How NLP Technology for Consulting Firms Can Help Your Business

Consulting firms are hired to help organizations streamline their operations. They do this by integrating the right technological solutions with human expertise.

The formula also works when it comes to implementing language solutions.

Consulting is no longer confined to one country. As businesses grow into multinational enterprises, they face an increasingly complex and uncertain environment. Consulting firms are following suit; even smaller firms with one office may work with clients whose operations span multiple countries.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that the global consulting industry reached $132 billion USD in 2020, and it’s only expected to grow.

The rising demand for consulting services also increases the need for effective multilingual communication. NLP (neural language processing) technology can help consulting firms communicate in a faster, more cost-effective way.

How can NLP technology for consulting firm help your firm serve clients more effectively? You’ll find examples throughout the entire client journey.

Use Language Technology to Attract Clients

Decision makers may work down the street from your office, halfway across the globe, or both. Language technologies can help your firm reach decision makers wherever in the world they may be.

Websites

Most websites can be accessed from almost anywhere in the world. The ones that gain the most traction are the ones that have been properly localized. Translation tools are available for many content management platforms and allow you to localize your website directly in your platform.

Let’s say you created your website in WordPress, and now you want to translate it into 3 or 4 other languages. Instead of having to email text documents back and forth and then plug the translated text back into the page, you can manage the translation directly in the platform.

Videos

Videos have also become an increasingly powerful tool in the marketing mix. Whether you want to upload promotional videos, interviews with your leaders or powerful case studies, your videos are more accessible when accompanied by subtitles or a video transcript. Since search engines can read text, they also make your video easier to find in web searches.

Speech to text software can speed up the process of creating transcripts. A professional video should include clear dialogue that’s easy to hear. This makes your video an ideal choice for automatic speech recognition. Simply upload the audio file to a speech recognition platform and, with a quick review and small edits where needed, you’ll have a video transcript that attracts viewers and search engines alike.

How Language Technology Improves Client Communication

While consultants and clients often communicate in a common language, there may be times when they need to bridge a language barrier.

You and your client may communicate in English, but what if their engineering team is based in Japan? What if your design team is based in Germany? Unless those teams have at least one fluent English speaker, you’ll need to communicate in multiple languages.

Technology can help you translate documents shared during these meetings. It can even help you translate the meetings themselves.

For example, if you want to distribute a training document or a brand guide to multiple teams, a machine translation tool will convert it into multiple languages more quickly and efficiently than sending separate files to a disparate team of translators.

You can achieve even greater translation consistency with a custom translation engine. Instead of having to translate the same message over and over again – and increasing the odds of mistakes or inconsistencies – these engines remember how you want to structure your messages and will use that structure in each subsequent translation.

What about spontaneous verbal communication? Can technology bridge the language gap when people are talking? An interpretation tool can.

If you’re unable to book an interpreter in advance, either because there was no time or because no one was available to attend in person, an interpretation app allows you to quickly book a phone interpreter for the language(s) you need. This is also useful if your app includes video interpretation, and you need a signing interpreter for someone who is deaf.

Use Language Technologies to Implement Business Solutions

NLP technology for consulting can be especially valuable if you’re working with a multinational organization that wants to implement your solutions in multiple markets. These may include new policies for accounting, HR, IT or other business functions. Not only will you need to develop multilingual materials for training and other purposes, but you may need to ensure the materials adhere to the local needs of each market.

Accounting and employment laws vary from country to country. Your client’s headquarters may need to adhere to one set of regulations, while satellite offices need to adhere to another. Here’s an instance where machine technology can prepare the documents for distribution, but a human will need to review documents to ensure they’re consistent with specific codes.

Technical manual translation can also be maximized with technology. When implementing your new solutions for your client, they may need additional training on new platforms and technologies. When presenting these materials, they need to be presented in the languages their employees speak. A machine translation tool can quickly prepare these documents.

When working with global clients, consulting firms deliver solutions that make business operations more efficient and profitable. Language technologies do the same. They enable faster communication between you and your clients, which allows them to benefit from your best practices more quickly.