The problem
The operator offered Catalan support on paper, but in practice it was delivered by Castilian-speaking agents reading translated scripts. Customers noticed, and the friction appeared precisely in difficult conversations, which are the ones that decide whether a customer stays.
The alternative they were considering, withdrawing the Catalan option, would have been worse: in their customer base, support in one's own language is a retention factor identified in their own surveys.
What we did
Corpshore built an onshore team in Barcelona with native Catalan speakers, not Castilian speakers trained in Catalan. It is a distinction that does not show in a sales demo and does show three minutes into a complaint.
The team also reviewed the existing Catalan scripts, which had been translated literally, and proposed a version written in Catalan from scratch. The contact centre collective agreement recognises a language supplement for these roles, which was reflected in the cost model from the outset.
Technical cases beyond first line escalate to the operator's internal team, in the language the customer opened the conversation in.
Team shape
Fourteen native Catalan and Spanish agents on site in Barcelona, with a bilingual team leader.
Timeline
A 30-day pilot with four agents on the Catalan queue, script rewriting in parallel, and full operation in month three.
Data handling and compliance
Exclusively onshore delivery in Spain, with data inside the European Economic Area and no international transfers. Data processing agreement signed and role-based access control applied.
Results
- +18 pts
- Satisfaction on the Catalan queue
- 74 %
- First-contact resolution
- -81 %
- Escalations due to language barrier
- -12 %
- Cancellation requests on the Catalan queue
Out of 100, against support delivered with translated scripts.
Against 61 % previously on the same queue.
Cases previously escalated only because of expression difficulty.
Measured at six months across the same customer base.
Figures relate to the period stated in each case and depend on each client's starting point.
Offering Catalan support with translated scripts was worse than not offering it. Customers noticed, and they noticed exactly when they were angry.