Developing a U.S. Hispanic Customer Care Strategy

By

Tony Malaghan, Arial International, LLC

Since the release of the U.S. Census Bureaus 2000 Census results, companies across the United States have realized the potential of the U.S. Hispanic market.   We’ve all read or heard the statistics that have created the buzz - currently more than one person in eight in the US is of Hispanic origin.Through natural growth and immigration, forecasters are predicting by 2050 one in four people in the US will be Hispanic.   Combine these population statistics with estimates of this segment’s purchasing power, variously estimated in 2003 to be between $430 & $653 billion; it is not surprising the amount of interest and activity this segment is generating.  

The increasing commoditization of products, that is the degree of similarity in price and features between a companies products and its competitors, has seen an increasing trend in similar products being offered by companies across industries such as banks, cell phone companies, credit card issuers etc.   The importance of quality customer service in a commodity market as a point of competitive differentiation cannot be ignored. This is particularly true with the U.S. Hispanic consumer who demonstrates far more loyalty than the general market consumer.  

While many companies are endeavoring to attract the U.S. Hispanic consumer with varying degrees of marketing effort, one area that companies often fail to deliver on is quality customer service. Without a suitably qualified and appropriately trained back office to support your marketing campaign, your marketing dollars are at risk and the campaign doomed to failure.   The discrepancies that currently exist between current U.S. Hispanic customer service standards and those of “Best Practice” U.S. Hispanic customer care are far too prevalent.    The areas where improvements in performance and service standards can lead to significant gains and competitive advantage are:

1. Hire Competent Bilingual Staff

If you are going to embark on a proactive marketing campaign targeting U.S. Hispanics, resource your Call Center and other customer interfaces with fully bilingual personnel who proficiently speak, read and write in both languages.    It has been well researched and documented that U.S. Hispanics prefer to be marketed to in their native language. In 2003, Cheskin Research conducted a survey of 6,000 U.S. Hispanics and found that 76% prefer to be marketed to in-language.   It is a reasonable expectation that if a prospect receives a solicitation in Spanish, he/she can respond by telephone or visit a retail outlet and speak to a Spanish speaking representative.

Hiring fully bilingual staff can be more challenging than it appears since Spanish speakers in the U.S. may be immigrants, or first, second or third generation Americans. Many of those born in the U.S. learned to speak Spanish at home and are unable to read or write fluently in Spanish. Their understanding of the Spanish language may be limited to their families or communities. The challenge this provides in the workplace is that conversations at home are colloquial. Speaking to family and friends about sports, television shows, meals, etc. is very different from conducting a telephone conversation with a customer.

The best way to hiring the best qualified bilingual candidates is by using language proficiency assessments that test verbal communication, reading comprehension and/or writing skills to evaluate the competency of the Spanish speaker.

2. Provide Spanish Language Customer Service Training

Bilingual customer service representatives encounter many challenges in their work environment.   They must use accurate terminology and phrasing to describe new product features, service enhancements, cross-sell another product, describe payment options etc.   We find that customer service representatives at many organizations undertake their training in English and then supervisors tell their bilingual staff, “now go say that to customers in Spanish.”

Without appropriate in-language training, customer service representatives who are not intimately familiar with specific industry terminology and vocabulary in Spanish often make errors and become frustrated in their conversations with customers.   This negatively impacts the customer’s service experience and ultimately their perception of your company and brand.

The key to success is to emphasize Spanish language training for bilingual Call Center representatives servicing Hispanic consumers.   The most effective in-language training includes: “Business Spanish” Communication for Customer Service including vocabulary and industry specific terms and phrases, Telemarketing, Cross-selling and Up-selling, Handling Difficult Customers, Listening and Bridging Techniques for Customer Service Calls, and techniques to effectively handle the cultural diversity of Spanish speakers in the U.S.

3. Integrate Spanish Language Marketing & Customer Service

If your company is serious about proactively targeting this segment of the market, then your marketing strategy needs to be fully integrated and implemented across all customer contact points and all customer communication.   It is not enough to have your English web site translated verbatim into Spanish.   If you are attempting to create the impression that you are catering to the specific needs of a segment of the market, then you had better live up to the customer’s expectations of how to fulfill those needs in the critical area of marketing and customer service.

This means integrating in-language marketing campaign from the solicitation right through to the acceptance of the offer and beyond.   However, your in-language communication should not cease when the prospect has accepted the offer, all on-going communication including customer service letters, monthly statements, statement inserts, up-sell and cross-sell solicitations, terms & conditions, etc. should be in Spanish.  

In summary, undoubtedly, this segment of the U.S. market offers great potential to those companies that are willing to proactively target and offer “Best practice” service standards.   However, providing and achieving quality customer service doesn’t just happen.   It requires a plan, senior management buy-in, adequate budget, fully bilingual staff, and appropriate Spanish language customer service training. Those companies willing to ensure they are hiring appropriately qualified personnel and then provide them with the necessary in-language training will be rewarded by this very loyal market segment.

Arial International with offices in the USA and Latin America is the industry leader in U.S. Hispanic marketing, consulting and training with over 12 years of experience in delivering services to companies targeting this specialized segment of the U.S. market.