One of my favorite Bible stories is The Tower of Babel, where God comes down to the people of Babylon who have built a great tower and causes them to no longer be able to understand what they are saying to each other because he is displeased with their disobedience. It is a parable about why we have so many languages and how God punished the citizens of Babylon for trying to build a tower that would “reach up to heaven”.
I reference this story as an introduction to one of the most vexing, but easily solvable problems I face every day. We make an effort to make sure customers and reach us on the phone, even though we are a web based business, and we usually prefer to conduct transactions online. Still, we’ve had the same toll free phone number for 25 years and try to insure that it is answered by the third ring.
More and more, the caller on the other end of the line is a non-native English speaker and this usually means trouble. We deal in some fairly technical issues (product specs, tracking info, etc.) and language barriers can be a real problem. We’re a small business and, do date, no one in our shop is fluent in any other languages. Sometimes the confusion is humorous, but usually it is just frustrating-on both ends of the line.
In just about every case the problem, or inquiry, could be much more easily resolved if the customer would go to the web rather than the phone. In most cases, the answer to their question is readily available on one of our thousands of web pages. If not, our email address and contact form are easy to find.
Best of all, new translation software from Google means that the inquiry doesn’t even need to be posted in English. An inquiry in Spanish about a “micrófono se encuentra” can quickly be translated to “microphone stand” and a term like UPS tracking number becomes “Número de rastreo de UPS” with a couple of key strokes. It’s almost like having an international customer service department.
We’ll continue to prominently publish our toll free phone numbers and cheerfully answer the phone, but if you want the best customer service we can offer, then you’ll be happiest by sticking to the web.
GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Tell us how you use online translation services.
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