Did you know that 65% of insurance buyers state that speaking with a representative over the phone is important for their decision-making? As insurance companies expand into different markets and countries, they face the challenge of conveying messages to customers who speak different languages and have different cultural backgrounds.
This is where insurance translation services play a crucial role. These services bridge the language gap and ensure that you accurately convey your message to your target audience. Experts project that the global insurance market will grow by $1 trillion in the next few years, reaching nearly $10 trillion by 2028. If insurance companies want to ride this wave of growth, they must provide accessible and understandable insurance services to a wider population.
But how can you leverage insurance translation services to boost your company's global growth? In this blog post, we'll explore the key benefits of these services and how they can help you tap into new markets, improve customer satisfaction, and maintain regulatory compliance.
The importance of accurate translations in the insurance industry
In the insurance industry, mistranslating a concept even once can damage your business and may result in legal suits, financial losses, and damage to your business’s reputation. Because of this, translations must be accurate to suit different customers and industry practices.
Here are some examples of different situations in which accurate translations are paramount:
- Compliance with laws and regulatory standards: Every country has its own laws and rules regarding insurance practices. Translations must satisfy these legal frameworks in order to meet regulatory requirements. Misinterpretations can lead to unintentional violations, which may put your organization at risk of legal consequences and negative publicity.
- Clear communication with policyholders: Insurance plans, contracts, and claims forms usually use legal terms and insurance-related phrases. Translating these documents accurately gives your customers a clearer understanding of their insurance claims, benefits, and responsibilities. It also reduces misunderstandings, mitigates complaints, and enhances customer satisfaction.
- Customer trust and credibility: Proper translations are the foundation of communication and are essential for building trust. When clients receive accurate, culturally sensitive, and easily understandable information in their native language, they will recognize your company as professional, credible, and customer-oriented. This trust is the foundation for solid, lasting relationships that drive growth and profitability.
For example, GlobalGuard Insurance lacked accurate policy document translations in Asian markets, which caused confusion and low customer satisfaction. With the help of translators who had expert knowledge of Asian languages and cultures, GlobalGuard minimized how often clients sought clarification and raised complaints regarding their policies, which enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Common insurance materials that require translation
Now that we understand the importance of accurate translations in the insurance industry, let's look at some common insurance materials that require translation:
Policy documents and contracts
The foundation of any insurance transaction is policy documents and contracts. These critical materials include specific policy information, terms and conditions, and insurance coverage details. It’s important to translate these documents correctly so policyholders understand their rights and obligations.
Claims forms and processes
When a policyholder wants to seek compensation, they have to go through several forms and procedures. Translating claims forms and other documents into your customers’ preferred languages minimizes potential errors and misinterpretations during the claims process.
Marketing and promotional materials
When you target new customers in international markets, it’s imperative that your advertising and marketing materials are culturally sensitive and translated correctly. These materials include your websites, brochures, advertisements, and social media posts. Translating these materials—or better yet, localizing them—connects your business with potential clients, builds brand awareness, and establishes trust in your target markets.
Customer service communications
Effective customer service is key to building long-term relationships with policyholders. When operating in multilingual markets, it's important to translate all customer service communications, such as emails, chatbot interactions, and FAQ pages.
Regulatory and compliance documents
Insurance is a highly regulated industry, and each country has its own laws and policies that govern insurance businesses. You must translate legal and compliance documents like privacy policies, terms and conditions, and annual reports so that your business can function legally within your target markets.
Corporate communications
As your insurance company expands its operations across the world, it is vital to have effective internal communication. Translating corporate communication materials, such as employee manuals, newsletters, and company announcements, will guarantee that all employees, no matter their primary language, align with your business objectives and ethos.
Integrating language translation into insurance workflows
When your insurance company expands into international markets, language translation becomes one of the most crucial factors for your company’s success. By seamlessly incorporating translation processes into your operations, you can ensure that all customer touchpoints are linguistically accurate and culturally relevant.
Let's explore the key steps for effectively integrating language translation into your insurance workflows:
Identify your translation needs and target languages
The first step is to review your target markets carefully and determine the languages your target customers use. You can then determine where to place your focus and which resources you should allocate to the translation process. When choosing the best languages to target, consider factors such as the market’s size and growth rate, as well as legal restraints.
Establish a centralized translation management system
To optimize your translation process, you need to set up a translation management system (TMS) to serve as the primary hub for your translation workflows. A TMS is a software platform that helps you manage and streamline translation processes from content creation to final delivery. It also allows your teams and translation providers to work together, control versioning, and track progress in real time. Centralizing your translation workflows will help you achieve consistency and efficiency and will reduce costs.
