5 min read

There’s a new pressure to stand out throughout the entirety of a customer’s journey with a brand. Today’s customers have infinite options; from simple selections like ice cream brands, to increasingly complex business software offerings. The job of a customer success leader is to make sure customers have the best all-around experience with your brand, so that they not only choose you, but stay with you long-term.

We’ve listed a few things you should localize to provide a great experience to those customers who may have offices where different languages are spoken:

Your customer success reps

It’s not just online materials that need to be localized! Your Customer Success reps play a huge part in keeping customers happy and successful. To make sure they’re delivering the best experience possible, you’ll want to train them on cultural and linguistic differences.

For example, in the US, when you call support, it’s common for the rep to address you by your first name. But in the Philippines, it’s the norm to address customers by ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma'am’, no matter what age they are. Making sure your reps are familiar with these differences will allow your Support teams to communicate effectively with every customer, no matter where they are in the world.

The support center

Your Support Center is home to all things “need-to-know” about your products, features, and services. Localizing your support pages gives customers the opportunity to self-serve and find the solutions they need quickly. Contacting support should be the next step for customers when the solution provided on the Help Page can’t fully resolve their issue, not when the information provided is ill-worded or tough to understand. If you find yourself buried with support tickets from other countries, this could be a reason why. Many companies rely on pure MT for their support content, only to realize that much of the nuance required when explaining complex processes is lost in (machine) translation!

In-app chatbots

In-app chatbots were developed to resemble real-life Customer Support representatives. When speaking to an actual person, you engage in conversation that features humor, prose, nuance, and really, life. People want to talk to actual people, and while most realize when they’re interacting with a bot, it’s still a great opportunity to deliver a great experience that’s localized for the customer’s home country. Programming your chatbots to consider linguistic norms and phrases will impress customers, because it will show that you’re committed to a great experience down to the smallest detail.

Customer forums

User generated content, like your community forums, can be difficult to translate in a timely manner. There is so much that gets added on a daily basis that it can seem somewhat futile to translate every single entry. Instead, consider creating threads for customers in different locales, and translate key subjects that you think might interest your global customer base. This gives your international customers the chance to not only participate in community discussions, but ultimately, enables them to get the maximum value out of the resource.

Product and feature launch collateral

Case studies are valuable for foreign customers, and localizing them, even if it’s just a shorter version, can give your customers a better understanding of how your latest and greatest addition will benefit them. But don’t stop there. You’ll also want to consider localizing things like customer testimonials, release notes, and even adding subtitles to product videos to promote product adoption across all of your customers.

Customer Success is a huge opportunity for businesses to grow their existing revenue today. By focusing on how you can make your customers happier and more successful, you can retain them longer and hopefully they’ll even buy more of your products in the future.