How do you translate content for Multi-Lingual Self-Service?
I am working on a research report about multi-lingual support. According to our benchmark, we are definitely seeing expanding support for Web self-service content beyond English, which not only tells global customers that you are invested in their region, but also can dramatically boost self-service adoption and success by allowing customers to browse content in their native language.
TSIA Member Benchmark: Languages Supported by Channel
Here is some data for you, showing the average number of languages offered for phone, email and web incident support, as well as Web self-service and Web chat. But here is my question for you. If you do have multiple languages for self-service, how do you create the translated text for the knowledgebase? I’ve seen a few different approaches and would love for you to weigh in to see which approach is the most popular. Options include:
- Local geographic offices take English content and translate for local customers.
- An outsourcing translation service, such as LionBridge, translates your content.
- An auto-translation tool, such as Language Weaver, is used to automatically translate new content.
Would you please weigh in on this polling question and let me know which approach–or another approach–you use? I will report back the findings, and it will really help me with this current research report!
Thank you, and thanks for reading!
Explore posts in the same categories: Best Practices, knowledge managementTags: multi lingual, translation
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Ragsdale’s Eye on Service 
July 13, 2010 at 8:04 pm
John –
Great topic!
(1) I may be late to the party, but it would be great to split the data by B2C vs. B2B. I see pretty different dynamics and approaches across these communities.
(2) There’s a “middle way” between MT and HT – basically, where humans clean up MT. People who know this space tell me this is more different from HT than I would have thought — for example, “real” translators don’t do this work.
(3) Members who are interested in the nuts and bolts of MT might check out TAUS – the Translation Automation User Society. They have good meetings and resources, and while service and support isn’t their only focus, they’re definitely active there.
Can’t wait to see the results! I hope you can do a webinar about this…
Best,
David
July 14, 2010 at 6:19 am
I agree with David.
I think it can be quite different between B2B and B2C.
/ Lars
July 14, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Great feedback guys. If there is enough interest in this topic we can add it to the benchmark in a future version so we can slice results by industry.
November 3, 2010 at 11:17 am
For live streaming content, automated translation is the only option. For B-2-B static content it is not an option.