115 Words and Phrases in Spanish for Customer Service
Many jobs require Spanish skills, and customer service (el servicio al cliente) jobs are no different. Some business Spanish will come in handy, but you’ll also need more specific vocabulary.
Here are 115 Spanish customer service words and phrases, plus seven resources for learning more.
Contents
- Common Spanish Words and Phrases Used in Customer Service
- Spanish Vocabulary for Working in a Call Center
- Talking with Unhappy Customers in Spanish
- Talking About Billing Information in Spanish
- Helpful Resources to Learn Spanish for Customer Service
- Tips for Learning Spanish for Customer Service
- Why Learn Spanish for Customer Service?
- And One More Thing…
Common Spanish Words and Phrases Used in Customer Service
In customer service, showing respect to the customer is an essential part of the job. Because of this, all of the verbs are conjugated in the usted form (polite form of “you”) instead of tú. And when there are reflexive or object pronouns, le is used.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| El servicio al cliente | Customer service |
| ¡ Bienvenido ! / ¡ Bienvenida ! | Welcome! |
| El cliente | Customer, client |
| El representante de atención al cliente | Customer service representative |
| El servicio de asistencia | Help desk |
| ¿En qué puedo ayudarle? | How can I help you? |
| ¿En qué puedo servirle? | What can I do for you? |
| ¿Me permite su nombre? | May I have your name? |
| La consulta | Inquiry, consultation |
| El reclamo , La queja | Complaint |
| Quejarse | To complain |
| ¿Me podría explicar el problema? | Could you explain the problem? |
| ¿Le gustaría...? | Would you like...? |
| ¡Claro que sí! | Of course! |
| Con mucho gusto | With pleasure |
| Estoy aquí para ayudarle | I'm here to help you |
| Lo siento mucho | I'm very sorry |
| No hay problema | No problem |
| Déjeme verificarlo por usted | Let me check that for you |
| ¿Hay algo más en lo que pueda ayudarle? | Is there anything else I can help you with? |
| ¿Le ha sido útil esta información? | Has this information been helpful? |
| ¡Que tenga un excelente día! | Have a great day! |
| Gracias por su llamada | Thank you for your call |
Spanish Vocabulary for Working in a Call Center
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| El centro de atención telefónica | Call center |
| Gracias por llamar a... | Thank you for calling... |
| ¿En qué le puedo ayudar? | How can I help you? |
| ¿Me permite su nombre? | May I have your name? |
| ¿Cuál es el motivo de su llamada? | What is the reason for your call? |
| Lamento escuchar eso | I'm sorry to hear that |
| Entiendo su preocupación | I understand your concern |
| Para atenderle mejor... | To better assist you... |
| ¿Le puedo poner en espera, por favor? | May I put you on hold, please? |
| ¿Me podría facilitar su número de teléfono? | Could you please provide me your phone number? |
| Le transfiero con el departamento de... | I will transfer you to the [department] department |
| Le confirmo que... | I can confirm (that)... |
| Según la información que tengo... | According to the information I have... |
| ¿Le parece bien si verifico la información en el sistema? | Would it be alright if I verify the information in the system? |
| Puede consultar nuestra página web... | You can check our website... |
| Le explico | Let me explain |
| Le recomiendo que... | I recommend (that)... |
| Hagamos lo siguiente | Let's do the following |
| Para solucionar este problema... | To solve this problem... |
| ¿Tiene alguna otra pregunta? | Do you have any other questions? |
| ¿Le puedo ofrecer algo más? | Can I offer you anything else? |
| Me alegro de poder ayudarle | I'm happy to help |
| Le agradezco su paciencia | Thank you for your patience |
| Le pido disculpas | I apologize |
| Si tiene algún otro inconveniente, no dude en contactarnos | If you have any other problems, do not hesitate to contact us |
| Estaré encantado de atenderle | I will be happy to assist you |
| Que tenga un buen día | Have a good day |
Talking with Unhappy Customers in Spanish
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Lamento mucho que esté insatisfecho (a) | I am very sorry you are unsatisfied |
| Entiendo su frustración | I understand your frustration |
| Haré todo lo posible para ayudarle | I will do everything possible to help you |
| ¿Qué puedo hacer para resolver esta situación? | What can I do to resolve this situation? |
| Le ofrezco disculpas por las molestias ocasionadas | I apologize for the inconvenience |
| Me gustaría ofrecerle una solución | I would like to offer you a solution |
| ¿Le parece bien si...? | Would you be okay if...? |
| Sé que esto no soluciona todo, pero... | I know this doesn't solve everything, but... |
| Aprecio su comprensión | I appreciate your understanding |
| Tome nota de... | Please take note of... |
| Puede estar seguro de que... | You can be sure that... |
| Le garantizo que esto no volverá a suceder | I guarantee you this will not happen again |
| ¿En qué podemos mejorar? | How can we improve? |
| Agradezco sus comentarios | I appreciate your feedback |
| Sé que esto ha sido un inconveniente | I know this has been an inconvenience |
| Para compensar esta situación, le podemos ofrecer... | To compensate for this situation, we can offer you... |
| Tomaré las medidas necesarias para... | I will take the necessary steps to... |
| ¿Le gustaría hablar con un supervisor? | Would you like to speak with a supervisor? |
| Le asignaremos un caso para dar seguimiento | We will assign you a case for follow-up |
| Nos pondremos en contacto con usted en un plazo de... [tiempo] | We will contact you within... |
| Le mantendremos informado del progreso | We will keep you informed of the progress |
| Una vez más, le pido disculpas | Once again, I apologize |
| Espero que podamos recuperar su confianza | I hope we can regain your trust |
| Por favor, cálmese para que podamos ayudarle mejor | Please calm down so we can better assist you |
| Sé que esto es frustrante | I know this is frustrating |
| Tome asiento y respire profundo | Take a seat and take a deep breath |
| Tranquilícese, por favor (a) | Please calm down (formal) |
| Tiene razón en estar molesto (a) | You are right to be upset |
| Me gustaría disculparme por las molestias ocasionadas | I would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused |
| La política de la compañía | Company policy |
| Los términos y condiciones | Terms and conditions |
| La garantía | Warranty, guarantee |
Talking About Billing Information in Spanish
Helpful Resources to Learn Spanish for Customer Service
BusinessSpanish.com
BusinessSpanish.com is a helpful free resource that focuses on teaching users basic writing and conversation skills for a business context.
