Costa Rica Call Center Blog

March 9
Ellie Parpis

Major U.S. companies are well equipped to handle Spanish-speaking customer-service calls, a recent market research study found, but few Hispanic consumers are picking up the phone.

A survey conducted by Entrevista Market Research found that the number of Spanish-speaking consumers reaching out to corporations directly is surprisingly low. “There is a very small percentage of Spanish speaking people compared to the [overall] population that are calling into companies,” said Richard Shapiro, president of Entrevista, a division of The Center for Client Retention in Berkeley Heights, N.J. The firm’s clients include McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, Bayer and Procter & Gamble.

Entrevista approached its existing clients to learn more about the Hispanic customers that were dialing into their call centers and found that there was not enough data to work from. “They said . . . there are so few calls that we get in Spanish that we wouldn’t have enough names to give you,” Shapiro said. “So we decided to do our own research.”

Entrevista conducted a two-part study in which 1,000 Latino households were called to determine what companies they admired and what they were looking for from their interactions with the companies. The survey found that the companies that scored best offered an 800 number with a Spanish-speaking option, and demonstrated respect when interacting with the consumer.

Five hundred “mystery shopper” calls were then made to the call centers of the top 75 advertisers targeting the estimated market of 35 million Latino consumers. Entrevista determined that 86 percent of the shoppers reached a Spanish-speaking representative or interpreter; more than 85 percent of callers, who reached a Spanish-speaking rep, found that they could respond to their queries directly. Nearly 90 percent of the callers felt their exchanges felt personalized and unscripted; and 80 percent felt the reps took their time to assist them.

Procter & Gamble and Home Depot both fared well. Every call to P&G reached a Spanish-speaking representative, said Shapiro, and the service level was as high as it was with English-speaking calls. Home Depot went the “extra mile,” he explained, not only telling callers which of its stores had a Spanish-speaking manager, but also taking the initiative to provide store hours when they would be on site at the store.

“[Hispanic consumers] want to talk to someone who understands their culture and langue and if they think the companies don’t have those people available to them they are not going to call,” said Shapiro. He also offered some advice to advertisers that want to reach those consumers: “Companies should reach out to the Latino community through writing case studies in Hispanic publications and talking about it in their advertising—that they really want to hear from their Spanish-speaking consumers.”

Source: BrandWeek

Rochester, NY – January 14, 2009 – Concentrix Corporation, a global knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) company and wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), announced today the company has made an equity investment in Occidental Business Services, S.A. (OBS), a leading business process services company with operations in San Jose, Costa Rica. Concentrix now has the ability to service North American, European and Latin American markets with Spanish, the third most prevalent languages spoken in the world, as well as other language requirements.

This strategic location allows Concentrix to offer an outsourced solution in countries with closer proximity to the United States, known as “Near-Shoring”, an alternative for multi-lingual delivery of contact center services to its customers.

“Concentrix sought to acquire an established, high quality Costa Rican service provider,” stated Dick Rapach, Vice President and General Manager of Concentrix Corporation. “After thorough research, we invested in OBS, a leading Costa Rican BPO company with a successful track record spanning over several years. As part of that investment, OBS will rebrand itself as Concentrix Costa Rica.”

“The Concentrix brand has an impeccable reputation and is well established within the BPO space,” commented Manfred Kissling, Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Business Services, S.A. “By leveraging the Concentrix brand, we expect to grow our operations more quickly, utilizing our combined expertise of the Concentrix associates, Concentrix technology and the geographical assets. In addition, Concentrix has a proactive, entrepreneurial culture that fits very well into our existing organization.”

Costa Rica is known for its political, social and economic stability and has a highly qualified multi-lingual labor force. These elements, along with a competitive telecommunications infrastructure, have allowed the country to attract a strong contingent of companies seeking an effective near-shore service delivery option. With a population of over four million and a literacy rate of over 95%, Costa Rica provides an excellent location for Concentrix to provide near-shore services for its large United States client base. The country shares similar time zones with the United States and is easily accessible through air travel.

The growth into Costa Rica represents the most recent expansion by Concentrix, bringing total worldwide employment under the Concentrix banner to more than 4,500 associates.

“We are impressed with the talent pool that is available in this country,” Rapach continued. “Our strategy calls for recruiting the best people available to service both our existing and potential new clients in technical support, customer care and demand generation programs.”

About Concentrix Corporation
Concentrix Corporation is a global KPO company with award-winning expertise in providing our clients with services and support to enhance their customer relationships. From locations in China, Japan, the Philippines, the United States and Central America, our over 4,500 employees support clients in multiple languages and countries around the world. Concentrix Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a Fortune 500 company. For more information, please visit www.concentrix.com

About Occidental Business Services
Occidental Business Services, S.A. is a leading Costa Rican BPO company with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica. The company provides a suite of complementary sales, customer care and support services. For more information, please visit www.obsamericas.com

Anyone has doubts that Hispanics (generaly speaking) have not been targeted by many companies with products, services and communication that best fit their needs?

Some interesting highligths from a news article that was published in May 08 at Internet Retailer (http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=26591)

• Hispanics represent the fastest-growing group in the U.S. population and among Internet users, and about half of online Hispanics prefer Spanish-language web sites. Yet most major online retailers neither provide web content in Spanish nor respond to customer inquiries in that language
• But at least two of the 50 largest e-retailers, consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co. and online florist 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., have in the last nine months launched Spanish-language sites duplicating nearly all the content of their English-language sites
• A Forrester survey last year showed that, while only 23% of Hispanic consumers require Spanish, a total of 51% prefer using Spanish web sites. And 28% said they were more likely to trust a company with a web site in Spanish. “A Spanish-language site is not just about reach but is also about brand trust and customer goodwill.
• The U.S. Census Bureau reported last month that the U.S. Hispanic population reached 45.5 million as of July 1, 2007, when it represented 15.1% of the U.S. population and was the largest and fastest-growing of U.S. minority groups
• Best Buy research shows the preference for shopping in Spanish is stronger when customers shop for complex products like home theater systems or computers. Customers are printing out product detail pages from the Spanish site and bringing them into stores, and call center agents are using the Spanish web content to help Spanish speakers on the phone

With shrinking sales and budgets, how can we tap on this opportunity?