As financial services (FS) institutions look for ways to spur organic growth, the importance of catering to customers of various language backgrounds stands out. With growth potential in mind, we've identified and laid out four pivotal areas that demand the undivided attention of FS organizations. (Our clients can attest that the ROI is worth it!)

Reassessing Strategy

Most financial services organizations have a clearly defined English strategy. But when it comes to a strategy for Spanish-speaking and other customers, most organizations are at a loss.  Whether it’s hesitation around ensuring regulatory compliance, lack of internal resources to create and maintain the strategy, or confusion about how to roll such a strategy out, most organizations get paralyzed with fear before they can begin.

To be competitive and grow in the current environment, FS organizations must dip their toe in the process of developing a multilingual strategy or language accessibility program. TransPerfect has created a blueprint for FS organizations to follow, and through consultation, TransPerfect can tailor this blueprint to align with your organization’s brand voice, vision, and budget.

Redefining Customer Loyalty

At a time when there is limited customer loyalty, strengthening and growing the relationship with your customers, especially your limited English proficient (LEP) customers, is crucial. The Deloitte report “2024 banking and capital markets outlook” had a staggering statistic:

“Only 21% of customers surveyed say they’ve received guidance or advice from their primary bank between January 2022 and January 2023, even though the financial health of many Americans dropped markedly in that period. Customers who received advice and felt it met their needs were more likely to reward the bank accordingly: About half opened a new account with that institution.”

Providing guidance is crucial to all customers. Customers lean on FS organizations to learn how to grow their wealth, how to manage their money, how to obtain a loan, etc. If these materials are not easily accessible, in all customer languages, or if you do not have bankers/employees ready to provide guidance to customers, then you will likely find your customers leaving you to bank with a competitor.

Be the institution that provides accessible guidance to all customers. It is an investment that will pay off tenfold.

Improving Your Digital Toolkit

In a world of increased digitization, many FS organizations fall short in offering their modern, omnichannel digital offerings to their Limited English Proficient (LEP) customers. The areas below are a few recommendations to gain LEP loyalty and customer growth.

• Enhance web/app/blog/chat content by making it accessible in customer languages (or at least in Spanish as a starting place)
• Promote international search engine optimization (SEO) to increase organic web traffic
• Implement a multilingual search engine marketing (SEM) strategy
• Boost your social media content to better resonate with customers
• Utilize video to engage, entertain, and inform your customers

Cutting Costs

TransPerfect understands that most FS organizations are looking to cut costs in the current environment to ensure growth, and we are dedicated to helping our clients find the solution that meets cost, quality, and workflow expectations. Cost-cutting trends we have seen with our FS client include:

1. Outsourcing contact center agents to us
2. Selecting us as their new virtual data room (VDR) partner
3. Leveraging AI for translations, among others. 

If you would like to engage in a consultative dialogue about growing your business in 2024 through multilingual customer engagement, reach out to financefuture@transperfect.com today.