Banks and credit unions are accessible to consumers and members in three main ways: digitally, over the phone, and in person at the branches.

When it comes to crafting a multilingual strategy, much of the focus tends to be on the digital roadmap, or how to improve consumer/member experience via phone or chat. Branch experience tends to be lower on the priority list. But when it comes to serving limited-English proficiency (LEP) consumers and members, branch interactions are key for gaining new LEP consumers or members and fostering loyalty. 

Here are three key ways to improve the LEP consumer/member experience at the branch level.

Bilingual Employees

If a new consumer or member were to walk into your branch, would they see an employee of their ethnicity? If they were to speak a language other than English, would you have an employee who could communicate with them or at least have access to an on-demand interpretation service?  

The answers to these questions are crucial to gaining the trust of walk-ins hoping to open an account. 47% of Hispanics and 24% of Asians are more likely to trust a banker if they speak the same language as them.

So, if you only have English-speaking employees in the branches, how do you shift communication to be more welcoming to LEP walk-ins?

The first step is identifying branches where LEP interactions are most likely to occur. If possible, you should recruit employees to those branches who speak the language(s) of the majority LEP population.  However, it may not always be possible to recruit bilingual employees. In those situations, we’d recommend selecting at least one employee at that branch to go through a language training course to become bilingual. Investing in the ability to make your employee(s) bilingual will generate ROI when that branch receives an increase in LEP traffic and account openings.

If hiring a bilingual employee or putting an employee through a language training program is too large of a first step, we’d then recommend that each branch has access to an on-demand interpretation service. That way, branch employees can always be prepared for any LEP walk-ins and create a better service experience.

Multicultural Signage and Images

Once you have employees set up with the ability to serve consumers and members in-language at the branch, the next step is to consider the overall branch experience.

In the selected branches with high LEP traffic, what does your marketing signage look like? Does it reflect the ethnicities of the LEP consumers or members? Is any portion of it bilingual?

You don’t have to make any drastic changes, but small adjustments make a big impact when helping LEP walk-ins feel welcome. Small changes include:

• Making all of your signage bilingual
• Ensuring your marketing messaging posted throughout the branch will resonate with the LEP demographic
• Updating imagery on signage to reflect the ethnic background of the majority LEP population
  • Don’t want to have a new photoshoot? Ask us about our cost-saving AI image generation technology.

In-Language ATM

Your ATM, like your branch, should speak the language of consumers and members.

At a minimum, your ATM should be bilingual, but we recommend that the top five languages of your customer or member base are represented. For the LEP community, visiting an ATM without someone with a good understanding of English can be stressful. If you make it an easy-to-understand experience, it will go far in building trust and loyalty with the LEP populations represented.

Not sure where to start in understanding the demographics of your LEP customer or member base? Curious about how to make your branches more LEP-friendly? Contact us today, and we’ll plan and implement a multilingual strategy to have your branches speaking the languages of their communities.