Torchora
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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Bilingual Customer Service

💰 $35,000 - $55,000

Customer ServiceBilingualSupportCall CenterCustomer Experience

🎯 Role Definition

A Bilingual Customer Service Representative delivers high-quality, multilingual support across phone, email, chat, and social channels to resolve customer inquiries, complaints, and transactions while maintaining brand voice and meeting service-level agreements (SLAs). This role requires native or near-native fluency in English and a second language, strong problem-solving skills, proficiency with CRM and ticketing platforms, and the ability to translate and localize communications when needed. The ideal candidate balances empathy and efficiency, keeps accurate records, escalates complex issues appropriately, and contributes to continuous improvement initiatives that enhance the customer experience.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Entry-level Customer Service Representative (monolingual or bilingual)
  • Retail or hospitality frontline roles with customer interaction
  • Inbound call center or help desk associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Bilingual Customer Service Representative
  • Team Lead / Shift Supervisor (Customer Support)
  • Quality Assurance Analyst (Customer Support)
  • Customer Experience Specialist or Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Sales Development Representative or Inside Sales
  • Account Management / Client Success
  • Training & Development / Learning Specialist (Support)
  • Localization / Translation Coordinator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Manage a high-volume mix of inbound and outbound customer interactions in both English and the target second language (e.g., Spanish, French, Mandarin), providing accurate, friendly, and timely support by phone, email, live chat, and social media while adhering to scripts and brand tone.
  • Resolve complex product, billing, and account issues end-to-end, leveraging internal systems (CRM/ticketing), knowledge base articles, and cross-functional partners to achieve first-contact resolution (FCR) and minimize escalations.
  • Accurately document all customer communications, troubleshooting steps, resolutions, and follow-up activities in the CRM or ticketing system (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk) to maintain a complete audit trail and enable data-driven analysis.
  • Triage and escalate unresolved or high-priority issues to specialized teams (technical support, billing, legal, or product) with clear context, reproduction steps, and documented customer impact to reduce time-to-resolution.
  • Conduct account verification and identity checks in accordance with company security policies and data protection requirements (GDPR, CCPA, or regional privacy laws), ensuring sensitive information is handled securely and compliantly.
  • Process orders, returns, exchanges, refunds, and cancellations accurately and promptly while following company policies, refund schedules, and documentation procedures to maintain inventory and financial integrity.
  • Monitor and meet key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average handle time (AHT), response time, service level (SLA), customer satisfaction (CSAT), and net promoter score (NPS), and adjust communication tactics to continuously improve metrics.
  • Provide clear, culturally-appropriate translations and localized explanations for product details, policies, and marketing offers to ensure consistency and comprehension across language groups.
  • Use problem-solving techniques to diagnose technical issues, reproduce problems, and walk customers through step-by-step troubleshooting for web, mobile, and device-related inquiries while escalating persistent bugs to engineering.
  • Act as the customer’s advocate by collecting feedback, logging feature requests and pain points, and communicating recurring issues to product, QA, and operations teams to inform roadmap and quality improvements.
  • Support proactive outreach campaigns (order status updates, service interruptions, renewals, recall notices) and outbound retention or upsell activities while maintaining compliance with telemarketing and privacy regulations.
  • Maintain and update knowledge base content, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and canned responses in both languages to improve self-service options and reduce repeat contacts.
  • Participate in daily standups, coaching sessions, and one-on-one performance reviews to align on priorities, learn product changes, and share best practices across bilingual team members.
  • Mentor and onboard new bilingual hires by running language-specific role plays, shadow sessions, and QA feedback loops to accelerate ramp time and ensure consistent service quality.
  • Handle escalations and difficult conversations with professionalism using de-escalation techniques, empathy statements, and clear next steps while protecting the customer relationship and brand reputation.
  • Coordinate with logistics and fulfillment partners to investigate shipment delays, missing packages, and customs issues, communicating realistic timelines and mitigation steps to affected customers.
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory and industry-specific requirements (payments, healthcare, financial services), following scripts and internal controls for sensitive inquiries and reportable incidents.
  • Conduct follow-up communications to confirm issue resolution, gather customer feedback, and close tickets in the CRM with complete notes and disposition codes.
  • Analyze customer interaction trends and prepare weekly or monthly reports on common issues, language trends, and areas for operational improvement to share with cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Support multilingual marketing and product launches by providing customer insights into regional preferences, language nuances, FAQ updates, and localization risks.
  • Maintain schedule adherence, flexible shift availability (including evenings, weekends, and holidays as required), and timely participation in required training and compliance certifications.
  • Assist with special projects such as quality assurance audits, process mapping, and pilot programs for new support channels (chatbots, in-app messaging) to ensure multilingual readiness and accuracy.

