Any international business requires multiple language support of its primary Internet resources, whether it is a main website or help center. Consistency across the web and ability to provide vital information to the customers in their language are huge assets.
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
Frank Smith
Even if you don’t have an international business, but you operate in a country with a multicultural audience like the USA, providing information on their “vibe” is a huge plus, which can differentiate you in the market.
Choosing languages for Zendesk Guide
So now, when you are more or less convinced about the necessity of being multilingual, choosing the right languages is another question. You don’t want to translate a big chunk of content using a rule of thumb and then feel frustrated with ineffective decisions made.
Open statistics show that only 25% of Internet users search in English, followed by 19.3% searches in Chinese, 7.9% in Spanish and 5.2% in Portuguese. You can imagine that any additional language used on your website and Zendesk Guide equates to additional millions of customers you can potentially accommodate.
Source: https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
Statistics can only show general figures; therefore, it’s worth knowing your target audience and optimizing the languages of your main website along with Zendesk Guide accordingly. The best thing you can do is have your content translated in accordance with the nationalities of your customers.
Luckily, Zendesk provides an auto-detection mechanism for non-registered users, which shows the support center pages in their preferred language, whereas the registered users see the content in a language saved in their profile.
Check out how it works yourself by looking into our Zendesk theme demos all of which support English and German.
Even a bilingual user may prefer a different language when it comes to finding an explanation for tough questions and when even the slightest details make a difference.
The following three steps will help you make your Zendesk Guide multilingual:
- Configure your help center to support multiple languages
- Localize Zendesk Guide by adding the translated text, including the dynamic content.
Trends of 2020
Talking about future trends, according to Econsultancy.com voice search is gaining popularity with the speed of light. Their study shows that nearly half of all searches will be conducted via voice by 2020. That also proves the necessity to optimize your business resources to support multiple languages, as we understand that people will search for stuff in their native language
The earlier your website and Zendesk Guide begin to support multiple languages, the better you will be prepared for globalization trends.
