Write Your Texts in Several Languages

How a customer's language is chosen

Every customer gets their own language, and you don't have to set it for them. It comes from, in this order:

• Their own pick on the sign-up page or the customer page (the language button at the top).
• The Language column in your import file, if you import customers.
• Their phone, the first time they open their card (English if we don't support the phone's language).

From then on, our own screens, emails and messages reach them in that language automatically. What you write yourself (benefits, card text, your business page) stays as you wrote it until you add a version in their language. That is what the rest of this guide is about.

Turn it on

1. Open Programs, select a program and go to the Setup tab.
2. Open Languages.
3. Under This card is written in, choose the language you wrote this card in.
4. Under Also write in, tick the languages your customers read.
5. Click Save languages.

Only an editor, an admin or the owner can change which languages you write in. The choice applies to every card and to your Customer Portal page. Each card says what it is written in, so a card for Oslo can be in Norwegian and one for Nice in French.

Write the versions

Once a language is ticked, a Writing in row of tabs appears above your texts: benefit names and descriptions, card text, your business page headline and links. The first tab is the language the card is written in, marked "as written". Click another tab and write the same text in that language. The number on a tab is how many texts are still to write there.

• If a text isn't written yet, customers who read that language see your text as written. Nothing is blank and nothing is machine-translated for you.
• Some things stay the same in every language: counts (stamps, points), pictures and rules. They show a small note instead of a tab.
• Your staff see texts as written, in the scanner and in your dashboard, whatever language the customer reads.
• Texts you write reach customers when you press Publish on the card. Languages themselves change as soon as you save.

See it as your customers will

Above the card preview you will find Reads: with a list of your languages. Pick one to see the back of the card in that language, and which texts still show as written. The business page preview has the same row, See it as a visitor who reads. Our own labels (buttons, headings) show in your dashboard language here; members see them in theirs.

Messages, campaigns and emails

The same Writing in tabs appear wherever you write to your customers, once you write in more than one language:

• Campaigns (a program's Campaigns tab): the push message, the text on the card, and the Customer Portal texts What they get and Small print.
• Send message (on Customers, and on a card on your dashboard): the push or SMS text.
• New email (Write an email): the push, the subject, the preview text and each heading or text block.

Write the text as usual, then click another language's tab and write it there. Each version has its own character count. The preview has See it as a member who reads, so you can check every language before you send. Each customer gets the version in their language, and your text as written when there isn't one. Pictures, buttons, who it goes to, the channels and the time are the same in every language.

• SMS cost: with versions, the cost reads Up to a number of credits. It is counted on the longest language version, so it is never short.
• Stays in one language: WhatsApp messages (they are templates) and the older campaign edit dialog. Texts for your staff stay as written.
• A version that is too long stops Send and says which language to shorten.
• Before you send, the review lists each language that goes out, with how many of the selected customers read it. A language not written yet says its readers get your text as written. In a program's campaign list, each campaign shows its languages and how many texts are still to write.

Importing customers with a language

When you import a file, map your language column to Language in the column step. Values like Français, FR or nl-BE are all recognised. Customers whose row has no language get their invite in the invite language you pick. Values that can't be recognised are listed before you import, so you can fix the file first. See Import Your Existing Customers.

Language on each customer

• Open a customer on Customers: the Language row shows their language, or "Not set yet (their phone decides)". Editors and above can change it.
• In Add condition you can filter the list by Language, including customers with no language yet.
• The Language column is in your CSV export and is sent to Zapier and Make.

Good to know

• Messages you already sent stay as they were sent: a language you add later applies to the next ones.
• On Google Wallet, a few labels on the card follow the phone's language, not the member's.
• Removing a language doesn't delete what you wrote. Your texts are kept, so adding the language again brings them back. Meanwhile those customers see your text as written.
• Related: Your Customer Portal and Change the Words on Your Card.