Support goes global: Localization for customer service teams

Our business is to make internet business personal – not just for people in need of customer service, but also for the people offering it. Localization is a major part of that goal. 

What is localization? 

The process of localization involves tailoring your product to fit the needs of a local culture and language. It means that users across the world get the same great experience within your product, regardless of where they are or the language they speak. 

It’s also a major contributor to a customer support team’s morale. In the US alone, more than 20% of people don’t speak English at home – using a tool at work that doesn’t support the language they’re most comfortable with complicates their jobs unnecessarily.

“With more than 25,000 businesses using Intercom to serve their own customers in more than 130 countries, our platform hosts millions of conversations in countless languages”

The support reps our products serve come from every corner of the world. With more than 25,000 businesses using Intercom to serve their own customers in more than 130 countries, our platform hosts millions of conversations in countless languages. As we’ve scaled and as our customer base has expanded around the world, we have focused on ensuring our product and website are designed to support more and more languages – allowing our customers to support their customers in their preferred language. 

Localization is a step-by-step process

As Lokalise’s Head of Digital Growth, Emīls Vēveris, wrote on the Intercom blog, “for localization to be most efficient, best practice dictates that it should be an ongoing process.” We’re taking the approach of continuous localization, meaning we are consistently looking at how we can improve and upgrade our language offerings for our customers, and incrementally increase the percentage of our app and features available in a range of languages.

If you work in a multilingual company, or alongside teammates who do not speak English, we’ve got good news – Intercom now supports French, German, Spanish and Portuguese across the following functions:

• Our next-generation Inbox with real-time dashboards, where our customers spend the majority of their time.
• Reports, Articles, Contacts – everything that is necessary for day-to-day customer service outside of answering conversations.
• Sending invitations, Settings, Sign-in and Billing – for administration purposes.

Not only that, but it can massively upgrade your customers’ experiences with the following possibilities:

• Our Messenger and Resolution Bot support a whopping 32 languages, so you can offer your customers a truly personalized service. Fin, our new AI-powered chatbot, has initially been designed to work through English, though we plan to add support for additional languages soon.
• You can localize the Help Center in just a few clicks, changing the language of the entire user interface – including the search prompt on your homepage, the article count, author, “last modified” date, and the reactions prompt on your articles. 
• It’s incredibly simple to configure your Help Center to support multiple languages.

These are the tools that help our customers build personalized relationships with their customers around the world. The more languages our products support, the stronger the relationships they can build with their customers.

We won’t accept anything less than complete localization, and although it’s a huge challenge, the consistent small steps we’re taking have a big impact.

“76% of customers prefer to make buying decisions in their own language”

What’s best for your team is best for your customers

A happy team means happy customers, and as your team benefits from working in the language they’re most comfortable with, you’ll notice the impact on your customer’s satisfaction. If that’s not enough to convince you, here are just some of the ways localization can help your business.

1. Helps to attract talent: Enabling your teammates to navigate the Inbox in their primary language opens your business to talent all over the world. 
2. Increases conversion rates: Research shows that 76% of customers prefer to make buying decisions in their own language – enabling your support reps to communicate and work through their preferred language makes this process smoother.
3. Increases employee retention: We know that employees that feel comfortable and confident in their jobs are more likely to stay. Offering our products in multiple languages allows support teams to maximize their potential, opportunities – and ultimately, job satisfaction.

Open up your business to the benefits of localization – for both your customers and your support team.

Learn more about Intercom’s workspace localization here