As you conduct business in a global economy, it is important to recognize that English may not be the language spoken by all consumers or end-users with whom you communicate. To successfully engage with customers, whether abroad or at home, it is crucial to correspond with them in their native language and respect their cultural nuances.

A localized communication strategy helps build trust and loyalty with consumers, as it demonstrates a company’s commitment to meeting their needs. It also reduces confusion resulting from lack of clarity. Sticking to English-only communication can be perceived as arrogant and culturally insensitive.

Additionally, regulations pertaining to some US industries or government agencies require them to send communications in multiple languages. The required languages can vary according to geography.

Multi-Language Document Challenges

A multilingual communication strategy has its challenges, but the benefits are clear. This can apply whether your organization produces documents for a multi-national audience, or you communicate with customers who speak different languages but live in a single geographic area.

However, maintaining an extensive library of documents with versions in several languages can be expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Mistakes and omissions can easily occur, especially when translators are under pressure to deliver results. Neglecting to update the foreign language version of an English document can cause a company to generate high volumes of erroneous print with outdated content. Errors such as this can have serious negative effects. Tracking changes and organizing documents in such an environment can be a daunting task.

When you also consider that multi-lingual adaptations encompass factors beyond words, like currency formats, exchange rates, address formats, and other information, the task becomes even more challenging.

Dynamic Language Switching

With a document composition system like Quickcoms, programmers can treat different languages as variable information. They assign a value or identifier to each language, and when a document calls for specific language based on a customer-level data item, the software selects the appropriate language document from the library. This allows for consistent formatting across documents, regardless of language, while controlling the language-specific areas with variable data.

To aid in the development of multiple language document versions, the Quickcoms platform can create HTML versions which external language transformation services can use to produce foreign language documents.

Designers and programmers can define document sections, including information such as headers and footers, captions, column headings, and common large text blocks in any selected language. They can also control signatures, contact information, logos, or color schemes.

To control the document language, the indicator is included in the variable data that drives each document. For example, a health insurance company might need to communicate with many Spanish-speaking customers, along with native English-speakers. By maintaining a customer-chosen language tag, the company can print consecutive documents in various languages while maintaining the postal presort sequence.

This master template strategy offers many benefits, including fewer redundancies, time savings, fewer mistakes, more control of data, easy updates, maximized productivity, and less testing time. It ensures information such as terms and conditions or instructions are always up-to-date, creating less confusion among consumers. Segmenting print runs based on language becomes unnecessary, allowing print and mail operations to achieve maximum productivity. With fewer stops and starts, the production workflow is unhindered.

As we live in an interconnected world, communicating with customers in their preferred language is important. The master template strategy is an efficient way to achieve this, offering benefits such as streamlined processes, reduced errors, and improved consistency in communication.