Customers who speak any of a wide variety of languages can now communicate with our Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) through an interpretation service, which provides assistance in up to 200 languages.

When our CSRs need help speaking with a customer, they make a three-way call to the service, which connects them to a live interpreter within three seconds.

The service has helped our company communicate with customers who speak Mandarin, Swahili, Vietnamese, Arabic and other languages. We also use the service for Spanish-speaking customers when our Spanish-speaking CSRs are unavailable. Nearly half of our CSRs are bilingual in English and Spanish.

“It enables a much better experience for our customers,” said Ed Jones, Manager of Customer Automation, Analytics and Digital Solutions.

The interpretation service, Voiance, has thousands of clients internationally, including utilities. Voiance applies strict privacy and data security protocols, so customers can rest assured that their account information is kept confidential.

CSRs access the service to communicate with customers an average of 18 hours each month.

Before UniSource Energy Services began using the service, customers had to try to communicate in broken English or find a friend or relative to call in for them.

In the event that a caller is hard to understand and/or the language is unknown, Voiance can help determine the language and assist with the call.

“Voiance saves our customers a lot of time, effort and stress,” Jones said. “And, it has helped us elevate our level of customer service.”