The truth about Google Translate for dealerships

Chance Mayfield

As a savvy car dealer, you're aware that reaching every potential customer is a critical aspect of your business growth. In today's increasingly multicultural society, it's a necessity to communicate effectively with a diverse clientele, including the growing Spanish-speaking community. Many dealerships have turned to Google Translate as a quick solution to bridge this language gap. But is it a real solution or a Trojan horse causing more harm than good?

Why relying on Google Translate can throttle your dealership

1. It hampers site performance:
   Imagine a customer visiting your dealership's website, excited to explore your inventory and maybe make a purchase, only to be met with frustratingly slow load times. This is a scenario all too common when using Google Translate for on-site language translation. The reason? It relies heavily on external resources, thereby increasing website load times. In an age where speed is key to customer satisfaction, a slow website might just be the barrier preventing a potential sale. The last thing you want is for your customers to abandon ship before they've even docked.
2. It raises privacy concerns:
   In the world of Google Translate, your content must be sent to Google's servers for processing. This raises significant privacy concerns, especially for dealerships handling sensitive customer information. This process doesn't always align with OEM privacy requirements, potentially putting you in hot water with industry regulations.
3. It compromises translation quality:
   Communication isn't just about words; it's about context, idiomatic expressions, and industry-specific terminology. Google Translate struggles with these nuances, often leading to mistranslations and misunderstandings. The result? A frustrating user experience. A poorly translated website can quickly undermine the trust and confidence of potential customers, negatively impacting your brand image.
4. It simply doesn’t always work:
   At its core, Google Translate was not specifically designed for automotive retailing. Car dealership websites are often packed with plug-ins, i frames, and third-party calls to action, creating a less than ideal environment for Google Translate to function properly. This often results in inconsistent translations and incomplete page renderings, adding yet another layer of frustration for your prospective customers. In essence, Google Translate's one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't fit the unique complexities and nuances of the automotive sales industry.
5. It's no longer available:
   Lastly, and importantly, the Google Translate widget is no longer available for general public use. Discontinued in 2019 due to it being deemed an antiquated solution unable to keep up with the modern consumption of content across varied devices and screen sizes, Google pulled the plug.While the widget made a brief reappearance during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was only to assist in the rapid dissemination of critical information. Today, its usage is strictly limited to government, non-profit, and other non-commercial websites. This means that commercial entities, like car dealerships, no longer have access to the Google Translate website widget.

The impact on your dealership

The seemingly easy solution of Google Translate is attractive on the surface. However, the underlying issues, including its occasional failure to work as expected, can cost your dealership both in customer satisfaction and potential sales. It's crucial to weigh the real cost of using such a service.

At Carfluent, we understand that language should never be a barrier to connecting with your customers. That's why we've made it our mission to bridge the gap with a comprehensive, industry-specific solution that addresses these concerns. If you're ready to provide a seamless, culturally sensitive car-shopping experience without compromising your site performance or customer trust, schedule a demo with us.