As I’ve talked about in previous articles, one in 10 U.S. residents of childbearing age has limited English proficiency (LEP). That means millions of parents face language barriers when it comes to accessing healthcare for their children. Fortunately, we have hundreds of healthcare clients who have shown us how video remote interpreting (VRI) can improve children’s healthcare, with better outcomes and satisfaction for LEP families.
I’ve dug into a few studies that show how language disparities can adversely affect children, and how VRI can be a new option to change the script on these situations. We also looked over how a Los Angeles children’s healthcare system implemented VRI to increase usage and adoption by providers.
Families with limited English proficiency are less likely to question their child’s hospital care and 2.1x more likely to experience adverse events
A study published in June of this year led by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital revealed that caregivers who lack English proficiency felt less safe asking questions and speaking up during their child’s stay. The team surveyed 533 families and patients of 21 children’s hospitals throughout the US and was led by Alisa Khan, MD, MPH.
According to coverage, the study found that after adjusting for income level and other mitigating factors, parents with limited English proficiency were:
- were one-fourth as likely as English-proficient participants to say they would freely speak up about something that may adversely affect the child’s care
- were one-fifth as likely to say they would question providers’ decisions or actions
- were less than half as likely to say they would be unafraid to ask questions when something does not seem right.
Medical interpreters are essential to successful LEP interactions and care, but can be skipped because of cost and limited availability when a family seems to have passable language skills. Video remote interpreting improves children’s healthcare in medical settings by offering a cost-saving and easy-to-access alternative that can incentivize bringing in language support when a parent has limited English proficiency, even if limited communication can take place between a provider and patient family.
Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder are less likely to receive services they need if their parent’s first language is not English
There have been repeated critical shortages of ASL school interpreters for districts across the US, including in East Texas, in Iowa, and other states as far back as 1997. This lack of language support has implications beyond students’ education. Many students across the country receive critical services for their disabilities through their school, including those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published a study in 2018 showing that students with parents whose first language is not English were less likely to access the same amount of services as their counterparts diagnosed with ASD. These included communication and behavioral interventions that are essential to the mental wellbeing of children receiving occupational therapy through their school.
Video remote interpreting offers schools an affordable way to bring interpreters, especially ASL interpreters, into these crucial parent-school district conversations to ensure their student is receiving the disability care they are guaranteed by law.
Los Angeles Children’s Hospital: A Study in VRI
From 2012 to 2017, researchers conducted a study to evaluate the implementation of VRI at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). The healthcare system, which serves patients throughout Southern California, already offered in-person and over-the-phone (OPI) interpretation services.
Researchers rolled out 165 VRI carts and iPads in clinics, inpatient wards, and the emergency department. Staff in each department received support through six weeks of training and problem-solving issues. Additional rollouts occurred in groups every two to four months.
Despite some initial challenges, the program was an overwhelming success. Over 50,600 VRI appointments occurred for a total of 556,938 interpretation minutes. Meanwhile, the use of OPI decreased by 37.5%, and the mean wait time for an interpreter fell from 60 minutes to 5 minutes. Rapid VRI adoption also occurred in clinics that lacked in-person interpreters.
Initially, CHLA Pulmonary and Orthopedic Clinics used VRI the most per minute. As VRI supplemented in-person interpreting, the annual census for the Pulmonary Clinic increased by 1,000 patients. The use of language services rose from 4 in-person meetings per month to 129 per month, 96.9% of which were VRI.
Additionally, VRI usage increased:
- 755.9% in the emergency department
- 583.6% in the endocrinology clinic.
It also increased substantially in outpatient settings through the use of iPads.
During interviews, clinical teams reported that VRI offered a more engaging, interactive, and readily available alternative to in-person and OPI for far more languages than staff interpreters. It also reduced wait times, appointment times, and improved patient satisfaction. However, staff still preferred in-person interpreters for more complex appointments.
Yet VRI also offers benefits for in-person interpreters. Researchers found that VRI freed up time for in-person interpreters to attend professional conferences and undergo additional training.
Overall, VRI proved to be beneficial for patients, clinical staff, and in-person interpreters.
Video remote interpreting at Boostlingo
While VRI doesn’t replace the need for in-person and over-the-phone interpreting, it does serve as a great alternative in many medical scenarios. But to fully enjoy the benefits, you need a platform that makes it easy to connect. BoostOnDemand is our offering to get you connected to qualified medical interpreters instantly.
