TELUS International and Ortsbo Deliver Real-Time Language Translation for Online Chat Customer Service

Posted by Jennifer Bach

August 29 2013

In an increasingly global market, providing customer support across a wide range of languages is both costly and logistically challenging. In many cases, companies cannot deliver support in all of the languages represented by their customers.

There is a growing opportunity for real-time, cross-language communication capabilities in online customer service channels like online chat customer service and email support.

To tackle this challenge, TELUS International teamed up with Ortsbo, a company whose product enables real-time conversational translation for more than 50 languages, on a Customer Care Initiative and Partnership Program. Using Ortsbo, TELUS International customer service agents will be able to chat in real time over the Internet to almost anyone in their native tongue.

For example, an agent in on offshore location can now work in English, conducting web-chats with customers in a multitude of languages. During a chat session, agents can type in their native language with the customer receiving a response in his or her own language. Conversely, the customer types in their native language with the agent receiving the reply in his or her own language. Ortsbo technology tunes the language for the particular domain and customer care context. In the end, the customer experience can rival the speed and accuracy of staffing with multilingual agents.

But it’s not just about technology; it’s about enabling people – both agents and customers – with innovative ways to remove language barriers. And as shared in a recent news article – the software has “already lured a whopping 212 million unique users in over 170 countries and territories, and is attracting heavyweight partners such as IndyCar, Variety, Brooklyn's new state-of-the-art Barclays Center and Kiss's Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who conducted a worldwide global chat with fans using Ortsbo.”

From our perspective, the ability to support multi-language client needs from locations that could traditionally only support one or two languages can be a game-changer, as companies typically pay a premium for multilingual agents (see "Five Keys to Multilingual Customer Support" for more on running an effective multilingual call center operation). Now a customer care center simply enables the current agents without having to make special staffing accommodations for each additional language.

This represents an order of magnitude value proposition for most customer care operations. For TELUS International, we are pleased to partner with Ortsbo and expand our service offering to customers around the world.

Read more in the news: Ortsbo helps TELUS agents avoid getting lost in translation