Electronic Retailer - August 2011 - 37

viewer may bring in someone else to intercede in the buy.” Listen Up Español is trying to help clients gather and track data that can improve their ability to measure the effectiveness of their Spanish-language media buys, Handley says. So are some media agencies that have gotten serious about the U.S. Hispanic market and have formed partnerships with LUE. He cites Mercury Media of Santa Monica, Calif., as one example. As a way to offer more Spanishlanguage product information on the internet, Listen Up Español is now building a social media website called LUE-TV.com. Expected to be up by August, the site will show demonstrations of clients’ products arranged by employees in Hermosillo. “We’ll send them out to get real testimonials from real people,” Handley says. “We’ll give [Spanish speakers] a chance to watch a woman at a grocery store use a Titan Peeler to peel a cucumber.”

agree that each can spend money up to some rough limit without consulting the other. U.S. Hispanic couples are far more likely to consult each other about smaller purchases. Call it a matter of respect, Handley says. A final peculiarity: Most Americans have become so accustomed to lousy service that they will spend 10 minutes on hold waiting to talk to a live person.

U.S. Hispanics “aren’t willing to be treated that way,” Handley says. “They will hang up very soon if you don’t answer the phone. We want to answer calls within 15 seconds.” For that reason, and the fact that it takes longer to build relationships with Hispanic callers, “we overstaff our call center,” Handley says. The net sales numbers work out better that way.

Through conception Through development Through promotion Through protection Through success

Building Relationships

After five years in the Spanishlanguage call center business, Handley and Ricciardi have learned a few things about the peculiarities of U.S. Hispanics who respond to DRTV commercials. To begin with, while brand loyalty makes Hispanics willing to spend more for a product they trust, that loyalty and trust have to come from somewhere. This has ramifications for the script that agents use at the call center. “Some clients just present us with what they did in English,” Handley says. “We say, ‘No, you can’t just ask for their credit card number. You have to establish a relationship. When you do, they’re likely to buy the upsells and cross-sells, but the talk times need to be longer.’” Another cultural difference: When U.S. Hispanic callers tell the agent that they need to discuss a purchase with their spouse, “it’s not necessarily a blowoff line,” Handley says. “In English you’d treat that as an objection to overcome. In Spanish, it isn’t.” In the general population, most husbands and wives tacitly

Strength

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Electronic Retailer - August 2011

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