Can't speak, won't speak customers' lingo

Citation

(2000), "Can't speak, won't speak customers' lingo", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 21 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2000.02221aab.002

Can't speak, won't speak customers' lingo

Can't speak, won't speak customers' lingo

Keywords: Foreign languages, Customers, International trade

The UK's businesses are failing to speak the language of their international customers, despite the growing importance of communication skills in today's global market place and at the risk of damaging their business relationships.

Seventy percent of UK companies now have business partners outside the UK, yet while customer focus is seen as essential to business success, many organisations appear to take the line that it is unnecessary to speak their customers' language, according to research published in the September edition of Professional Manager, the Institute of Management's journal. The research is based on questionnaires received from 264 managers.

According to the findings, almost nine in ten managers say business with people from other countries is usually conducted in English. While 46 per cent of managers say they are able to get by in a second language - most commonly French - only 22 per cent would describe themselves as fairly fluent. Yet, while English is, for many, the recognised language of business, managers' experiences reveal that inability to speak and understand what their customers are saying can have a serious impact on business success.

Managers say poor language skills have slowed down their response to customers, restricted their ability to trade and prevented them from developing a high profile in the countries to which they supply goods. Although meetings may be primarily conducted in English, failure to understand discussions between foreign colleagues in the language of the country can mean managers are unable to understand the background to negotiations. Managers also say that business is frequently done during social events where poor language skills mean they miss out on vital "who's who"-type information.

The UK's companies now trade with virtually every nation around the globe and business is regularly conducted abroad with nearly four in ten (38 per cent) of managers saying they travel overseas on business at least several times a year. One in five managers say more than 40 per cent of their organisation's customers are outside the UK and the strongest trading links are with France (44 per cent), Germany (40 per cent) and Italy (36 per cent).

Yet organisations fail to value the importance of language skills, especially among those employees who possess them. Only 6 per cent of managers say their language skills helped them to secure their current post and 88 per cent of managers say their organizations do not reward people who speak foreign languages through their pay.

Despite the fact that more than half of managers' language abilities date from school days, few companies are prepared to pay for courses to help them learn or improve their language skills. Only 29 per cent of organizations record employees' skills on a central database for business use, indicating that more than 70 per cent of companies are unable to capitalise on the capability they do possess when potential overseas customers call.

Managers say some of the benefits of being able to communicate in their customers' language include being able to respond more quickly to sales opportunities overseas, to inspire confidence that their company understands and can meet the business needs of new and existing clients and to achieve speedier acceptance by local employees in a new management position overseas. Looking to the future, more than a third (35 per cent) of managers believe language skills will be vital to business success in the twenty-first century and a further 31 per cent believe they will be important for key staff

Sue Mann, Editor of the Institute of Management's journal, Professional Manager, commented: "The general lack of recognition and support for language skills and training by organisations sends a clear signal about the value that is placed on them. Such skills may continue to be perceived as low value and low priority while the rest of the world speaks our language, but the findings of the survey clearly show that it puts the UK at a disadvantage in formal and informal gatherings with business people from other countries".

Further information is available from IM Press Office, Tel: 0171-497 0496.