Language Services Associates: Breaking the Language Barriers for Insurers

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Language Services Associates

Scott Cooper, President, Language Services AssociatesScott Cooper, President
Today’s world is a “melting pot” of diverse cultures and languages. Amidst the growing cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, the role of insurance companies in communicating with non-English speaking customers is taking a transformative turn. In a highly specialized industry like insurance, customers need clear communication at every touch point, from choosing the right plan to filing a claim. This situation raises the question, “Is there any comprehensive language service provider (LSP) that can help insurers build and maintain meaningful relationships with their diverse customers and thrive in a global environment?”

Language Services Associates (LSA) answers this question with a resounding “Yes.”

LSA delivers a full suite of language interpretation and translation solutions to a reputable clientele comprising leading corporations across the globe.

In an interview with the editorial team of CIO Applications, Scott Cooper, President at Language Services Associates, discusses how LSA fulfills clients’ multicultural communication needs with a broad range of services and innovative technology.

Please provide a brief overview of LSA.

As a full-service LSP, LSA helps clients engage with their customers in over 230 languages. Our solutions include telephone interpreting (including call centers), in-person or face-to-face interpreting, and remote video interpreting.

Our mission is founded on three pillars—finding the best interpreters to serve our clients worldwide, leveraging technology to rapidly connect them with our clients on their choice of platforms, and offering the best customer service by seamlessly marrying these two components thousands of times per day. We onboard interpreters who are well-versed in a diverse mix of languages, including dialects, accents, and slang. They also have in-depth knowledge of industry terminology. We make our linguists available to customers through the second pillar by integrating with their technology platforms. It is all about the quality and speed of the connection.

We take pride in our customer service, delivering solutions as unique as the needs of clients. As no two clients have the same platform configuration, we are highly nimble to ensure compatibility with their technology ecosystem so that our translators and interpreters can serve clients in the best possible way.

What are some of the major challenges your clients face, and how do you address them?

Our clients continue to face challenges following the seismic shifts that COVID brought across all industry sectors. The standard methods of customer engagement pre-pandemic have now fundamentally changed. Insurers have actively pivoted from the common practice of in-person interpretation to adopting telephone and remote video interpretation methodologies while complying with patient privacy regulations. At the same time, clients today demand higher accuracy, better service, less wasted time than ever on each encounter and focus on building brand loyalty.

Insurance clients are also under constant pressure to lower costs by automating repetitive tasks, which presents truly unique challenges for their own customers who may have limited English speaking proficiencies. Despite all the benefits of automatic solutions, clients often find themselves in situations when a human interpreter is needed to speak to customers. Rather than restricting our clients to take a certain approach when it comes to interpretation, we offer a flexible solution that ultimately fits all their needs and works exactly right for their customer base.

Clients must be prepared to cater to customers comfortable speaking in any non-English language, which might also include a language of lesser diffusion. If clients are unable to onboard an adept interpreter, they run the risk of impairing the customer experience. We have noticed that the customers with whom we share the most information are the ones who are ultimately delivering the best results to their customers by overcoming all language barriers.

Can you cite a customer success story?

We engaged with a client who provided in-person service to their customers. Prior to COVID, they had established a strong foothold in the market, offering services in only English and Spanish. When COVID hit, the company faced a tough time meeting client needs as in-person interpretation was no longer feasible due to lockdowns and other strict legal and safety edicts.

  • We take pride in our customer service, delivering solutions as unique as the needs of clients


By bringing in our language solution via their preferred video platform, we helped the client simultaneously pivot from their in-person model and offer marketing programs in 25 languages, including English. The client accomplished the task without buying any new equipment, hiring a single additional full-time employee, or changing its underlying product mix or service call flow. Leveraging our reliable solution, their business is now booming.

What, according to you, steers you ahead of the market competition?

At the epicenter of any successful business is reaching the customer where he or she is––a feat that LSA excels in. By helping our clients fashion responses that “meet the customers where they are,” we power brand loyalty, create market differentiation, and elevate customer satisfaction. Something as basic as a customer ending a service call believing the agent understood him or her is monumental in improving engagement.

As insurance is complicated enough for even an English speaking consumer, we never overlook the fact that there is a human being facing a problem behind every interpretation we undertake. This problem is worsened when they fail to communicate in the language familiar to the service or solution provider. We resolve this challenge by helping clients use language constructively and enhance their customer experience in a cost effective way.

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