With BoostCare, you can connect with patients quickly and effectively—as well as suppliers and other support services. Plus, you’ll gain access to our Boostlingo Professional Interpreter Network (BPIN) of interpreters who speak over 200 languages.
Think Boostlingo is right for you? Contact us today to start your free trial!
Sales Strategies & Mission Statements
On August 23rd, 2022, Boostlingo’s CEO, Bryan Forrester, collaborated with Mike Plotkin, VP of Strategic Accounts, and Madie Riley, Director of Communications, on the newest webinar on how to sell virtual interpretation to showcase their unique approaches to market interpreting remotely.
As you are surely aware, the interpreting business is continually rising to new heights, and the industry is continuously changing to match the frequency of evolution. In this piece, we’ll go over some of the most important lessons from the webinar. Many of the factors stated will be highlighted points; if you’d want to listen to the entire webinar, the link is below!
Let’s get started…
Strategize Your Sales Components
We’d like to discuss the strategizing of your sales components. Selling virtual interpretation can be similarly compared to selling any other product. Although, your sales strategy now has a far greater influence than simply having a fantastic salesman. A great salesperson is unquestionably vital but providing them with guidance via your sales plan can help them build something that will provide excellent outcomes in revenue and for your company.
In this section of the webinar, a plethora of components are mentioned within the clip, but the most important factor overall is having a vision and objectives is critical for developing focus. Choosing an industry and determining how to market it to that business. When determining your aspects to sell interpreting, bear in mind that no sales plan is flawless the first time. Maybe, in certain circumstances, but it doesn’t have to be great on the first try.
As you progress through this journey, you and your sales team will be able to develop some of your own unique techniques that may be beneficial to you. Identifying what works best in your sales cycle requires time and effort, especially when an industry like the interpretation industry is constantly evolving. This is where the expression “learn from your mistakes” comes into play.
Creating Mission Statements That Are Relevant to Your Goals
A mission statement, coupled with sales objectives, can do nothing but assist in establishing the vision of who you want to sell to for any business inside an industry. In this regard, developing a mission statement and studying appropriate objectives that you or your competitors are looking for when selling interpreting may have a significant beneficial influence on your selling points when promoting your company’s interpreting services.
Your mission statement should be a representation of what you’re selling and relevant to it. It is critical to undertake thorough industry strategic research throughout this step, which may include elements such as market size, pricing, case studies, and competitors.
Creating a mission statement and objectives allows you to focus on what your firm stands for. This might help to answer inquiries about your company, such as “what is the objective of their interpreting services?” for you to respond and elaborate on what this community or industry means to you.
Picking an industry is similar to what we mentioned before in this post when it comes to aims. You must analyze the unique measures of success in order to determine who truly requires your services. It’s strategic; consider how a healthcare interpreting client would be portrayed in a sales environment different from a client in the legal interpreting industry.
Give Your Sales Team Different Missions
We’ve all heard the phrase “teamwork makes the dream work,” and as trite as it may seem, it’s one of the most truthful statements we’ll hear in our professional lives. Everyone plays a part, especially in sales. Having a sales team does not imply that everyone on the team goes out and sells your product and then something magical happens. It’s a lot more refined than that, and this segment of the webinar delves into that.
According to the webinar’s presentation, the sales team is divided into distinct responsibilities. For example, the Sales Development rep qualifies, the Account Executive closes, and the Account Manager farms. There are many degrees to developing a constant successful sales cycle that can decide great outcomes when selling something on a virtual level.
Remember that the purpose of a salesperson is to make money. Creating a quota and strong incentives for your sales team to bring in income can motivate them. It’s a tactic that has shown to be effective in a variety of situations while also providing moral support to your sales team and its high-performing individuals.
Final Thoughts On Selling More Virtual Interpretation
Of course, the purpose of this essay was to highlight some of the many important things mentioned in the webinar, but we hope it piqued your interest enough to think about these specific sales components when viewing the webinar and/or developing your sales strategy. Boostlingo has expanded considerably in the interpretation sector over the years, and the elements highlighted are only a few of the numerous reasons for the company’s long-term success.
Selling virtual interpretation appears to be a simple operation, comparable to selling other things online, but it is a distinct beast. While it may appear simple, you must make it so. Sales aspects such as planning, employing sales tools and marketing software, and focusing on a solution-based sales process may all help your interpretation company thrive in the sector.
