Speaking In Tongues

Companies need to start speaking to multicultural Australians in their own languages, says languageloop CEO Elizabeth Compton.

- Anne Majumdar

Australia is becoming increasingly culturally diverse with more than 7.5 million residents born overseas. But companies are missing out on the huge opportunities offered to them by this modern multicultural society, says LanguageLoop CEO Elizabeth Compton.

Statistics show that 49 per cent of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas, while nearly 21 per cent of Australians speak a language other than English at home. However, this vast market is being largely overlooked by companies – an issue LanguageLoop is helping to address.

“We are still such a surprisingly English country in terms of how we communicate,” Elizabeth tells The CEO Magazine. Many companies are still doing the bare minimum when it comes to communicating their offering in other languages, but that does not serve either party well, she insists. The challenge for LanguageLoop is convincing companies that language services are a sound investment.

“Instead of just banging on about this ourselves, we thought, ‘Let’s do some research and see if we can put some hard facts in front of clients,’” she recalls.

As a result, the company commissioned a survey of 3,000 Australians for whom English was not their first language. The findings were staggering. For example, 90 per cent of those surveyed said they would recommend a business if it communicated in their language. Meanwhile, 74 per cent said they would give their custom and be more loyal.