Guest Post: How Learning a Second Language Boosts Your Customer Service Abilities

This week, we feature an article by Rupert Jones, a financial independence geek who believes in the power of networking. He shares how learning a second language can help support teams communicate and serve their customers.

Learning a second language can provide a lot of benefits for you in all aspects of life. You will be able to see new people, adapt to new situations, and take advantage of bilingual opportunities. However, you might wonder if you need to learn a second language to help your customer service abilities.  

The answer is, yes! Learning a second language can benefit your ability to provide service for and to help your customers, and here are some of the benefits it can provide you. 

They Can Help You Understand Foreign Culture 

It can be very easy to assume that all of the customers who walk into your business are part of your culture. However, sometimes people who are part of a different culture will come to your business, and you need to be able to take care of them just as well.  

Learning a foreign language can ensure that you can get deeper into the cultures of the customers you are working with, and they can help you understand more about your customers and how to market to them. 

While you won’t need to write an entirely new marketing plan for every single culture in your business, you can take advantage of learning about what each culture holds dear and what they value, and then you can better market to them. 

Learn A Second Language, and Don’t Be Afraid To Start With The Basics 

Don’t be afraid to start with the basics. Even as beneficial as being bilingual is, you need to make sure that you are taking on the challenge slowly.  

So pick your favorite language and then start learning it step by step. Whether you choose to learn Spanish or you decide to take an intensive French course, you need to go step by step and word by word until you become fluent. 

It will take some time, but once you become fluent then, you will have a skill that will help you in various areas of your life. Especially whenever you decide to start working with customer service! 

Learning A Second Language Boosts Your Hireability 

If you want to find a customer service job and haven’t had much luck being hired, then you might want to learn a second language and mention that you are bilingual on your resume.  

Many companies need bilingual workers to help them communicate with an increasingly diverse customer base, so it can very easily increase your ability to be hired because not a lot of people speak several languages fluently.  

Especially if learning a second language is very easy for you to do, you’ve got no reason not to put the time and effort into speaking your chosen language fluently and then telling your prospective employers about it. 

New Languages Can Help You Win New Clients 

If people are calling your customer service line, the chance is that they are not very happy. They need help, need to report something, or need to have questions answered. Often, they are already in a bad mood and finding out that you can understand them can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and causes them to leave your business. 

However, if you can effectively communicate with your customers in their native language, then you will be able to solve their problems and treat them with respect. 

It Can Boost Mental Abilities 

There’s a common fact going around that it is much much easier for young children to learn and retain new languages, and it is best to teach your children new languages young. That doesn’t mean that it is impossible for adults to learn second languages, but it is much harder for them to do so and can take longer. 

However, learning one or more languages can help to keep your brain healthy, and it can also help you solve complex problems as well. Other skills that can be improved by learning multiple languages include your ability to listen, your analytical thinking, and even your memory and recall.   

These skills are very beneficial for the rest of your life and your customer service abilities.