Gaining Client Confidence with Foreign Workers

 

Building Client Confidence with Foreign Talent

For agencies hiring global talent, one common concern is whether clients will accept working with individuals who aren’t native English speakers. There can be worries that language barriers could create friction or cause clients to question the capabilities of these foreign workers or the agency itself.

However, this is often more of a perceived issue than an actual problem — as long as the agency takes the right approach. By carefully vetting foreign candidates for excellent English fluency and then enthusiastically endorsing them to clients, agencies can proactively address any potential concerns.

 

English Fluency is Key

The most critical factor is hiring foreign talent who are truly fluent in English, especially for any client-facing roles like account management. Agencies like JobRack purposefully recruit from regions like Eastern Europe and South Africa specifically because of the strong English abilities in those areas.

Noel Andrews, Founder of JobRack, notes that for client-facing roles, they only hire individuals who are “very, very fluent” with “really high standards” of English fluency. This is the first step to ensuring that your clients will still be heard and understood while working with any team members in your company from outside of the US.

 

Giving Your Vote of Confidence

While language ability is paramount, there can still be an initial hurdle when clients first encounter an employee with a foreign accent. They may make snap judgments about that individual’s English skills based solely on the accent.

This is where the agency owner’s enthusiastic endorsement becomes critical. By giving a foreign employee an extremely strong and public vote of confidence right from the start, the agency gets ahead of any potential client doubts. It instills trust and confidence in both the agency and your team members. 

Noel advises agency owners to take the lead on introductions and introduce a foreign worker with glowing praise like, “This is Vanya, he’s an absolute rockstar, he’s been looking after our best clients, he’s got my full confidence.”

These glowing endorsements from the agency leader set the right tone with clients. It conveys the agency’s belief in the worker’s skills and abilities and puts the client at ease that they’re in the right hands.

 

In Conclusion

Language differences don’t have to be an obstacle to client acceptance when hiring foreign talent. By hiring truly fluent individuals and then backing them with enthusiastic endorsements during introductions, agencies overcome any initial client hesitations.

With a combination of outstanding English abilities and the agency’s strong vote of confidence, foreign workers can clear the language hurdle with flying colors. Once the client knows they’re in good hands, your employees can continue performing at their best and showing their talent, despite any initial hesitation. 

Check out the latest episode of the Progressive Agency Podcast to learn more from Noel Andrews about the benefits of hiring remote teams for agency owners. It’s short but sweet and packed with a ton of great information for those looking to scale their agencies with new talent.