Localization as a part of customer retention strategy

If we simplify the business targets to basic concepts, every company will have two objectives for success: attracting and retaining customers (find the entire funnel below). Regarding organic customer attraction, we talked a lot in our blog, for example, about the SEO peculiarities of multilingual websites or app stores, and today, we will share our thoughts on customer retention and the role of localization in this process.

A piece of customer retaining statistic

Retaining existing customers is a top-profit action as it is five times cheaper than acquiring new ones. The top players in the market understand this logic perfectly, so they try to keep the retention rate higher than 90%.

The thing is that the chance to sell products and services to existing customers is much higher. The statistics show that regular customers spend 67% more than new ones, and the opportunity to sell something to existing customers is around 60-70%. Also, every 5% improvement in customer retention increases profit by 25%.

Moreover, if customers like your product (which a high retention number indicates), you will attract new consumers with no additional activities. Word of mouth is among the best instruments because customers are willing to share their positive experiences. On average, 72% of people share their thoughts about a brand with at least six people. By the way, this approach also works in another way - 88% of customers share their negative experiences about the brand. That's why providing a great experience is essential, and localization is one of the best instruments to help deliver a top experience for your local users.

Role of localization in boosting customer retention

Localization is a game-changer that maintains high engagement and loyalty, thus enhancing customer retention. The native languages and cultural appropriation play a vital role in user experience. The statistic shows that:

• 40% of consumers don't buy on websites without their native language;
• 64% value the localized content;
• 75% prefer to buy again from the company if the support was in their native language;

Also, users (44%) worry that they may miss important information when receiving it in a nonlocal language. It is important to remember that localization is something much bigger than just a translation and includes:

• Language adaptation (translation including the local dialects and audience peculiarities);
• Cultural adaptation (images, icons, language directions, users habits in terms of payment systems, etc.);
• Design (UX/UI) customization. Read more about the UX writing and design-first approach in our blog;
• Technical adjustments - date and time and other formats (currencies, measurement, etc.) localization;
• Support and technical documentation translating;
• Ensuring compliance with local laws;
• Social media localization;
• Local SEO optimization;

3 steps to implement localization to customer retention strategy

If you decide to go with the localization, you have to follow the next main steps for the best result:

Step 1. Market research.

Having all the initial information about the market you want to enter is vital to building an effective localization strategy. Collect all you can about your potential users, competitors and their approaches, regional peculiarities, price formation, etc. Comprehensive market research is the foundation for insights needed to tailor your localization efforts effectively.

Step 2. Hire experts.

When starting from scratch, you should hire the following experts:

• Localization managers.
• Regional marketing/cultural experts.
• Linguists.
• A localization engineer (if you already don't have technical team members with the required skills). A professional localization team guarantees the highest quality at each step.

Step 3. Find the best solution for localization

It doesn't matter how perfect your strategy is if you can't implement it easily and quickly due to the challenges you face. Today's market provides different solutions to simplify and streamline processes, from quality assurance to translation, but finding the best one on the broad market is difficult. Below, we describe the main challenges you can face while improving local customer retention and how they can be covered.

Challenge 1. Consistency in brand communication

Regardless of what type of business page the client opened (website, e-shop, social media page, support article), s(he) should feel the same tone of communication, see the same terms for describing something, and don't feel that your company is a mix of people with different visions and writing styles.

Great brand consistency boosts authority and loyalty and differentiates the organization in the market. Still, it can be challenging for managers and translators to control this part without special tools, especially if the product hasn't been launched yet and there is no way to see how this or that element is already named. That's why at Lingohub, we provide two tools that make this process as easy as ever - glossary, translation memory, and style guide.

Throughout the translation process, the glossary automatically offers accurate term suggestions. The translation memory displays approved translations, while the style guide contains rules and information about the audience that impact machine translation suggestions.

Challenge 2. Time-to-market

The competitive race increases the requirement for speed in developing and releasing new features/products. Businesses try to be first to get the biggest piece of the market. However, when we talk about multilingual resources, there is a need to release updates for all languages almost simultaneously. That means there is no time to wait for translation after the code is ready, and localization should be parallel to the development.

At Lingohub, we allow integration localization into the CI/CD process, which means customers from anywhere in the world can enjoy the localized version of your product immediately without delays. Our integrations, smooth synchronization with popular repositories (such as GitLab, GitHub, Azure, and Bitbucket), and support for the branching feature allow you to translate the resource files and all changes in them immediately. Thus, you will never have delays because of not-ready translated versions.

Challenge 3. Localization team management

Without the right tool, managing a small localization team can be challenging; managing a big team is almost impossible. Localization involves a lot of files, budgets, documentation, issue checking, implementations, etc.; focusing on all these things is hard. Lingohub offers an all-in-one platform that combines as robust tools for translators as top-notch functions for managers like:

• Cost reports with effort score;
• Work reports to track the progress of each user;
• Dashboard and project overviews with insights about project progress;
• Custom roles that can be created with the specific permissions;
• Work, audit, and API logs to get a comprehensive overview of all activities inside the workspace; and many more.

Also, to ensure consistency and accuracy, Lingohub offers automated quality checks that identify missing HTML or placeholders, formatting errors like line breaks or duplications, incorrect term usage, etc. With quality checks, you do not need to spend time checking the biggest possible issues and can focus on the important tasks.

Want to get more information about the Lingohub abilities? We are ready to help and guide you through the application. Book a demo with our team, and let's grow together!