Claude Walter, Director of Product Marketing with Language Weaver believes translation will be increasingly important in 2011 as the global economy rebounds and non-English speaking consumers head online.

Here are some of his suggestions:

1.- First and foremost, make sure that your company’s information is findable by an international audience. This includes making the information available in multiple languages so that it can be found in by a native language search and ensuring that the information is available in the formats that customers expect. If they expect to interact in online forums, read user reviews, or access information in a knowledgebase, this content should be available to them. If it isn’t, customers will go to third party sites to get the information they need to make a decision or solve a problem. Also, make sure that you are ready to listen to customers – give them a way to communicate with your company directly. If customers are willing to share feedback, make sure you are prepared to listen and respond.

2.- Part of understanding your customer includes communicating with them in a manner that matches local and cultural nuance. Overall, businesses are doing better at utilizing translation and are looking to expand translation opportunities, particularly as the tools available to them continue to develop. [Businesses] have the tools available to them to communicate across languages for multiple content types. Today, for any material that needs to convey brand image or nuance, such as advertising and marketing materials, we recommend incorporating a human review with technology solutions to provide the final touch on these communications.

But what about customer service and message boards? How can a brand/business make these website areas more user friendly for people around the globe?

3.- If you want your customers to use and derive value from your information, it needs to be in the location and format they prefer. Most customers derive little value from a standard website, but find channels such as knowledge bases, blogs, review sites, LinkedIn and Twitter, forums highly efficient, particularly during the post-sale phase of a customer engagement. To make these channels more user friendly, businesses should make this content available across languages, make sure that the company is ready to listen and participate in these channels globally, and ensure that customers are receiving timely information and timely responses.