[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] LG Uplus announced on the 14th that it will provide a ‘foreign language chat consultation’ service to enable foreign customers, whose numbers have recently surged in Korea, to use its telecommunications services smoothly.
According to statistics from the ‘Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters,’ the number of foreigners entering Korea increased significantly from about 90,000 in January last year to about 460,000 in January this year. As the number of foreign entrants continued to rise last year, LG Uplus introduced a telephone interpretation service using English, Chinese, and Vietnamese, which is used by more than 100 customers on average per month.
The appearance of Dao Thi Yen, a foreign language specialist counselor providing chat consultation in Vietnamese [Photo by LG Uplus]
LG Uplus expects the number of foreign visitors to Korea to increase further this year due to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and has launched the foreign language chat consultation service. During the two-month pilot operation period, more than 1,000 consultations were conducted, confirming customer demand.
The foreign language chat consultation service offers a total of four languages: ▲English ▲Russian ▲Chinese ▲Vietnamese. For other languages, it uses Google Assistant-based automatic translation. The chat consultations are directly provided by professional consultants of Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese nationality hired last year to enhance the accuracy of the content.
Any customer wishing to receive foreign language consultation can use the service through a dedicated website and Facebook Messenger without identity verification. Foreign language professional consultants provide real-time chat consultations on more than 25 types of telecommunications service information, including product subscription and cancellation, bill payment, home product installation, and device usage instructions.
Previously, foreign customers had to visit stores in person to receive interpretation support or use a dedicated call center to use telecommunications services such as subscribing to plans or reissuing bills. There were inconveniences such as store staff being poor at foreign languages or having to wait when consultation requests piled up at the call center. LG Uplus expects that the foreign language chat consultation service will enable customers to receive smoother telecommunications service consultations.
LG Uplus plans to open a ‘multilingual website’ next month so that foreign customers can easily obtain information such as service subscription details, bill inquiries, and introductions to mobile phones and plans without going through consultations. English will be used as the default language, and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian will be added sequentially.
Kim Yoo-jin, Head of Global Telecommunications Business at LG Uplus, said, “We introduced the foreign language chat consultation service to innovate the experience of foreign customers and make telecommunications services more convenient to use. In the long term, we plan to partner with businesses in essential areas for foreigners residing in Korea, such as visa renewal and airline ticket booking, to build an integrated management service that can be managed at once.”
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