Even in these challenging economic times it is a truism that people still do not rate price as the main reason they buy. They say people buy people yet when you add a foreign language, people will only buy from people they understand – regardless of price.
Recently we have worked with a number of businesses for whom this limitation was really serious and actually impacting on the bottom line. It is easy to understand; imagine you cannot speak English and instead can only speak French. This would make it almost impossible to get a good deal with an English speaking supplier.
Likewise imagine having to deal with French suppliers when you can only speak English? A tricky proposition undoubtedly and the likelihood is that you would actually use English speaking suppliers in preference.
Neither scenario is ideal and here at The VICI Language Academy in Newbury we have encountered both through the services we provide to corporate clients and reassuringly a programme of learning French for the English staff responsible for buying and, English for the French staff responsible for buying is addressing the problem and in turn, the bottom line.
It is not a quick fix of course, however we have found that employees are keen to learn and appreciate the difference it can make to their careers within an organisation.
Of course the problem could be more subtle and it might be problems between departments within a business where language differences mean the communication is poor between different teams. This could mean productivity is impacted, deadlines missed and performance in general will be all the poorer simply because of language issues.
When VICI works with a business it is normally alongside the teams so there is only the slightest disruption and it is more than made up for with the improvements our teaching brings. Our approach is about improving the language skills relevant to the requirements of the roles so it will always bring about improvements.
Such teaching is a huge testament to how much employees are valued and in turn this improves morale and with it retention and future recruitment; all this together with improved performance regarding productivity and profit.
If you worry your business is suffering because staff might be making choices based on their language skills – or indeed a lack of them, please get in touch and discover how the VICI Language Academy can help your organisation with its language challenges.