Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You: How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors Don't Understand

LATINO-READY

Being Latino-ready means that your business infrastructure can support doing business in Spanish. As already discussed, that means having someone on staff who can speak Spanish. This is the cornerstone of truly being able to attract Hispanic consumers to your business and serve them effectively. If you market to Hispanics, they’ll come. And when they do, many will need or want to speak Spanish. If you don’t have anyone who can assist Hispanic customers in their native language, you’ve essentially just driven them into a brick wall. Employing Spanish-speaking personnel—whether in a retail store or at a customer service call center—shows that you are prepared to serve the Spanish-speaking customer in his or her language of preference. When you have the opportunity to hire someone, advertise for and interview bilingual people. Schools and community colleges are great places to recruit, because many have a growing Hispanic student body. Spanish media in most places also offer free job postings for employers, and the media outlet (radio station, newspaper, and so on) will usually also translate your ad posting at no charge. Catholic churches that hold services in Spanish and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are also great places to post ads. Be sure your ads spell out that you need bilingual skills, not just Spanish-speaking; otherwise, you’ll end up with candidates who speak Spanish but not English.

What if you’re a small-business owner and you have someone on your staff ...