How to Chat With Customers Who Speak Another Language

When a visitor writes in a language nobody on your team speaks, you don't have to lose them. With translation built into your live chat, you read their message in your language, write your reply in your language, and they receive it in theirs. Add a few writing habits, and most everyday questions — delivery, sizes, prices — are handled as well as in your own language.

Here's how to set it up, and what to watch for.

Option 1: Translation inside the chat (best for most teams)

Copying messages into a translation website works, but it's slow, and it means pasting customers' messages into yet another service. Translation built into the chat avoids both.

In SealReply, message translation uses DeepL and comes with the Pro and Business plans:

1. The workspace owner turns it on under Settings → Message translation (DeepL).
2. In a conversation, click Translate on a visitor's message to read it in your language. Or turn on Auto-translate new visitor messages, so every new message arrives translated.
3. Write your reply in your own language and tick Translate my reply into the visitor's language. The visitor's language is detected from their messages.

Translated messages are labelled "Translated from … by DeepL", so you always know which text is a translation.

On privacy: only the text of the messages your team chooses to translate is sent to DeepL, never the visitor's name, email or other details. DeepL says text sent through its paid API isn't kept after translation and isn't used to train its models. Each plan includes a monthly number of translated characters; you see how much is used in the same settings.

Option 2: Hire or schedule someone who speaks it

If one language brings a large share of your chats, a part-time agent who speaks it beats any translation for complaints, negotiations and anything subtle. SealReply is priced per plan, not per seat, so adding them doesn't add a monthly charge per person. You can put them in an agent group for that site, so they get the chats they should answer.

Most small teams start with translation, and hire once the numbers justify it. Reports show which sites and pages chats come from.

Write replies that translate well

Machine translation is very good with clear, plain sentences, and still trips over the rest. These habits make a big difference:

• One idea per sentence. "We ship to Spain. Delivery takes 5–7 days." translates better than one long sentence with three clauses.
• No idioms or slang. "It's a piece of cake" may arrive word for word.
• Write numbers, dates and prices in full. "Delivery by 12 March" is clearer than "by next Tue". Add the currency: "€25", not "25".
• Repeat the noun. "The jacket is in stock. The jacket ships tomorrow." is clumsy in English but unambiguous after translation.
• Avoid abbreviations. Write "as soon as possible", not "ASAP".
• Ask yes/no questions when you need a clear answer. "Is your order number 1042?" is easy to answer in any language.

Save your best answers once

Your ten most common questions get asked in every language. Write the answers carefully in plain language and save them as quick replies (type / and the shortcut in a chat). They're quicker to insert, and because they're already written in clear sentences, they translate well every time.

Mind the time zone

A visitor in another language is often in another time zone too. The panel beside each conversation shows the visitor's local time, so you don't say "good morning" at their midnight, or promise "today" when their day is ending.

Outside your hours, the message form shows when you're back online, with the time zone, so visitors can work out when to expect a reply.

What visitors see in the chat window

The chat window's own labels — buttons, the message box, the offline form — follow the visitor's browser when it's set to English or Simplified Chinese, and otherwise use your site's default language. You can also fix the chat to one language under Sites → your site → Basics → Widget language.

Your own texts, such as the greeting and the after-hours note, are written per language under Texts. A language you leave empty uses your default language's text. For visitors in other languages, a short, simple greeting in English is usually understood — see 25 live chat greeting messages for examples.

When translation isn't enough

Use a human who speaks the language, or move to email where they can use their own tools, when:

• the conversation is a complaint or a refund dispute;
• you're agreeing a price, a contract or terms;
• the visitor writes something the translation clearly gets wrong.

In those cases, say so plainly: "I want to make sure I understand you correctly. Could you send this by email?" Most visitors appreciate the care.

Checklist

• Message translation turned on (Pro or Business)
• Auto-translate on, if foreign-language chats are common
• Your ten most common answers saved as quick replies, in plain language
• A short, simple English greeting for other languages
• A glance at the visitor's local time before you answer

More on running chat with a small team: Live chat for small business: the complete guide.