Marketers today traverse geographically diverse markets and might be forgiven if they feel like Captain Kirk from Star Trek. If there was a device they would need to boldly go where no man has gone before, it would be the Universal Translator ( a device that could automatically translate all communication with the customer in real-time.) 

While we are far away from such a device, technology today has grown exponentially when it comes to automatic translations, at least of the written word. Marketers today need to adopt this to ensure they localize their content and communication to help their customers comprehend better. Using various languages to customize marketing strategies to localized audiences will make campaigns more relatable.

Consider the case of a market research survey. Deploying a survey needs the marketer to ensure that the customers can comprehend the question and also respond to it intelligibly. Making use of local languages while creating surveys will help respondents play a better role in the feedback ecosystem. In this blog, we will learn how Merren can help marketers use the multilingual survey feature to customize communication with the target audience.

How does Merren create multilingual surveys?

Merren uses modern communication applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messenger, Email, SMS and RCS to help organizations collect customer feedback.

A big advantage of the modern day communication platforms is their ability to deliver messages in multiple languages.

WhatsApp, for example, supports more than 70 languages on Android and 40 on iOS. Facebook/ Instagram Direct Messages supports 39 languages from across the world.

With Merren, brands can create surveys in English and automatically convert the questionnaire into multiple languages with a click of a button. This way, they can easily convert their conversational surveys into a language that will make it most comfortable for their customers to respond to.

But why should you apply the multilingual survey feature?

The key purpose of a survey is to collect genuine and relevant consumer feedback. However, the only way to have a robust feedback mechanism is to reduce the effort that it takes for the customers to provide feedback.

Reading, comprehending, and responding to a survey in a non-native language can place a huge cognitive load on the customers. This results in a poor survey response rate, especially in an online survey.

Once can extend this argument further- what about those who have trouble reading? It can be due to illiteracy or vision related issues. How can marketers help these customers to access the feedback tools? 

Even if the customer is very motivated to provide the feedback, the language and comprehension barrier opens the possibility of misunderstanding the question and thereby impacting the quality of response.

Hence, not making the surveys accessible for the customers impacts not only the quantity but also the quality of the feedback.

What are the benefits of multilingual survey creating surveys?

Capturing authentic customer insights is more than just deploying survey in the default language. However, it is not about applying the preferred language by marketers but catering to audience globally. Here are the reasons why using multiple language options for your target audience can bring more than just data.

Increased participation and response rate among hesitant respondents:

Creating multilingual surveys can increase participation rate from people who are otherwise hesitant on answering questionnaires. You can make your data collection exercise more approachable by offering multilingual surveys such that customers who speak a different language can comprehend and answer your questions with clarity. This can increase the overall response rate for your survey.

Specific strategies need accuracy including better data quality:

When people respond to a survey in their native language, they are more likely to understand the questions and provide accurate and resourceful answers. This can help ensure that the data you collect is reliable and useful. Using these authentic respondent insights, businesses can make a better informed decision. Multilingual surveys can help you uncover insights that you might not have discovered if you only offered the survey in one language. For example, different cultural and linguistic backgrounds can lead to different perspectives and opinions on a particular topic.

Multilingual survey is more than just a default survey option:

Multilingual surveys are more than just translated text. The survey questions are curated to be comprehensible in a customer’s native or first language. However, offering surveys in additional languages shows that you value and respect your customer’s cultural and linguistic background. When you make your customer base feel valued, this can be a major reason for brand loyalty and improved customer satisfaction.

Increased credibility, sales and improved competitive advantage:

Offering a multilingual survey can help demonstrate that you are committed to diversity and inclusivity. This can enhance your reputation and credibility among your target audience. While companies try to excel their targeted marketing strategies, offering multilingual survey can set you apart. This is a leverage in comparison to brands that do not offer multilingual support. If you want to obtain a vantage point in the market, customizing the survey language can help you gain and retain customers.

What are the current gaps in multilingual survey creation and response quality?

Every customer has a varying level of comprehension, education, and motivation when it comes to feedback. A brand can be consumed by a household that lives in major cities and by those in far flung places. 

As the logistics and communication channels become more efficient, brands today reach a much wider audience. But it also puts the onus on the brands to ensure the new audience also understands the marketing communication. This includes the consumer surveys. 

Gone are the days where a marketer could create a survey in one or two major languages and rest assured that their customers would be able to comprehend and respond. Hence, multilingual surveys are not optional anymore. Yet, it is not uncommon to see such practices still being followed. 

Part of the reason has been the effort it takes to manually or semi-manually translate, review and edit surveys into multiple languages. Many survey tools available in the market do not provide the ability to automatically translate the surveys.

Imagine, if you were running a survey globally and had to translate it into 8 to 10 languages. The manual process would be cumbersome, time consuming, and filled with errors.

How do you create a multilingual survey with Merren?

Merren’s robust modern day survey platform allows automatic translation of surveys into 70+ languages at a click of a button. Merren uses Google APIs to auto-translate the surveys. The supported languages include Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, French etc. Once translated, Merren users can also review and edit translations as needed. This system of Google translate is more methodical and accurate over a human translator.

Merren also supports multiple media formats which means that the questions can also be uploaded in audio format in local language for better comprehension. The audio format is the most useful when customers have issues with reading.

How is multilingual survey a game changer on the Merren platform?

In simple words, Merren’s automatic translations make the process faster, more accurate and free from errors that come with manual handling. This also encourages survey respondents to offer genuine customer feedback since the entire process is heavily automated. The very nature of multi-lingual survey is bound to be relatable to the target respondents.

Would you like to see this for yourself and test out the multilingual survey feature? Try our 14-day free trial session on Merren. We would love to answer all your queries too. Book a free consultation session here.