Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, our user research team met a family in Poland. They were financially supporting their teenage son living in Ukraine. And like many adolescents, requests for money were usually last-minute (like when he ran out of milk, for example).
However, the language barrier discouraged them from using Polish banks. But they were overjoyed when they discovered TransferGo. As well as being able to send money fast using our ‘Now’ delivery option, they also had the option to use our service in their native Ukrainian language.
We’re proud that we’re able to provide this service. That’s why we localise our website, mobile app, emails and customer support facilities—so that migrant families can easily access information in Ukrainian, Polish or any of the other seven languages we support.
We care about local customers. We want to provide a meaningful experience.
And ultimately, their experience can be shattered or strengthened with localisation.
Localisation, inclusion and our customer connection
TransferGo is a company built by migrants for migrants. As a company with a social mission at its core, we value speaking our customers’ language—and not just from a business standpoint.
We understand that language is incredibly powerful and strive to nurture the human element at the heart of how people work, communicate and connect—especially when it comes to the sensitive topic of moving money across borders.
In light of this, our localisation team’s job is to ensure that migrants feel included—not left behind. People want to feel included, not rejected, as part of their experience with TransferGo.
How exactly does the Cambridge dictionary define ‘inclusion’? In two ways, in fact:
- The act of including someone or something as part of a group, list etc.
- The idea that everyone should be able to use the same facilities, take part in the same activities and enjoy the same experiences, including people who have a disability or other disadvantage.
Localisation work fits neatly into both of these definitions, but the second one relates perfectly to our mission. We want to allow many different people to have a unified experience while doing what they need to do to support their loved ones. We’re the allies and advocates who seek to empower them.
Our efforts are focused on customer inclusion. And it’s important that our company connects with people—no matter where they are or who they are.
Here’s how we do it.
A fully localised experience: multilingual support and content
At TransferGo, we consider local customers in all of our processes. We work hard to ensure that localisation is part of our company priorities and key initiatives.
That means the work of localisation spans several departments—from content to engineering. It’s a complex undertaking that requires developers, copywriters, linguists and reviewers to ensure it functions like a well-oiled machine. And that it does.
Thankfully, we’ve been able to simplify and streamline our processes using the technologies from our partners at Lokalise. Here’s an overview of what happens behind the scenes of localisation:
- Developers create translation keys in the Lokalise dashboard.
- The copywriting team provides base copy in English and orders translations from Lokalise.
- Each key is then reviewed by the TransferGo country managers after translation.
The first thing we do to make TransferGo more accessible, relevant and personal is translating the entire web and app user interface (UI) into our customers’ languages. Then, people can better understand the content and take the desired action directly in their own language.
Enabling localised customer support
While linguistic inclusion is just one aspect of it, it makes way for a host of other great things to happen. We also spend a lot of time localising all our content like blog posts, customer support and even emails.
Our Customer Support team is always on hand and currently provides localised support in 9 languages. Approximately 90% of our calls are answered within just 20 seconds.
Here’s another example of a personalised experience—our blog in English and Ukrainian. Here’s the English version:
And here’s what the same landing page looks like for people who speak Ukrainian:
Instead of just translating the blog posts from English, we create different content for different people. In this case, the entire blog is personalised for someone from Ukraine by providing content relevant to their life experience in their native language.
Accessibility is about making content available to people who speak different languages so they can enjoy the same experience. Personalisation means going that extra mile to create content that’s relevant. We constantly strive to go above and beyond for our customers when we can.
Belonging via localisation
With offices in London, Vilnius, Warsaw and Berlin, over 50% of our employees at TransferGo are migrants. We relate to the experience of migrants. It’s frustrating to feel excluded from products and services designed by English-speaking people. (And primarily aimed towards them too).
Ultimately, localisation isn’t really about the process but the result we seek—an inclusive experience for customers who are often part of a minority group.
To succeed in our mission to create an easy, affordable, and accessible money transfer company for migrants worldwide, we create belonging via localisation.
And it truly makes a difference.
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