Last year, my husband and I decided to take in a foreign exchange student for the school year. Soon Ju Noh is a 17 year old from South Korea. We were sure there would be a long list of adjustments we would all need to make to not only get along, but to live together. A favorite past time for us is asking Judy, Soon Ju’s American name, how to say certain words in Korean. It became evident rather quickly that we couldn’t master even the basics of hello and good-bye. However, the important part of our interaction is that we are trying to find common ground so that we can enjoy a relationship together. We have learned to avoid using American slang or slogans because she takes those things literally. She has learned that we need her to speak up. We have learned that she takes her school work seriously and she has learned that we like to play practical jokes. Putting forth effort to better understand each other is a sign of respect and it leads to long lasting relationships, business and personal.

Did you know:
The number of Korean immigrants in the United States grew 27-fold between 1970 and 2007, from 38,711 to 1.0 million, making them the seventh largest immigrant group in the United States after Mexican, Filipino, Indian, Chinese, Salvadoran, and Vietnamese foreign born?

Each customer service and sales team would benefit from assessing the different cultures in their service area. Maybe you don’t have a large Asian or Hispanic population, but you have a large number of retirees or Yankees!

Evaluating Your Current Service

1) Call into your company and see what happens when someone makes the selection for help in Spanish or asks your attendant for help in another language. Are the standards you have in place for the English speaking customers regarding hold time, number of rings and transfers the same standards you adhere to for the Spanish speaking callers?
2) Conduct some research on the demographics of your service area. If there is a large Hispanic or Asian population, you need to have a person or team that can cater to them. Remember that word of mouth advertising is a big factor in how other cultures choose a service provider.

Speaking loudly and at a slow pace does not improve your ability to effectively communicate with someone who doesn’t speak English.

Here are a few tips to help you be a more respectful multi-cultural service professional.

4 Ways To Improve Service In Your Multi-Cultural Community

1) Address your customer by proper name and keep small talk on a professional level.
2) Train your bi-lingual agents to be experts in what they are selling or servicing. Many Spanish speaking customers complain that the bi-lingual reps are ill-equipped to help so they must struggle through a conversation in English to get the best service and advice.
3) If you do not have a bi-lingual representative that is qualified to talk to your customers, search the internet for “telephone interpreter”. Find a service that can translate for you while you are on the phone or speaking to a customer face-to-face.
4) Consider having the name of your bilingual representative on the automated message. Hispanic customers, for example, prefer to know a person’s name.
“Si necesita ayuda en Espanol, presione el 2 para hablar con
Miguel.”