Telephone Interpreter Outsourcing

Answers

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  I have found that outsourcing my interpreter services has been very beneficial for my call center and customers. I no longer need to stress over finding qualified interpreters at a premium. I have found that the majority of the agents' time is spent handling English-speaking customers. Once hired and trained, you need to ensure they are available to handle the call types you hired them to handle. Unless your call center handles a large volume of non-English-speaking customer calls, hiring an interpreter would not be cost efficient. I have a small percentage of calls that are non-English-speaking customers. I originally hired agents to better service these customers. However, due to the low volume of calls I could not guarantee their availability without losing efficiency. Scheduling also became a challenge.

  I then contacted other units within my organization to see how they handled this issue. I was directed to Language Line Services. I began using the service over a year ago. The company offers over 148 languages and numerous other services. I was surprised that in less than three months we had requests for 29 different languages. I have been very pleased with the results and service. Scheduling problems were eliminated due to the ease of use. You will need to determine what is best for you. Obviously, your location, type of calls, budget, and services needed will all need to be determined before making the decision.
  -- David Gorlesky, Wachovia/Dealer Financial Services

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  We are a catalog company and utilize AT&T's Language Line for those calls for which we need an interpreter. We utilize this service for approximately 5,000 calls/year, which is a tiny percentage of our annual call volume. We have some Spanish-speaking agents, but not enough to cover our hours of operation adequately, so we don't use the service for every language call we receive. We find Language Line cost-efficient, considering the costs for hiring and compensation for multilingual agents, although the calls tend to take about three times as long one of our average calls. -- Carol Hay, Pleasant Company

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  Cost efficiency is in the eye of the beholder. Rather than ask "Can we afford it?" you might ask yourself "Can we afford not to have it and lose the sale?" In the past I have used AT&T's Language Line and have been delighted with both its availability and its quality. -- Mike Mitko, Children International

• Posted at 12:00AM on Apr 1, 2002

  At People's Energy, we use a service called Language Line Services (Monterey CA). On average, the call length is 10 minutes with the cost being $25. In our market (Chicago) many of the calls we were using the service for were Polish calls. As a result, we have hired a full time Polish speaking representative to use the service less frequently.

  The customers like the service, but it is costly. I'd also watch who you allow to use the service. We had instances where representatives were having difficulty understanding a customer and would put in a request to use the service. Many of those calls could still be handled in English, so now we only allow a supervisor to contact the service.

  I hope some of this, even though at a high level, may be helpful to you. Good Luck ! -- L. Szumski, People's Energy

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 9, 2007

  Outsourcing to a third-party interpreter service is an excellent option for several reasons. Contrary to popular belief, not all bilinguals are able to interpret. Even among fully bilingual individuals, rates of passing for interpretation exams are often below 10%. That is usually because the individuals taking the exams have not had training in interpretation skills. The best advice is to look for a provider that has a full quality assurance program for interpreters that includes testing, training and call monitoring. A helpful publication for individuals contemplating outsourcing to a telephone interpreting provider is Telephone Interpreting: A Comprehensive Guide to the Profession (Multilingual Matters, UK, May 2007). It includes sample questions consumers can ask prospective providers. It was recently featured in a Business Week column

• Al Posted at 12:00AM on Nov 2, 2007

  Hi, Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to make my comment available to the public. I currently reside in Peru where there is a great amount of bilinguals, some of them currently interpreting for an American company, but I can see they are not very happy with their place of work. In Peru an interpreting company willing to outsource some of their work will easily find over 100 individuals ready to jump to a better job opportunity that would allow them to develop their skills as a telephonic interpreter. Please respond if this sounds interesting, especially the companies that are currently using interpreting services. We can cut their cost and offer excellent quality for their calls that need to be interpreted. Best regards. -- Al

• David Mego Posted at 12:00AM on Aug 11, 2008

  It's definitely cost-effective and great quality, that's why Language Line Services just bought out NetworkOmni, who currently has over 100 agents in San Isidro. There is a pool of over 10,000 bilinguals with native-English skill levels who would work for Call Centers. -- David Mego, Outsource 2 Peru