International Flair

Everyone knows that a culturally diverse workplace is seen as a positive thing. And we also know successful businesses are better at understanding and connecting with their customers. You may not have thought about the connection between these two key ideas, but they are intrinsically linked.

Of course, there are a number of critical factors that determine the success of customer relationships: being in the right place at the right time with the right message; segmenting customers based on data; and coming up with breakthrough creative. But diversity in the workplace can be a powerful force when you're trying to create integrated marketing programs to meet — and exceed — your objectives.

How does an emphasis on diversity lead to competitive advantage? For Nissan's Canadian CRM program, we at The Marketing Store realized that the Quebec market wouldn't respond to the program in the same manner as English Canada. So we customized our direct mail and call-center scripts to reflect the unique cultural differences of this market, such as ensuring that our call-center agents were screened for authentic Quebecois accents (as opposed to Parisian or Haitian accents), and using the 24-hour clock for hours of service. On this voluntary dealer-funded program, we've achieved 80% dealer enrollment in Quebec vs. 61% in English Canada.

As we crossed the border with Nissan into the United States, we took a similar approach to the Hispanic market — a large and growing market with its own unique cultural differences. Interestingly, our research showed that the willingness to read direct mail is more than double in the Hispanic population than in the English population.

To communicate with this market most effectively, Nissan's CRM program enables dealers to use Spanish mailers and phone calls for Spanish-speaking customers. Hispanics are identified for acquisition mailings through a “best in class” language-identification software. The software analyzes first and last names, along with address location, in a scoring algorithm to target potential customers. These individuals receive bilingual mailers created first in Spanish with culturally relevant copy and then translated into English, not the other way around. This yields more authentic language in our communications with Hispanic prospects.

In our call centers the Colombian dialect is used, as it's considered the most accepted in the United States. Initial outgoing phone calls are screened for the likelihood that the customer is Spanish-speaking. These calls are routed to a bilingual Spanish-English agent who can start the script in English, but can immediately switch to a Spanish one if necessary. The language preference is noted and, from then on, the customer will receive all calls in Spanish. This customized approach has resulted in two and a half times the number of appointment requests from Spanish-speaking customers than from those who are English-speaking.

Take a look around your company: Is it an environment where people from diverse cultures interact and share ideas? Fostering diversity isn't just good for your company. It's good for business.

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JANE RAGOTTE (jane.ragotte@tmsw.com) is senior vice president for digital direct and data at The Marketing Store, Toronto.