Act global and think local: how not to get lost in translation

In an increasingly global world where social and search are merging and reviews really do matter, what should travel firms be thinking about?

In an increasingly global world where social and search are merging and reviews really do matter, what should travel firms be thinking about? Kathleen Bostick, Vice President of the Travel and Hospitality Practice at the global translations firm, Lionbridge, shares her insights with EyeforTravelโ€™s Pamela Whitby.

Few in our industry will ever forget the travel chaos that erupted in 2011 as a result of the Icelandic volcano. Flights were cancelled, holidays wrecked, and school starts delayed as families were left stranded in faraway places. The natural disaster tested customer service strategies to the absolute limit, and some came off better than others.

Dutch carrier, KLM, was one that handled the situation effectively โ€“ and it did so using social media. In fact, the volcanic ash cloud prompted a social media strategy that has arguably become recognized as one of the best in the industry.

Recognizing that it simply could not update its website fast enough to report on the emerging crisis, KLM turned to Twitter to inform customers in their local language, and it did this in 26 countries.

Just a few weeks ago, KLM took that strategy a step further. They said Facebook and Twitter would now be the first place customers should turn to for customer service. So far it is doing this around the clock in five languages: English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

โ€œKLM are rock stars when it comes to social media,โ€ said Kathleen Bostick, VP Travel and Hospitality Practice at translations firm, Lionbridge, โ€œGetting to this point has obviously been a process. The bottom line is that they have recognized two important things. First, social media when used properly can be an excellent customer service tool. Second, responding in a personโ€™s native language really can make all the difference.โ€

GOING GLOBAL

In an increasingly online and accessible world, travel firms should be thinking not only about the social but the global aspect of social media. Said Bostick, โ€œThe day you set up a Facebook page, youโ€™re global whether you like it or not.โ€

Bostick recently holidayed in Italy where she says she had the โ€œhardest time figuring out where to stay and eat.โ€ Many of the posts – for everything from accommodation to restaurant reviews – were in Italian only. When searching for travel options, people do read reviews. In fact, many travelers wonโ€™t book a hotel unless they have read a review, and will often change their mind based on a review. Because travel is such a personal experience, they are also more likely to book a site that has been translated into a local language, because they know what they are buying.

โ€œNow we know that everybody reads reviews and nobody is going to be able to translate all of these,โ€ stressed Bostick, โ€œBut with social and search merging and becoming so important, you have to have content in the language people are searching in if you want to be found.โ€

So what do travel firms need to do? Here are some top tips:

TRANSLATE YOUR WEBSITE

English is the worldโ€™s lingua franca, so having an English version of your website is a no-brainer and many are doing this pretty well. However, if your target audience is Chinese, then by the same token, you need a Chinese version of your website. You donโ€™t have to translate the entire site, but start with your most popular pages and check the results. You can then determine if it makes sense to translate the entire site.

STYLE MATTERS

Make sure all versions of your website are perfectly aligned to reflect your brand. It should be done by a professional translation partner. You should take the same care in creating your website in additional languages as you do in creating your English content.

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE

So youโ€™ve published the perfect translation, but you still arenโ€™t seeing additional bookings. โ€œYou need to treat your translated site exactly the same as you would treat the flagship website, and this means international SEO optimization,โ€ advised Bostick.

KEYWORDS ARE KING

English keywords may vary from country to country. For example in Spanish, depending on the country, โ€œscooterโ€ can be translated into escรบter, motoneta, or motocicleta, but the term most often searched for is vespa. You need to ensure your key words are not simply translated, but that in-country research is conducted to find the most suitable term.

DONโ€™T FORGET MOBILE

Mobile-optimized websites and travel apps should be a key part of your strategy, not only in English but all your languages. Translating your app or mobile site can be done very quickly and economically, since there is very little content to translate. Hotels.com is the leader here, supporting 37 languages across all platforms.

FACEBOOK MAY NOT BE KING

Know which platforms your customers are actively using. Donโ€™t just assume you need to be on Facebook and Twitter in every country. They are both banned in China, but Kaixin is very popular and is where Holiday Inn has built its Chinese presence.

GET SOME REVIEWS TRANSLATED

Okay, so you canโ€™t possibly translate all your reviews, but translating some strategic properties with the languages of your target market could be very useful. Hereโ€™s where a professional translation โ€“ as you would use for a website – isnโ€™t really necessary. โ€œThere are more cost-effective ways to get your review into another language. The review doesnโ€™t need to be perfect really, it just needs to sound authentic in the local language,โ€ said Bostick, โ€œWe are translating reviews for our customers using a crowd-sourced solution, which is a fraction of the cost of using professional translators.โ€

MONITOR, MONITOR, MONITOR

Set up a monitoring system so that you know what people are saying about you in other languages. Software like Radian6 or TrustYou can monitor online conversations in several languages.

RESPONDโ€ฆ WITH A HUMAN VOICE PLEASE

Never (ever) respond on social media with a machine translation. It could be inaccurate and it could even be offensive and end up damaging your brand.

TO OUTSOURCE OR NOT TO OUTSOURCE

Having a global social media strategy is really important. So how do you do it if you have, for example, plenty of resources in Spain and Italy but nothing in Russia or Japan, which are your fastest-growing destinations? Outsourcing can be a part of your social media strategy. While a few years ago this may have been seen as completely taboo, given the global nature of travel, this is changing.

Bostick sites a faux pas by a major car manufacturer when somebody in Europe posted a question in Dutch on Facebook, asking where he could find the closest dealership. A while later came the response. โ€œSorry we donโ€™t speak Dutch.โ€ Not only did that company lose the sale, but this lost customer told all his friends about it.

Many companies are still so overwhelmed with their English social media strategy that the global piece isnโ€™t even on their radar. They know they have to do something, but may be delaying due to lack of resources. This is where a translation partner can help. They can do everything from managing and monitoring in-country platforms, communities, and forums, to routing and responding; creating original in-language content; translating blogs, campaigns, and reviews; or simply supplementing in-house resources.

Remember, websites and social media are already global whether you want them to be or not, so make sure you have a plan in place to reach and embrace your global audience.

Kathleen Bostick, Vice President of the Travel and Hospitality Practice at the global translations firm, Lionbridge will speaking at EyeforTravelโ€™s Travel Distribution Summit, North America in Las Vegas from September 13-14 alongside 90 other industry leading experts. See the full mobile agenda and speaker line up at http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-distribution-summit-north-america/conference-event-brochure.php .

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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