Why your foreign customers love your knowledge base

I’m currently on a plane and  being inspired by a white Russian – not the drink but a living, breathing, and delightful human being named Tatiana Valeja. We are on our way to a SurveyGizmo Ultimate Training in Dallas.

Tatiana is an amazing trainer and web developer. I had the pleasure of meeting Tatiana when she applied to be a Customer Support Hero back in the spring of 2011. The amazing part was that she had only been in the United States speaking English for four years.

At her previous job at a bed and breakfast, her coworkers wanted to help her build confidence around answering phones. So she would pick up the phone with the typical greeting, let the customers talk, and then say “Hold on please” while she passed the phone over to someone who actually understood.

Sitting next to her today, I thought of all the barriers she had to overcome to get where she is. And the primary one was language.

So why do your foreign customers, and those for whom English is a second language, love your knowledge base and self-help options? Easy. Self-service options like your knowledge base reduce barriers built by time-zones, languages, and cultures.

Reduce time zone barriers: Be available 24/7

While we’d love to provide 24/7 support, it is not always an option. Time zone differences can makes phone, email or chat communication very difficult and slow.

You know what’s not difficult and slow? Self-service. Customers want help when they need it, and a robust, well thought-out knowledge base ensures that you can always be there for your customers, even those around the globe.

A great knowledge base can not only help you keep your foreign customers happy and productive, but it can also help you attract new customers by providing help to prospective customers all over the world, even when your sales team is not available.

Minimize language barriers: Go at your own pace

With self-service options, English as a second language customers can learn at their own pace. Trying to communicate in another language can be a stressful endeavor, and a knowledge base can prevent some of that stress by allowing customers to find answers on their own, at their own pace.

When translating content, it is much easier to learn when you can re-read or re-wind in order to make sure you fully understanding the content. What’s more, the web offers many tools to automagically translate web pages, allowing your customers to read your English documentation in the language of their choice.

A knowledge base can help your customers successfully use your product by explaining how to do things as well as defining keywords, providing tutorials, and showing examples. These resources are a valuable tool for those customers for whom English is not their first language

Decrease cultural barriers: Connect with your customers

While people say there are no stupid questions, learning another language can make you feel pretty dumb. Much like Tatiana’s experience with learning to pick up the phone with confidence, customers are often too nervous to try and converse in a different language. No one likes to feel stupid.

Making self-service a viable options for your customers is a way of loving these customers who might not be confident enough to call, email or chat. Well-done self-service can help build a personal relationship with these customers. Hopefully, after using your knowledge base, they might even feel comfortable enough to reach out.

As research has shown, there is a signficiant amount of people for whom self-service is the preferred and expected option. I would guess that this is significantly higher for customers in different time zones and different languages.

Providing great customer service through self-service is the primary way many of your foreign and non-English speaking customers interact with you. Are you showing them you love them?