8 challenges of multilingual customer service: What we’ve learned

Finding the right language skills in the right location

One of the first challenges in multilingual customer service is that language availability and delivery-location requirements do not always match.

A client may require agents to work from a specific delivery center or may not allow remote work due to security, operational or compliance requirements. In that case, recruitment is limited not only by the availability of people who speak a particular language, but by how many of those candidates are available within commuting distance of the required location.

This becomes particularly challenging for less common languages or roles that require additional competencies, such as technical knowledge, sales experience or familiarity with regulated processes.

For multilingual operations, choosing the delivery location therefore requires looking beyond general labor-market statistics. Providers need to understand which language combinations are realistically available in a particular location and under the working model required by the client.

Being transparent about these limitations is equally important. Recruiting candidates who meet the language requirement on paper but are not the right fit for the role may solve an immediate staffing problem, but it can quickly affect service quality, team stability and ultimately the client relationship.

An experienced outsourcing provider should be prepared to tell a client when a particular combination of language, location, skills and working model will be difficult to recruit — and propose realistic alternatives. Making that clear at the beginning of the partnership is far better than committing to a model that will be difficult to sustain.

Speaking the language is not the same as understanding the customer

Language proficiency does not automatically translate into effective customer communication.

Customers across markets can differ in communication style, expectations, preferred level of formality and familiarity with products or processes. The same perfectly translated response can therefore work differently in Germany, France, Poland or another market.

We have seen this first-hand while delivering customer service projects for German companies and German-speaking customers. When recruiting for these operations, language proficiency is important, but it is not the only consideration. We also look for people who understand how customers in the German market communicate, what they expect from a service interaction and the cultural nuances that can influence how a message is perceived.

This matters particularly in situations where an agent needs to move beyond a script — handling a complaint, explaining a complex issue or adjusting the tone of the conversation to the customer.

For customer-facing operations, the goal is therefore not simply to recruit people who can speak the customer’s language, but people who can communicate naturally and appropriately within the context of that market.

This is where cultural awareness becomes part of service quality.

Maintaining one brand voice across multiple languages

A brand may have one customer service strategy, but customers experience it through different languages, markets and agents.

That creates a difficult question:

How do you make the brand sound consistent without making every market sound identical?

Scripts, templates and knowledge bases need to reflect the company’s tone of voice while allowing communication to remain natural in each language. Literal translation rarely achieves this.

At Axendi, we focus on brand-aligned customer communication. Our boutique BPO model allows us to work closely with clients to understand not only their processes and service standards, but also how they want their brand to sound and feel in customer interactions.

This is then reflected in recruitment, onboarding, training, quality assurance and everyday agent communication. Rather than applying the same scripts mechanically across markets, the goal is to preserve the brand’s character and service principles while adapting the way they are expressed to the language and cultural context of each market.

For multilingual customer service, consistency should therefore not mean uniformity. The customer should recognize the same brand in every language, even when the conversation does not sound exactly the same.

Keeping knowledge and service standards consistent across markets

Every additional language increases the complexity of knowledge management.

A product update, policy change or new process may need to be reflected across:

• knowledge bases,
• scripts,
• email templates,
• chatbot and voicebot content,
• training materials,
• FAQs,
• escalation procedures.

If one language version is updated later than another, customers can receive different information depending on which language they use. But consistency is not only about giving agents access to the same information.

Companies also need to ensure that the same service and quality standards are applied across languages, teams and locations.

At Axendi, we use AI-supported tools to help manage this complexity. Gutenberg, our agent-assist and knowledge solution, gives agents working across different teams or locations access to a shared knowledge base, while allowing information to be tailored where market-specific guidance is required.

This helps create a common source of knowledge without assuming that every market needs exactly the same information.

Rosetta, our text analytics solution, analyzes written communication and customer feedback to identify recurring topics, patterns and issues. These insights can then be used to refine scripts, knowledge bases and communication guidelines across the operation.

