For a large number of US small businesses a share of inbound calls are in Spanish, and the cost of handling them badly is not a complaint, it is a caller who quietly hangs up. Almost every provider claims Spanish. The claim is worth checking because what sits behind it ranges from a fully bilingual desk to an interpreter line dialled in on request.
Ask what happens at eight in the evening
Daytime Spanish cover is common and largely genuine; the differences appear on the evening and weekend shifts, which are thinner and where a bilingual operator may not be on. The question to ask is not whether Spanish is offered but how many bilingual operators are on the shifts you care about. A provider that staffs bilingual operators on every shift is selling something materially different from one that transfers to a bilingual operator when one is available, and the pricing pages describe both with the same word.
An interpreter line is a third product
Some providers meet the requirement by conferencing in a third-party interpreter. It works, it is slower, and it often carries a per-minute charge in addition to yours. For a business where Spanish calls are occasional it can be a reasonable arrangement. For one where they are a quarter of the volume it is an expensive way to add a delay to a quarter of your callers, and it should be priced as the add-on it is rather than accepted as bilingual cover.
The script has to exist in Spanish
A bilingual operator translating an English script live will produce a slightly different call each time, which is what a script exists to prevent. If your qualifying questions matter, have them written in Spanish and checked by somebody who speaks it. Providers differ on whether that is part of setup or billed separately, and the ones that treat it as an afterthought are generally the ones offering the weakest form of cover in the first place.
What it costs
The advertised plan is usually the same, and the cost appears in length: Spanish-language calls tend to run longer, partly because a caller reaching a service in their own language says more. In a per-minute market that is real money. Published rates here run from about a dollar fifty four to two dollars ninety nine a minute, so two extra minutes on a call costs between three and six dollars, and across a quarter of your volume that is the line item to model rather than the plan difference.
Questions people ask about spanish answering service
Do answering services really offer Spanish?
Most offer something, but it ranges from bilingual operators on every shift, through transfer to one when available, to a dialled-in interpreter. Ask how many bilingual operators are on the evening and weekend shifts specifically.
Is an interpreter line acceptable?
For occasional Spanish calls, often yes. For a business where they are a quarter of the volume it adds a delay and usually a charge to a quarter of your callers, and should be priced as an add-on rather than counted as bilingual cover.
Should the script be written in Spanish?
Yes, and checked by somebody who speaks it. An operator translating live produces a different call every time, which defeats the point of a script.
Does Spanish cover cost more?
The plan is usually the same; the cost is in length, since these calls run longer. At published rates of a dollar fifty four to two ninety nine a minute, two extra minutes costs three to six dollars a call.