Costa Rica Call Center Blog

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?