Collaborate with professional translators and localization experts
Partnering with experienced translators and localization experts is crucial for accurate and culturally sensitive translations. Look for language service providers (LSPs) that specialize in the insurance industry and have a proven track record of delivering high-quality translations. They should have a deep understanding of insurance terminology, regulatory requirements, and cultural nuances in your target markets. Collaborate closely with your LSP to ensure that your translations are not only linguistically accurate but also aligned with your brand voice and local market expectations.
Tools like Smartling, the industry's leading translation tool, pair you with a network of 100% native-speaking translators to provide you with high-quality results. By combining human expertise with technological solutions, you can achieve faster turnaround times and scale your translation efforts more effectively.
Implement quality assurance processes
Finally, incorporate strict quality assurance measures to ensure that your translations achieve the highest possible quality. This process involves manual and automated reviews to identify errors, translation discrepancies, and cultural disparities. To make this more effective, define key quality indicators and evaluate your translation processes consistently.
Using an LSP like Smartling in your translation workflow means that you can incorporate feedback into your operations, which will enhance your processes and procedures. Smartling’s tools and reporting assist your teams by, monitoring and optimizing language translation quality based on Multidimensional Quality Metrics. You can also perform Linguistic Quality Assurance with Smartling and review the results in a quality assurance dashboard.
5 key considerations when selecting an insurance translation service provider
Selecting the right insurance translation solution is a critical factor that will determine your business’s success when venturing into new markets. Considering the following attributes will help you identify a provider that suits your business’s needs and produces high-quality translations:
1. Industry expertise and experience
An ideal translation service provider will have expert knowledge on insurance vocabulary, relevant laws, and the nuances of translating insurance-related texts. Request references from other insurance companies to determine the provider’s level of expertise and performance in executing such projects. A provider with proven industry-specific expertise can more effectively deliver accurate and culturally relevant translations.
2. Quality assurance processes and certifications
Your translations’ quality directly impacts your brand’s reputation and your customers’ trust. Ensure that the insurance translation services provider you choose has robust quality assurance processes in place. The provider should follow a multi-step review process that includes translation, editing, and proofreading by native speakers of the target language. Additionally, look for providers with industry-recognized certifications that demonstrate their commitment to quality and adherence to international standards.
For instance, Smartling's Language Services has an ISO 13485 certification, which demonstrates its ability to provide certified translations in life science and healthcare content, as well as related services.
3. Technology and workflow integration
Look for translation service providers that offer advanced technology solutions, such as a TMS and neural machine translation (NMT) to streamline your translation processes. These tools can automate your translation process without compromising on quality.
4. Scalability and turnaround times
As your insurance company and its operations expand into new regions, your teams will inevitably need to translate more content across potentially arduous language barriers. Select a translation company that can grow with your business and can accommodate both small and large projects, as well as urgent ones.
Discuss average turnaround times and your potential provider’s ability to accommodate rush requests without compromising on quality. A language service provider that has a large network of translators and advanced language translation capabilities, like Smartling, can most effectively meet your constantly evolving needs.
5. Data security and confidentiality
Insurance translations often involve clients’ personal information and other confidential business information. When choosing a professional translation services provider, rigorously assess the provider’s ability to safeguard your information and data. Inquire about data encryption practices, secure file transfer protocols, and non-disclosure agreements. Additionally, ensure that your provider complies with relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, depending on your target markets and industry requirements.
How Smartling streamlines insurance translation
If you’re still looking for an insurance translation provider, your search ends here. Smartling is a leading translation management platform that empowers your teams to translate insurance content accurately and efficiently. With the help of Smartling's technology and professional translators, you can meet all industry legal requirements while providing your clients with the best experiences—in multiple languages.
One of Smartling’s top features, the Global Delivery Network (GDN), is a robust translation proxy that helps you translate your websites, web apps, and landing pages with no fuss. With the GDN, you can keep developer involvement at a minimum and release digital content in new languages quickly and cost-effectively. The GDN detects and indexes new content that you have not translated and delivered so your customers are always up-to-date on the latest information in their language.
Smartling’s NMT Hub, another valuable tool in insurance translation, employs machine learning algorithms to choose the most appropriate machine translation engine for a given text and then translate it in milliseconds. Additionally, Smartling’s TMS easily integrates with various content management systems, customer relationship management platforms, and low-code APIs. This integration allows insurance companies to automate their translation workflows, reducing manual effort by up to 90%.
In addition to its cutting-edge technology, Smartling offers a network of 100% native-speaking translators with years of experience in the insurance industry. These linguists work closely with insurance providers to ensure that all translations are accurate, culturally appropriate, and compliant with local regulations. Additionally, our collaborative platform enables seamless communication between translators, editors, and project managers, resulting in faster turnaround times and higher-quality translations.
Want to take your insurance translation to the next level? Book a meeting with Smartling today.
