The following statistic would likely shock most people: 90% of online customers speak in non-English languages. User-generated information is vastly important and relevant today, but most U.S. companies only analyze data they collect in English – ignoring 90% of available data because translation has just been too difficult and complex.
Keith Laska, CEO of SDL Language Technologies, told Loyalty 360 that in addition to the complexity, translation for business intelligence purposes has required extremely fast turnaround times that traditional/human translation processes can’t support. Today’s global language solutions not only have to translate content, but also help deliver informative, relevant, and consistent customer experiences that help increase sales and drive brand loyalty -- across multiple channels, cultures, and devices.
“Language translation technology solutions such as machine translation enable organizations to directly connect with their users in the most impactful way possible – the language they understand through the channel they prefer,” Laska said. “When giving consumers relevant content and a deepened experience with brands they already love, you are encouraging trust, inspiring brand loyalty, and showing them that customer experience is at the forefront of your business values. What we wrapped our coattails on is the social explosion in the marketplace. Machine translation impacts customer satisfaction, customer experience, and optimization of content.”
Laska cited NextIT as an example of this.
“NextIT is a pioneer in online virtual assistants that emulate human behavior and assist website visitors,” he explained. “Content is global for major brands so naturally they attract multinational companies who want to use their technology. Using machine translation, they can translate the web dialogue between the customer and the virtual assistant in real time, search the English language database for the correct answer, and then seamlessly translate the information back to the native language of the web visitor. This is huge for NextIT value proposition.”
In June, SDL launched www.freetranslation.com, which is an online translation resource that enables individuals and businesses with a simple way to translate documents, websites, and typed text for a variety of needs.
It is estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day in more than 6,000 languages. This explosion of multilingual information is driving the need for millions of business users to find new ways of simply and instantly translating content.
“We’re in education mode right now,” Laska said.
Laska outlined five areas where language translation technology provides immediate competitive advantages:
1. Self-service translation for anyone, anywhere, anytime publishing: One of the critical requirements for simplifying translation is to enable anyone and everyone to self-serve so they can submit content for translation without going through dozens of steps or evaluating individual translators or vendors. They should be able to quickly select the language, the quality they need and the deadline, upload the content and supporting information and receive the results – on time and on budget
2. Sentiment analysis/predictive analytics: Discover what customers are saying about products by region and language, use data when designing new product rollouts, adding value to existing products and solutions, or improving the customer experience. Predict customer journey based on hard facts about behaviors and buying patterns; use insight to improve the customer experience, help build loyal customers and brand advocates. Better plan and execute brand strategies
3. Enterprise Search: Adding machine translation to the enterprise search process can deliver more relevant results because when keywords are translated, documents can be searched in their native language and more accurate results are returned
4. Address Myriad Translation Needs: Access to translation options that deliver on a variety of content needs – from translations of real-time content like chat and email, to dynamic content like user reviews, knowledge-based articles, to more static documents like legal agreements and product manuals.
5. Trust in Accuracy: There are a few examples of translation gone wrong for major brands, serving as a reminder (and a warning!) of the importance of proper translation. For example, Pepsi’s slogan “come alive with the Pepsi generation” was translated into Chinese to mean “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” Or Parker Pen’s promise that their pens “won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” was mistranslated into Spanish to read “It won’t leak in your pocket and impregnate you.”