A customer writes in Portuguese and receives an excellent reply in Portuguese. The conversation goes well and she has a question that needs a person.
She is handed to somebody who does not speak Portuguese. The conversation continues in English, apologetically, and everything the first exchange achieved is undone in one message.
She was better served by the automated part than by the human part, which is an uncomfortable position for any business to be in.
1. Decide the escalation language before the first reply
For each language you answer in, know who could continue and when. This decision belongs before the conversation, not during it.
2. Record the language on the conversation
So that routing can use it and so that an agent knows before they open it. This is the single mechanical requirement and it is frequently missing.
3. Route to somebody who speaks it where one exists
Even where that means a longer wait. Most customers will wait a little for somebody who speaks their language and few will accept an immediate reply in another.
4. Say honestly when nobody does
I can continue in Portuguese and a colleague will reply in English within the day. An honest statement is accepted and a silent switch is not.
5. Offer the choice rather than making it
Some customers prefer a faster English reply and some prefer to wait. Asking takes one line and it removes the entire objection.
6. Pass the whole conversation across
Including the original language. An agent who can see what was actually written, even in a language they do not read, has considerably more context than a summary provides.
7. Summarise for the agent in their language
A short summary in the agent's working language, alongside the original. This is what lets a handover work across a language boundary at all.
8. Keep the terminology consistent through the handover
An agent using different product terms from the automated reply confuses the customer twice, and it is the moment a carefully agreed vocabulary quietly stops being used.
9. Do not lose the formality register
Several languages distinguish formal and informal address, and an agent switching register mid conversation reads as a change of person and of attitude.
10. Cover the time zone consequence
Languages usually come with other hours, so an escalation may cross a working day boundary, and the customer should be told when rather than shortly.
11. Keep the escalation triggers the same across languages
Sensitive topics, low confidence and frustration should escalate identically regardless of language, which is the boundary in handover questions between bot and agent.
12. Watch for frustration signals that differ by language
Directness, politeness conventions and how displeasure is expressed vary considerably, and a trigger tuned to one language will miss it in another.
13. Record what happens after each language handover
Resolution, satisfaction and whether the customer had to repeat themselves. This is where you find out whether a language is genuinely supported.
14. Only promise what you can carry through
An assistant that answers in the customer's language, routes to somebody who speaks it where one exists and states honestly what happens where nobody does is what makes a multilingual promise real, which is the ground in multilingual ai receptionist and the commitment weighed in deciding which languages to support first. The matching itself is covered in answering in the language the visitor used. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under small business.