The landscape of today’s marketplace is highly focused on the quality of relationships. There are clear connections between employee satisfaction and customer experience, but there are other connections between employees and customers—such as language. How can language, and a commitment to language, redefine employee-customer relations?
As Alex Shashkevich, of Stanford News, writes, “people speak roughly 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique, both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the people who speak it.”[1] The sheer number of languages spoken around the world highlights how important it is to view language as a connector rather than a barrier. ACTFL assessments administered by Language Testing International (LTI) are just that—the unifier between employees and customers. Nowhere is proof of this connection more apparent than with the partnership between LTI and JetBlue.
Responsible for the safety and experience of more than 30 million customers in 86 global cities, JetBlue relies on Language Testing International as their language certification partner to reshape how their employees engage with their customers.
JetBlue’s Global Scholars Program supports their multilingual crewmembers with academic and career opportunities. From providing college-level credit to language proficiency testing and certification in speaking, reading, and writing comprehension, LTI has made it possible for many of JetBlue’s 20,000+ crewmembers to certify their language skills and earn entire semester(s’) worth of credits towards a higher education degree. In turn, these JetBlue crewmembers become better equipped to serve those 30 million customers as they remain linguistically connected from city to city. There are numerous reasons why multilingualism benefits companies, building employee/customer trust being just one of them. Employees who speak with customers in their native language create a connection and bring a sense of familiarity and comfort, in turn improving customer satisfaction.
Become the connector! Visit www.languagetesting.com to redefine what employee-customer relationships mean to you.
To learn more about how JetBlue is utilizing LTI’s services, listen to our podcast with Nicole Lembo, Manager of Talent Management and Academic Programs at JetBlue Airways.
READ MORE –> Business Benefits of Multilingualism