How to gather customer feedback in every language

Why do your customers post in other languages?

Because they aren't all from here, or not only from here. A café near a university serves students from many countries. An online shop ships abroad. A tourist writes about your shop in the language they think in, not the one on your menu.

Plenty of people also switch languages in the middle of a post. They start in English, drop into their home language for the joke and finish with an emoji. I think those are the most honest posts you'll get, because nobody wrote them for you.

What do you miss when you read only your own language?

The complaints you can't answer, and the praise you can't thank anyone for. When a customer posts in a language you don't read, their problem stays a mystery, and so does the fix.

You lose the pattern too. A count of mentions tells you people are talking. It won't tell you that every post in one language this month asked whether you deliver to their side of town.

Why isn't a translation app enough?

For one post a week, it is. Copy the post, paste it in, read the result. That stops working when posts arrive every day, on different apps, and you have to find them before you can paste them.

Slang is the other problem. A word that means great among teenagers can look like an insult in a dictionary. A post that mixes two languages is hard to paste anywhere, and sarcasm is easy to read backwards.

How do you find posts in other languages?

Start with your name, the way each group of customers writes it. That might be the same name in another script, a nickname, or how it sounds when someone types it out by ear.

Then add the words customers use for what you sell. Many will call your best-seller by its name in their own language, not the one on your menu.

Herd takes a keyword in any script, so you can add your name the way each group writes it.

How do you read feedback from other cultures fairly?

Read the tone, not only the words. Some customers complain very politely, and a short, flat post can be the angriest one you get that week. Others use big words for small things.

When a post matters, read the original next to the translation. Before you answer anything serious, ask someone who speaks the language. A member of staff or a regular customer will often help.

How should you reply to a customer in another language?

Keep it short. Thank them, say what you'll do, and offer to talk in private if something went wrong.

If you reply in their language, have a speaker check it first. I'd rather post a short reply in English than a long one with a wrong word in it.

How does Herd help?

Herd finds posts about your business on Threads and Reddit today. X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, RedNote and podcasts are coming soon.

Press Translate on any post, and Herd translates it into English, Bahasa Melayu, 简体中文, Bahasa Indonesia or தமிழ், whichever you pick. It keeps the slang and the tone, and the original is one tap away.

Every post gets a positive, neutral or negative label, whatever language it's in, and you can fix any label. Herd drafts replies in your language and your tone, and you edit each one before you post it. Once a week, a one-page report shows the sentiment trend and the topics people talked about most.

How do you make it a weekly habit?

Once a week, read the week's posts in one sitting, all languages together. Then compare them. What does each group of customers bring up that the others don't?

That's where the useful surprises are. The English posts might all be about price, while every post in another language asks about parking. You'd never see that in the totals.