Utilizing Data to Inform Your LEP Strategy Decisions
You see your peers implement and execute their language access plans, but when it comes to crafting one, your organization may have no idea where to start. So, let’s start at the beginning—with data.
Data is the one objective tool you have at your disposal when crafting any strategy. While you may not have much LEP data internally, you should not discount utilizing outside sources when strategizing your organization’s language access plan.
When we partner with financial services organizations to develop a language access plan, here are the four areas we pull data from first:
Over-the-Phone Interpretation and Contact Center Reports
A key starting place is leveraging data from your organization’s contact center. Whether you have a team of bilingual agents, outsource interpretation to a partner like TransPerfect, or use a mixture of the two, the call data is crucial to understanding your LEP customer demographic. This data allows you to spot trends, see what languages have grown organically, and learn more about what languages make up your customer base.
Customer Language Preferences
Since the FHFA announced in 2022 that all lenders must include the Supplemental Consumer Information Form during the loan application process, financial services organizations have had another avenue for understanding their customers’ language preferences. We encourage a quarterly audit of the language preferences marked in the loan applications to understand what demographics you are already attracting and how to make more resources available to LEP customers.
US Census and Pew Research Reports
The US Census Report and Pew Research Reports are excellent free resources for understanding the demographics within your organization’s footprint. These resources can also aid in forecasting demographic population shifts—information that is important for determining when to implement each phase of your language access plan.
Public Information and Industry Reports
Understanding multicultural America (and how to best support your LEP customers) is not an easy task. Using both free and paid online educational resources will help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and findings in purchasing power, marketing/advertising engagement, and preferences for the demographics you want to support.
Below are resources we have used and trust. Some are published annually while others are published more frequently.
Free Resources:
Collage Group’s white paper “Cultural Fluency Roadmap: 4 Steps to Win in Multicultural America”
NAHREP’s “The State of Hispanic Homeownership Report”
LDC’s “Official LDC U.S. Latino GDP Report™”
TransPerfect Financials’ blog “Banking on the US Hispanic Market”
Resource Available for Purchase:
The Selig Center for Economic Growth’s “Buying Power: The Multicultural Economy”
TransPerfect Financial is here as a partner to consult and strategize as financial services organizations step into a world where language access plans are the norm. Don’t know where to start? Contact our team of experts today!