The challenge is therefore not simply translating knowledge. It is creating a system in which knowledge, quality standards and customer insights remain connected across languages and markets — while still allowing for local differences where they matter.

Measuring quality consistently across languages

Quality assurance becomes more complex when customer interactions happen in several languages.

A central QA framework can define common standards for accuracy, compliance, resolution and communication quality. But maintaining those standards across different languages, teams and markets requires more than periodically reviewing a small sample of interactions.

At Axendi, we use Deming, our AI-powered quality assurance solution, to analyze 100% of customer interactions automatically. Conversations are evaluated against defined quality criteria, helping teams apply the same QA framework across agents and identify patterns that might be difficult to detect through traditional sample-based monitoring.

This is particularly valuable in multilingual operations, where team sizes and interaction volumes can differ significantly between languages. A common analytical framework makes it easier to compare performance, identify recurring issues and determine where additional coaching or training may be needed.

Technology, however, does not remove the need for human expertise. Language nuances, cultural context and complex interactions still require human interpretation and operational judgment.

The objective is not to make every interaction identical. It is to ensure that the same quality expectations apply regardless of the language in which the customer chooses to communicate.

Balancing language coverage with efficient staffing

A multilingual operation rarely receives identical contact volumes in every language. One market may generate hundreds of interactions per day while another generates only a small number. Volumes can also change quickly depending on product releases, app updates, marketing campaigns or seasonal demand.

Maintaining a dedicated team for every language can therefore create unused capacity during quieter periods while still leaving the operation under-resourced when demand suddenly increases.

We see this in practice in our work with a fitness  and e-commerce company, where Axendi provides Tier 1 and Tier 2 support across several European languages. Contact volumes can shift depending on factors such as new product releases, software or app updates and seasonal campaigns, and the increase does not necessarily occur equally across all language markets.

This is where multiskilling and centralized multilingual delivery become particularly valuable. Rather than treating each language as a completely separate operation, resources can be allocated according to current demand. Agents can work across different processes and channels and, where their language competencies allow, support more than one market.

For companies serving several European markets, a centralized nearshore hub can therefore provide greater flexibility in how available capacity is used, without the need to maintain separate customer service structures in every country.

Managing peaks across several markets

Peak demand does not necessarily happen at the same time everywhere. 

Retail campaigns, holidays, product launches, local promotions and seasonal patterns can create very different volume curves across markets.

A multilingual operation therefore needs forecasting and workforce management not only at the overall project level but also by language, channel and market. The ability to move trained resources between processes becomes particularly valuable when demand changes quickly.

Sometimes, however, there is very little time to prepare. In one of our e-commerce projects, we had just three days to recruit additional people needed for the operation.

Situations like this test more than recruitment capacity. They require close coordination between recruitment, operations and training to identify suitable candidates and prepare them to join the project within a very short timeframe.

We see this in our automotive operations as well. In one project, despite demand fluctuations characteristic of the industry, the team adapted resources to changing volumes while reducing Average Handling Time (AHT) by 40% and handling over 100% of the planned email volume.

The results show that managing fluctuating demand is not simply about adding people — it also requires effective resource allocation and continuous improvement in how available capacity is used.

This is where an experienced outsourcing partner can provide additional flexibility. Recruitment pipelines, established onboarding processes and the ability to reallocate existing resources can help companies respond to sudden increases in demand without permanently expanding their internal organization.

Choosing where multilingual customer service should be delivered

The final challenge is structural. 

Should every market have its own customer service team? Should the operation be centralized? Nearshore? Offshore? Hybrid? 

There is no universal answer. 

For European customer service operations, nearshore locations such as Poland can be attractive because they combine access to European language capabilities, geographic proximity, overlapping working hours and EU regulatory alignment.

We see this model in practice in our work with a global connected fitness company. Axendi provides Tier 1 and Tier 2 customer support in four languages, including German and French, within one centralized operation, while maintaining CES above 75% and QA above 90%. 

Instead of creating independent structures for every country, multilingual capabilities can be consolidated while processes, technology, QA and management remain centralized.