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Whatsapp Chat Conversations Translated In Real Time. Reality Or Fantasy?

Oh no! It’s over. After the memorable eight seasons GOT has come to the end. Everyone knows this now, but what many don’t know is that many of the sensational character dialogues were written in fictional languages. And so, from the High Valyrian to the Klingon of Star Trek or to the Elvish language devised by the brilliant JRR Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings, the languages of our favorite novels are often the brainchild of the author.

A fascinating curiosity, but only when we talk about novels or cinema. Instead, with regards to corporate customer service, the situation is very different. In fact, when we talk to a customer we cannot afford not to understand exactly what he is asking, just as we cannot give confusing answers.

Nowadays, online services reach customers in hundreds of countries simultaneously. But the consumer will be comforted only when he had a completely localized experience that is when he felt the service close to him. For this purpose, it is undoubtedly essential to be able to speak the same language as the customer.

Providing a product on the international market is quite common, but providing support in multiple languages is much more difficult. It is true that to respond to emails we can use online translators like Google Translate, but how can we do with live chat? The real challenge is to satisfy the customer’s need in the timescale dictated by him. Customers don’t like to wait, we all know. But how many languages do you need to support? Should you hire native agents for every language? live chat

Be Smart!

Clearly, maintaining a call center with support agents for the entire international community will not be economically sustainable, especially for a startup that wants to launch into the global market.

Customer service is not an easy job. Solving customer problems every day is often not enough to satisfy unhappy customers or avoid complaints with angry phone calls, messages, and emails. And when these complaints last for hours and hours, the company’s performance falls.

What To Do?

There are some online solutions that offer the possibility of doing translations almost in real-time. But these services are not many, and often the artificial intelligence algorithms on which the translations are based are not very reliable, and when they are, it may be difficult to integrate them into the business communication system.

And how about messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram or WeChat? Many companies are taking small steps to start using these apps for customer support and sales. No doubt they offer immediate and effective interaction with the customer, but how can we do if we don’t have adequate language skills? We could imagine using one of these chats with the integrated real-time translation… You will be thinking that this is a fantasy-like the Elves we were talking about earlier. But no, some solutions are emerging that make it real. The Mercury developer team has created a solution that allows you to translate WhatsApp chats in real-time by using an alternative WhatsApp client.

Why is this a great growth opportunity for those who use it? Let’s see just some data…

According to a survey of Hootsuite, between 2017 and 2018, WhatsApp reached 1.5 billion monthly active users in 180 countries around the world.

And we mustn’t forget that live chat is the most popular communication channel. The numbers don’t lie, according to a Forrester report, the number of customers using live chat has increased by 50% every year since 2012. If we cross the data of these reports, the potential of this project is immediately evident.

Let’s try to understand, through an example, how this translated WhatsApp chat works.

Suppose I’m a Brazilian company salesman who speaks Portuguese and English, but not Arabic or Russian. What will I do if a Russian customer contacts me for a large order? I note the contact and say that a colleague who speaks Russian will contact him? It could be an option, hoping he understands me and hoping that the customer doesn’t get tired and look for another solution. With Mercury, if the Russian customer chats to me on WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business chat, I see the translation directly, and I can quickly reply in my language. My message will be immediately translated into Russian and the customer will easily understand what I wrote.

Out of this example, the use cases are really endless. The Mercury crew has developed an effective API system that uses AI algorithms to return true real-time translations, directly visible in the alternative WhatsApp client. Offering personalized customer service is the key to good customer experience. Focusing on customer happiness is the best decision any company or freelancer can make.

Also read: Group voice & Video calls in Whatsapp

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Vanessa Elliott

I’m working as a Developer and Copywriter at Mercury. After graduating in Computer Science and IT Management at the Queen Mary University of London, I joined this project aimed at helping companies to grow by integrating AI processes and communication strategies with instant messaging apps. I'm a Tech enthusiast and web content author about business and digital trends.

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