Multi-lingual Service Team for Redditch EDC

08 April 2008
Buongiorno! Wie geht es Ihnen? Mate prani? Bien sur. Pazhalooysta! Q Tenn' enomentielva. Sounds like a typical day in the Redditch EDC Customer Service office, where the six-strong team of representatives now speak eight languages between them, and are busily learning a further three.

Apart from English, at least one of the team is also fluent in French, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Italian, German and Spanish. And they can also tackle basic Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic.
"Our role is changing as order systems become more sophisticated and we have been recruiting for language skills for nearly two years now," said customer service manager Kerry Jones.
"The response from our customers has been very positive indeed. They can be sure that their requirements are fully understood and they don't have to hunt around for someone in their office who can speak English before they contact us.
"We are certain that the multilingual capability has brought us extra business, particularly in the area of supplementary orders."
The customer service team handles 18,000 order lines a month, from either Pilkington's own AGR sites across Europe or from independent customers. Around two-thirds of those calls are from outside the UK.
"The days when we simply had to take down an order are long gone," said Kerry. "We are now looking at an increasingly complex supply chain, including direct shipments from manufacturer to customer and vendor managed inventory, where we manage customers' stocks for them.
"With so many more options available, the ability to talk to customers in their own language is a huge advantage."
* Did you identify the languages in the first paragraph? They are Italian, German, Czech, French, Russian and … Elvish. OK, Redditch may not have any customers from Middle Earth just now but they will surely have it covered when the time comes.