said it is extremely important that brands promote and support products and services in their native language.
In another Unbabel survey, 68% of consumers stated they’d switch to a competitor if they have support in their preferred language.
Together, these findings suggestion that language access has become an important factor for many consumers, particularly when they need help, make important decisions, or seek support.
Telephone interpretation can help you retain loyal customers the first time they call, no matter what language they speak.
Ready to improve language access? Request a quote for telephone interpreting services.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does adding telephone interpretation cost a call center?
Most language service providers charge a per-minute rate for telephone interpretation. The price can vary based on language mix and volume. Common languages like Spanish will fetch a cheaper per-minute price than languages of limited diffusion, or rare languages with few speakers. Higher call volume can also reduce the per-minute rate.
Do call center agents need training to use a telephone interpreter?
Yes. Call center agents do need training to work with a telephone interpreter. Training frequency depends on how often NELP customers need assistance and performance of agents during quality checks. Training should cover:
- How to access and document use of a telephone interpreter from your call center solution
- Cultural sensitivity
How do call center agents connect to a telephone interpreter?
Language service providers offer different interpreter connection types to accommodate different call center workflows. These can include interactive voice response (IVR), AI agents, customer service representatives, direct to interpreter, or customized integrations.
The most common way a call center agent would access a telephone interpreter:
- Dials a number
- Answers any intake questions
- Requests the language they need
- Gets connected with a telephone interpreter in under 30 seconds on average