In the video below, you can see excerpts from these portions of the webinar:
In our last essay, we gave a quick overview of search engine optimization and discussed the many advantages that language service providers may get from incorporating SEO tactics into their marketing plans. After discussing the key reasons for investing time in an SEO plan, we’ll discuss several degrees of consideration you should bear in mind while developing your SEO strategy for your language service business.
Research Your Target Markets
A critical step in figuring out who needs your services and a fantastic approach to focus on whom to pursue as a suitable fit for your clients is identifying your target markets as the owner of a language service business.
It’s important to ask yourself questions like “Who needs my services?” and “How can I capture the attention of folks who are already seeking for the services that I’m giving” before implementing any SEO strategies. Such inquiries will assist you in developing a strong SEO strategy to increase high-quality conversions.
According to Search Engine Journal, there are a number of detailed ways you may understand that type of information. There are various strategies to achieve correct outcomes as to how you can obtain your target markets:
- Identifying Your Website’s Visitors (Google Analytics and Google Search Console are wonderful in obtaining this information)
- Analyzing other brands
- Use communities like Reddit or Quora to find out what questions people are asking and what solutions you can provide.
- Proper Keyword Research
Build an Online Presence with Informative Content
We discussed something like this in Part One of our series, but it remains true. If you want to boost your brand’s visibility, SEO is the way to go. As a language service provider, you must identify ways for your company to stand apart and communicate it to your target audience. You may do this by including testimonials and good evaluations in your article.
You are making a wonderful first impression on potential clients that visit your website by doing so. Another need is that you post on a routine basis, in addition to creating high-quality, useful material based on thorough research. On a regular basis, this might be blogs, social media updates, or even YouTube videos. SEO is all about consistency; search engines appreciate websites that supply important material consistently and doing so can only benefit your website. To make life easier when it comes to scheduling blogs, using assignment calendars such as StudyCrumb to help organize these tasks!
However, an online presence is more than simply the material that others will view; it is also about how you promote yourself. These variables will provide further help in your SEO strategy with an innovative logo and a creative responsive website design with your brand colors.
Local SEO For Language Service Companies
This is useful if you’d like to gain brand awareness on a local level. Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. Registering your company on multiple citations can help not only garner backlinks back to your website but it also shows search engines how far you are willing to reach out for your services. This is a powerful way to gain clients on a localized level.
The best place to begin is by registering your company on Google My Business (GMB). GMB assists potential clients in finding your language service company when they are looking for comparable services in their area. Searchers are directed to your location and website via Google My Business listings. You may also register your company on citation services like BrightLocal, which will handle all the legwork for you.
As previously said, if you’re wanting to build your language service company on a local level, this is the place to start; however, if you’re searching for additional clients outside of your localized location, this step isn’t essential. However, it may be beneficial to your SEO.
Know Your Worth
The biggest factor you should cover in your website content is demonstrating your industry specialties. A smart marketing plan and SEO-optimized blogs with valuable, high-quality content will accomplish this. However, your website must demonstrate credibility so that potential clients can trust you to assist them at every step of the way when it comes to any type of language service.
This component may be important not only in SEO but also in your professional career but recognizing your value. You must remind yourself that with all your knowledge, you are beginning to use it and convey it to the world in order to make a difference in every community across the world.
Speaking in this tone will not only help your target audience grasp the possible aid you can provide them, but it will also set you apart from other language service providers.
Final Thoughts
As you read on, you will understand that employing search engine optimization to help begin and grow your language service company can provide you with significant personal and financial benefits. There are several firms that have adopted this method and had excellent success, regardless of how long it took them.
After reading this, you will see that, in addition to market research, the selection of appropriate keywords and superb branding for your website are critical to the success of your language service company. There are many out there, but they are not you, and you should be proud of that!
Who is Boostlingo?
More people may now get interpretation services and support thanks to our platform, Boostlingo
Our interpretation management platform is presently the most complete communication technology accessible. Your providers may immediately connect to trained translators thanks to our user-friendly service, which connects you to them at any time, in any language, on any device.
The Boostlingo platform was created to assist Language Service firms of all sizes in fast and successfully scaling their interpreting business. The first of its type, the Boostlingo Unified Platform, continues to set the standard as the best platform for organizing and providing interpretation throughout the world.
For more information, contact us today for a free demo or quote!
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