Attracting as many clients as possible is the goal of any commercial entity. However, when clients start coming in from dozens of different countries, how can you manage without a large number of translators? This is where machine translation can provide invaluable assistance.
Let's assume our company is considering implementing machine translation into its foreign client support service.
In this article, we will look at how to step-by-step implement machine translation to take customer service to a new level.

Assessing Needs and Setting Goals

First of all, you need to identify the needs and goals of your company that you want to achieve with the help of machine translation (MT). You should thoroughly analyze the current state of customer support and identify the areas where technology can have the greatest impact.
Let's assume our startup has identified several key needs:

1. Reducing costs for multilingual support: the current expenses for translation services are high, and the company is looking for ways to reduce them through process automation.
2. Increasing response speed to customer inquiries: the response time for inquiries from customers who speak other languages is significantly longer, which reduces user satisfaction.
3. Improving the quality of service for international clients: language barriers lead to frequent misunderstandings and, consequently, negative reviews.

For example, the decision was made to implement automation tools to reduce response times by at least 25%, cut translation costs by at least 30%, and increase customer satisfaction.

Choosing the Right Machine Translation Tool

The choice of an MT tool depends solely on your needs and capabilities. There are many solutions available on the market, such as Lingvanex, Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and DeepL. However, it is important to consider the following criteria:

1. Supported Languages: ensure the tool supports the languages you need. Additionally, some solutions perform better with European languages, whereas others are more suited for Asian languages.
2. Translation Quality: test several tools to determine which provides the most accurate and comprehensible translations for your language pairs.
3. Speed and Performance: check how long it takes to translate your standard documents and ensure the tool can handle a large volume of data without loss of quality.
4. Integration Capabilities with Existing Systems: verify that the chosen tool can be easily integrated with your CRM system or customer support platform.
5. Data Security: ensure the tool complies with data security standards and protects the confidential information of the company and clients.
6. Cost of Use: assess how the chosen solution fits within your budget and how the cost will change as the volume of requests increases.

Let's assume we have reviewed the available machine translation tools and selected solutions that provide high translation quality, easily integrate with the company's CRM system, and meet all security requirements.

Integration of Machine Translation into Customer Support Systems

Integrating MT with customer support systems (such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, or others) involves several key steps:

1. Configuration: connect the chosen MT tool to your customer support system. This will enable the automatic translation of incoming queries and responses.
2. Testing: verify the integrated system with real queries to ensure it works correctly and identify any potential issues.

So, our hypothetical company began integrating the chosen solutions with the Zendesk platform. Engineers configured the API to automate translation. It was decided to conduct a pilot test with a small group of customers to avoid dissatisfaction if something goes wrong.

Employee Training

Employees must be trained to work with the new tool to use it as effectively as possible. The skills to be acquired include:

1. Using MT for translating queries and responses.
2. Checking translation quality and correcting errors.
3. Handling sensitive information and maintaining confidentiality.

So our imagined company conducted a series of training sessions for its employees. Support team members learned to quickly translate customer messages, check the translation, and make necessary corrections to avoid misunderstandings. Each employee received comprehensive information on protecting customer personal data when using machine translation.

Testing the system

After integration and training, it is important to ensure the system works correctly. This stage includes:

1. Quality Control of Translations: check translations for accuracy.
2. Response Time Analysis: compare response times before and after implementing MT.
3. Collecting Feedback from Customers and Employees: survey customers and employees about their experience with the system to identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

After a month of operating the system in test mode, our firm analysts collected feedback from customers and employees. It turned out that response times decreased by 40%, and most customers positively rated the innovations.

Optimization

Continuous improvement of the system and processes will help maintain high-quality service. This stage includes:

1. Regular Updates of MT Tools: translation tools should receive regular updates.
2. Data Analysis and Feedback Collection: periodically analyze data and feedback to identify trends and areas for improvement.
3. Employee Training and Development: employees should update their skills as new translation software features become available.

For example, our company could analyze performance every six months and regularly retrain employees when new features in the machine translation system are introduced.

Implementation Results

So, here is what our hypothetical company achieved after integrating machine translation into the customer support system:

1. Cost Reduction: automating translation processes reduced translation service expenses by 35%. This freed up the budget for other important tasks and investments.
2. Reduced Response Time: thanks to MT tools, the response time for queries from customers speaking other languages decreased by 40%.
3. Improved Quality of Service for International Customers: implementing machine translation improved the speed and quality of customer interactions, leading to positive feedback.
4. Continuous Improvement and Development: regular updates of MT tools, data analysis and feedback collection, and ongoing employee training maintain high-quality customer service and allow the company to stay ahead of the competition.

Thus, we see that integrating machine translation into customer support is not a one-time purchase but a strategic step. This step, while requiring a serious long-term approach, significantly enhances service quality and efficiency, and customer satisfaction.