By Tamara E. Holmes
When
the 2000 census results were publicized, many customer service companies received
a jolt: Hispanics now made up nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population and had
surpassed African Americans as the largest minority group in the country.
While an interesting statistic in itself, for customer service companies the
numbers raised eyebrows as executives and strategic planners began to contemplate
ways to reach this growing market. Unlike African Americans, who formerly made
up the largest minority group in the United States, many Hispanics speak little
or no English. As a result, a number of companies decided to introduce Spanish to their workforce.
Natalia Cepeda, academic director of Habl Espana, a Boston-based company that
teaches corporate customers spanish, says she noticed an increase in companies
requesting information on her company's services after the census results were
released. "Also I noticed there are [now] more marketing consultants for the Hispanic community," she says.
Cepeda has particularly observed an increase in customers in the healthcare
and customer service industries as employers attempt to offer better service to
the growing Hispanic community. Among the companies Habl Espana has worked with
are Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston College Dining Services.
A native of Argentina, Cepeda says she can understand first-hand the need
for customer service companies to embrace the Spanish language if they want to
give customers first-rate service.
"When I came to this country, I had to struggle with customer service people
understanding me," she says. "When I get the choice to speak Spanish, I'd rather
speak Spanish. It's much more comfortable."
A two-way street
But while some companies are bringing Spanish to their English-speaking employees,
others are finding that it makes business sense to help their Spanish-speaking
employees learn English, as well.
Ken Krall, owner of the Boston Academy of English, says he's seen first-hand
an increase in companies that want to offer some type of 'English as a Second
Language' training to their workforce.
"You don't have to sell people on 'why' anymore," he says. "Now it's not why. It's how."
But despite the increased interest in offering language courses to employees,
Krall says the economy has hindered the growth of such efforts, somewhat. "Training
budgets in some places are getting slashed," he says. But on the upside, he says,
"once the economy starts to improve, there will be a latent demand as people find
that training budgets are replenished."
Boston-based FleetBoston Financial has shown its commitment to servicing its
Spanish-speaking customers most recently through the launching of a Spanish-language Web site in March.
"The Hispanic community represents the fastest growing market in the country,"
said Ana Lopez, director of affinity markets in a statement. "Whether it is the
ATM, the telephone, the branch, or the Internet, we are going to provide this
market with our 'gold-service,' top-of-the-line customer response."
While the Web site is the company's most recent effort to service the Hispanic
community, it's not the company's first. In 2001, Fleet unveiled a Spanish-language
call center for Spanish-speaking customers. The line offers 24-hour automated
service in Spanish in addition to more than 45 sales and service representatives
that speak fluent Spanish, who handle calls during business hours.
Additionally, FleetBoston is in the process of introducing a spanish-language
credit card called 'Acceso' to its customers. Everything connected to the credit
card from the application to the monthly statement is offered to customers in spanish.
A valuable skill
When it comes to justifying the expense of adding language training to a company's training budget, Krall says there is no shortage of reasons to cite.
Bilingual employees are more valuable because they can communicate with more
than one type of customer, he says. Not only that, but employees who speak little
English might be hesitant to share their ideas with management because they are
not comfortable speaking. And those ideas left unsaid could cost the company money in the long run.
"Executives realize that it helps the bottom line," Krall says.
Tamara Holmes is a freelance writer based in Largo, MD. She can be reached at maraholmes@aol.com.
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with Shomex Diversity Career Fair presented by NAACP Region II. It did not involve
the reporting or editing staff of the Boston Globe.
