Why Spanish is Today’s Largest Growth Opportunity for Contact Centers

And How One Addition to Your Operation Will Allow You To Get a Leg Up on Your Competitors

Press #1 for English. Press #2 for Spanish.

Offering bilingual support is a step in the right direction for today’s contact centers. However, those “press #2” interactions also open the door to a massive growth opportunity with the Spanish-speaking market.

In the past decade, the Hispanic population grew by a whopping 23% in the U.S.! There are now more than 62 million Hispanic residents, and more than half are bilingual or exclusively Spanish-speaking. That’s not the end of the story, though, as the U.S. Census Bureau projects that about a third of the country will be Hispanic by 2060.

Those stats alone demonstrate the incredible opportunities provided by Spanish-speaking consumers. It’s a segment with $2.5 trillion in global buying power and one that contact centers can’t afford to ignore.

The Impact of the Spanish-speaking Market

All businesses have their eyes on growth potential. However, except for handling more calls, contact centers’ unique expansion opportunities aren’t always apparent. But the Spanish-speaking market is relatively untapped — at least to the extent of having a measurable and positive impact on the bottom line, brand loyalty, and consumer perception.

Consider the following:

• Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world
• Hispanics are known for being brand loyal
• Providing first-rate service in Spanish translates to positive CX (customer experience)
• Immediately and better accommodating the Spanish-speaking market is a massive opportunity for businesses to get a one-up on competitors

Can you imagine having the foresight to take Netflix from DVD rentals to a massive streaming service or to be one of the first major companies, like Starbucks, to provide an app?

Business success requires farsightedness and the willingness to adapt to changing demands. The Spanish-speaking market in the U.S. provides a rare opportunity to take your organization to a whole new level.

Bilingual Contact Center Challenges

If the wheels are spinning and you want to know what to do beyond offering those IVR language options to better service your Spanish-speaking clientele, the answer might surprise you.

It’s as simple as focusing on your agents.

The contact center team is your business’s face (and voice!). Every agent directly contributes to organizational success by providing quick, accurate, friendly, and compliant responses, translating to positive CX. But the trickle-down effect can be devastating if they don’t have the proper tools to do the job.

English Materials for Spanish Conversations

Most of today’s contact centers supply all agents with the same call center scripts and materials in English, regardless of whether their communication is English or Spanish-based.

That means agents are:

1. Speaking Spanish to the customers on the other end of the line
2. Accessing information pertinent to the call in English or discussing the situation with supervisors in English
3. Resuming the conversation in Spanish for the customer

It’s not hard to recognize that it’s a formula ripe for frustration and mistakes. And, if your organization has strict compliance measures, the pressure on your talented agents can be overwhelming. That’s why the already steep contact center attrition rates can be even higher for Spanish-speaking employees.

Complexities of Bilingual Customer Service

The following are common challenges for contact centers without a comprehensive, forward-thinking strategy and cutting-edge technology for bilingual communication:

• Spanish-speaking agents are working from English software platforms and resources
• Supervision is generally in English, while customer-facing interactions are in English and Spanish
• Bilingual agents require more training and navigate a steeper learning curve
• Agents communicating in Spanish need additional in-call guidance
• Customers requesting Spanish-speaking agents experience longer hold times and more frequent escalations, resulting in the frustration of waiting and repeating
• Sales agents handing calls in Spanish are at a comparative disadvantage, with longer call times translating to a lower success rate and less commission than English-speaking agents
• There are fewer hybrid work scenarios for Spanish-speaking agents requiring real-time guidance
• Compliance is compromised when factoring in translation and escalation

Reviewing the most significant challenges to focusing on the Spanish-speaking market, you can see a pattern emerge — and your bilingual agents are the common thread.

An AI-Powered Solution for Quick Success

If all roads lead to your agents, the solution is to position them for success.

Despite the various complexities we previously posed, there’s some good news. There’s now a single solution that addresses each of those challenges to transform your contact center into a high-functioning bilingual operation quickly.

You’re exponentially leveling the playing field and increasing the agent and customer experience by providing your Spanish-speaking agents with the same tools proven beneficial to English-speaking agents.

Balto in Spanish

Real-Time Guidance has been a game-changer for inbound and outbound contact centers. Balto’s AI-powered service helps agents by providing valuable checklists and dynamic prompts, directing the call flow and supplementing the conversation with accurate answers and proposed next steps. It can get any interaction back on track, regardless of the industry.

Now Balto has released the same Real-Time Guidance, previously available only in English, for bilingual and Spanish-speaking agents. With Balto in Spanish, you’re positioned for expansion into the Spanish-speaking market with minimal effort.

Your team will immediately achieve conversational excellence, impeccable compliance, better ramp-up times, and higher closing rates. Additionally, Balto in Spanish opens the door to effective multilingual management and puts all agents and customers on a level playing field, whether conversing in English or Spanish.

A Game-changer for Contact Centers Targeting the Spanish-speaking Market

Imagine the difference the proper tools will make for your hard-working Spanish-speaking agents and their impact on the organization with first-call resolutions, higher conversion rates, and lower agent attrition.

The benefits of Balto in Spanish go well beyond that of a simple translation tool:

• Dynamic prompts and checklists align with the language spoken in the call
• Top-notch compliance, with less time devoted to QA as Real-Time Guidance prevents errors in the first place
• Reduced stress for agents as they’re not switching back and forth, translating from English to Spanish
• Shorter hold and call times
• More frequent first-call resolutions and fewer escalations also lighten the load for supervisors
• Employee hiring and retention – Spanish-speaking agents are no longer at a disadvantage regarding call volume, commission potential, hybrid opportunities, and incentives
• Improved CX – customers feel prioritized and aren’t subject to call transfers, duplicated efforts, and language barriers

Are You Ready to Get Started?

Balto is a pioneer in contact center software with AI-powered Real-Time Guidance proven to achieve bulletproof compliance, increase sales, and positively impact agent satisfaction and the customer experience (CX). The new Balto in Spanish offers forward-thinking contact centers the same benefits and tools for Spanish-speaking agents.

Stay ahead of your competitors, as the U.S. Spanish-speaking market is booming, lucrative, and rapidly expanding. Schedule your demo today.