How to Coach Clients When English Isn’t Their First Language

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In today’s world, you are put in touch with clients all over the world in an instant – and that has added to the growth of business and has made it much easier to get in touch with clients overall. But this also means that you get exposed to clients who might not speak English as a first language, and sometimes this makes communication and business difficult – though not, by any means, impossible. Here’s how you can coach your clients effectively when English isn’t their first language.

Phrasebooks Are Dated

Ten, twenty or thirty years ago you might have still seen people walking around with their phrasebooks, leafing through them frantically every time they needed to convey something to someone in a language they didn’t speak themselves. This applied to both tourism as much as it did to business. But in today’s world, who still owns a whole collection of phrasebooks for whichever languages your next client might speak? Phrasebooks are still very useful for learning, but for actual communication they can be considered a little slow and dated for modern times.

Remember The Barrier

Remember that there now is a little bit of a language barrier between you and your client, and what you think they mean might not be what they mean at all – and the other way around. Not being able to break through this language barrier means that you’ll have a much higher chance of experiencing misunderstandings while trying to do business, and it’s extremely easy for one of you to end up disappointed with the business deal, or confused about the next step should be, just because it got lost in translation.

Use Online Translators

Online translators are your modern version of a phrasebook. They’re much lighter and easier to access, and you can access online translators that jump back and forth between almost any language you can possibly think of. You can usually download a translator app, some even work with voice-activated technology so that you don’t have to figure out just how to spell something you hear: You can even use some in-browser options when you’re in a serious hurry.

Hire An Interpreter

Translators are great, but there are many gaps still in the technology that makes them work. This means that you can’t always rely on a translator to tell you exactly what someone said, even though a good translator app should be able to give you the gist of the conversation or contract. If you need to be more specific – and we’re going to guess that you do – then we’re going to recommend that you hire an interpreter who can get your message across and avoid any chance of misunderstandings that can affect your business.

In Their Own Language

If you want to expand the scope of your business and reach more international clients, offer to serve them in their own language – and have their message processed by a proofreader or translator who can translate this into something that’s easier to understand for you. This is much like having an interpreter, but works great if most of your clients are online.

Learn Their Language

Next, if you’re getting a lot of clients that speak the same language – like Spanish for example – why don’t you learn their language so you are able to communicate with them on the same level from the start? It’s bound to save you a lot of money and time in hiring translators, and you can learn a new language in a matter of a couple of weeks to a few months if you just take some classes.