Customers are much more likely to make a purchase if addressed in their own language, and for an increasing number of organisations, language skills are considered essential to the ability to provide good customer service.

Whether you are in a niche market serving Japanese tourists, or a busy store in a multicultural area, talking to customers in their own language makes their experience more pleasurable, more accessible and is setting the trend in the retail industry. And we’re not necessarily talking about being fluent. Often just a greeting or an awareness of small cultural factors can make all the difference.