¿Habla Español?

It is an increasingly valuable skill for customer service representatives to be bilingual. Employees fluent in Spanish are valuable assets as more and more immigrants enter America from Spanish speaking countries and continue speaking their native tongue. For companies to being able to communicate with customers effectively is a top priority.

With a Latino community reaching almost 50 million Hispanics and that number increases every year, companies move applicants who speak Spanish to the top of the list. Some companies even offer bonuses of up to $500 for employees who refer bilingual contacts who are eventually hired.

If you are bilingual, whether it’s Spanish, Russian, French, German, or Farsi (anything), be up front about it with your potential employer even if you don’t think it’s applicable to their business. Put it on your resume, mention it in your cover letter and explain your linguistic experience in your interview. Be forthcoming with the extent of your understanding and don’t overstate it. If you’ve only had a few semesters of foreign language classes in college explain that you have “knowledge of” the language whereas if you studied abroad for those semesters and were immersed in the culture you would be considered fluent. Likewise if English is your second language and you aren’t still in the process of learning it’s intricacies you should inform the interviewer how comfortable you are with the duties you are expected to perform.

For folks who excel at elocution in other languages, make yourself more valuable to the company by offering to tutor other employees in the basics of your language base. Set up in a conference room during down times and start with simple phrases and greetings. Small steps will help people who don’t understand what the customer is asking to at least direct them to people who do with as little hassle as possible.

If you’re not bilingual yet but looking to learn a new language besides Spanish, consider Mandarin, it’s the most widely used language on the planet. Japanese is another valuable vernacular especially on the West Coast. There are extensive online and audio classes available in almost any language you would want to learn.

If you are interested in a better career in customer service visit http://www.customerservicejobs.com/

By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a writer and blogger for Nexxt. She researches and writes about job search tactics, training, and topics.