Secondary Functions

  • Create and maintain FAQ pages, canned responses and step-by-step troubleshooting guides in both languages to improve self-service and reduce inbound volume.
  • Participate in knowledge transfer sessions and product launch rehearsals to ensure bilingual readiness and consistent messaging across markets.
  • Collaborate with training and QA teams to develop language-specific quality checklists and customer interaction scoring rubrics.
  • Support ad-hoc multilingual marketing validation, localization checks, and user acceptance testing for customer-facing content.
  • Contribute to process improvement initiatives by proposing automation opportunities, FAQ enhancements, and new templated responses for frequent bilingual issues.
  • Provide periodic language and cultural coaching to monolingual teammates during peak seasons or cross-coverage events.
  • Assist legal/compliance teams with translation and contextual clarification for customer-facing policy updates and terms of service changes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Bilingual fluency: full professional proficiency in English and a second language (e.g., Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic) — both written and verbal — with the ability to translate context and tone accurately.
  • CRM and ticketing platforms: hands-on experience using Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, or similar systems to manage customer records and workflows.
  • Live chat and omnichannel tools: proficiency with chat platforms (Intercom, LiveChat), social inboxes, and unified agent desktops to handle concurrent conversations.
  • Call center telephony: experience using cloud telephony platforms (Five9, RingCentral, Genesys) and managing call queues, dispositions, and transfer etiquette.
  • Knowledge base management: ability to create, edit, and optimize KB articles and canned responses in multiple languages for self-service.
  • Order management and payments: practical knowledge of order processing, refunds, chargebacks, subscription management, and payment reconciliation workflows.
  • Data entry and accuracy: strong attention to detail for logging tickets, case IDs, and billing codes without introducing errors.
  • Basic technical troubleshooting: ability to guide customers through app/browser/device troubleshooting steps and collect diagnostic information.
  • Metrics literacy: ability to interpret KPIs (AHT, FCR, CSAT, SLA) and apply data-driven improvements to daily work.
  • Compliance awareness: familiarity with data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA) and company-specific security procedures for handling PII.

Soft Skills

  • Active listening: demonstrates attentive listening, asks clarifying questions, and repeats back for confirmation to ensure mutual understanding.
  • Empathy and patience: consistently practices empathy in high-stress interactions and remains patient with frustrated or distressed customers.
  • Clear written communication: writes concise, grammatically correct, and culturally-appropriate responses in both languages for email and chat channels.
  • Conflict resolution: skilled in de-escalation techniques, managing objections, and negotiating mutually acceptable solutions.
  • Multitasking and prioritization: manages multiple channels and cases concurrently while prioritizing urgent, high-impact issues.
  • Problem-solving mindset: systematically diagnoses root causes and proposes practical solutions or workarounds.
  • Adaptability: learns new products, systems, and policies quickly and adapts tone and approach to diverse customer profiles.
  • Team collaboration: proactively collaborates with cross-functional partners (product, engineering, logistics) to drive resolution and continuous improvement.
  • Time management: meets deadlines, adheres to scheduled shifts, and maintains consistent availability for peak periods.
  • Cultural sensitivity: understands cultural nuances, idioms, and etiquette to communicate respectfully and effectively in target language markets.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or equivalent; strong written and verbal skills in both languages.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Languages, Business Administration, or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Applied Linguistics
  • Communication Studies
  • Business Administration
  • International Relations
  • Customer Experience Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–4 years of customer service or call center experience with at least 1 year of bilingual support experience.

Preferred: 2+ years of bilingual (English + second language) customer support in a fast-paced environment, experience with CRM platforms (Salesforce/Zendesk), and documented success meeting CSAT/SLA targets. Prior experience in e-commerce, fintech, SaaS, telecommunications, or healthcare support is a plus.

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