As part of its general business resources, BusinessSpanish.com offers a customer service vocabulary list with over 30 common words and phrases. Each word and phrase also offers audio, so this is a great tool for beginning Spanish students.
BusinessSpanish.com also provides a customer service lesson that uses the vocabulary in context through dialogues. This is a great way for beginners to learn basic skills that they can immediately apply to a customer service setting.
Spanish for Your Job
Spanish for Your Job offers this helpful YouTube video to teach you common phrases that you may use in customer service work.
Each phrase is spoken in Spanish, English and then Spanish again. The phrases also appear on the screen to help you connect the written and spoken words. Additionally, some phrases are also accompanied by an alternate phrase with the same meaning to provide you with some options.
Phrases for Customer Service Representatives is approachable for beginning learners since it offers clear audio. It’s also a good tool for intermediate and advanced speakers who need to learn Spanish for specific customer service contexts.
If you want to practice these valuable phrases on the go, you can also download it as a podcast for free. That same link also offers a free PDF transcript to go along with the lesson, as well as several other lessons that can help you learn Spanish for other business-related contexts.
Open English
Open English has a “Useful English Customer Service Vocabulary” list. It’s a free list of vocabulary and phrases. It’s actually intended to help Spanish speakers learn English vocabulary, but it also works well in reverse.
Each phrase is accompanied by both the Spanish and English equivalents. The list is organized to follow the standard flow of a typical customer service conversation, so it’s easy to learn valuable phrases in the order in which you would likely use them.
Since no audio of the words/phrases is available, this resource is best for learners who already have some familiarity with the Spanish language and its pronunciation.
123 Teach Me
123 Teach Me offers this helpful free list of over 60 words and phrases to help you learn customer service Spanish.
You can study using flashcards with accompanying audio and associated images. Additionally, you can practice the words through various games and activities like a word order quiz, a spelling activity and a matching game.
The versatility of this tool makes it a good choice for beginning through advanced students who are looking to build their customer service vocabulary.
Study.com
Study.com offers a variety of lessons to help you learn new information. As part of its “Spanish for the Workplace” lesson, Study.com offers a chapter on customer service Spanish.
This chapter shares commonly used words, phrases, questions and more to help you master Spanish for customer service. Pronunciation guides will help beginning students with the pronunciation. However, the site would probably be easiest to use for learners who have at least basic Spanish skills.
If you want to test your learning, there’s also a quiz.
You can access some of the lesson for free, but full access requires a subscription. A free trial is available, and subscriptions start at $29.99 per month.
MySpanishTeacher
MySpanishTeacher offers a selection of online Spanish courses, including one that focuses on customer service.
The online customer service course is available any time and features 15 hours of seminar-style classes. It covers vocabulary for topics like returns, account payments, computers and more. The course also covers basic grammar rules, so it’s ideal for beginning to intermediate Spanish students.
You can also print resources to have convenient study tools that you can use as references throughout your career.
If you complete the course, you get a certificate, which is a handy way to show your accomplishment.
You can get six months of unlimited access to the course for $99.
TakeLessons
TakeLessons offers a live, small-group class that teaches Spanish for customer service. If you learn best in a traditional classroom setting, this is a similar option, but it moves the classroom online.
The course is designed for beginners, so it covers basic Spanish grammar like the use of usted (formal “you”) along with customer service vocabulary and phrases. Plus, the small group setting makes it easy to practice your skills with other students.
The course is not offered all the time, so check back for course dates.
Tips for Learning Spanish for Customer Service
- Consider how much Spanish you want or need to learn for your position. If you have limited and simple interactions with Spanish speakers, you might only need a few key phrases. However, if you regularly interact with Spanish speakers to solve complicated problems, you’ll need to know a lot more.
- Practice, practice, practice. Consider what issues customers might want to address and run through a mock conversation. The more often you practice with different scenarios, the more vocabulary you’ll realize you need to study. This will help ensure you’re prepared if you ever encounter a similar scenario.
- Ensure you learn any special terminology specific to your position or industry. The customer service industry is so diverse that you’ll certainly have some terms that are specific to your job and which don’t apply to many other customer service positions. For instance, if you work in a clothing store, you’ll need to know the names of various garments. However, if you work in customer service at a computer company, you’ll need lots of technical terms. Therefore, you’ll need to supplement your standard customer service vocabulary lessons with words you need for your job.
- Consider making your own vocabulary list to practice with. This will help you customize your vocabulary for your particular position.
- Use authentic media to see new words in use. Get into a Spanish professional sitcom, a podcast about self-improvement, maybe the Spanish edition of How to Win Friends and Influence People—anything that is both relevant to your career goals and improving your language skills. You can also try studying Spanish with a virtual immersion software. FluentU, for example, has a large library of Spanish videos that come with interactive subtitles and other useful learning tools.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
Why Learn Spanish for Customer Service?
There are a lot of bilingual customer service positions, and a lot of them involve Spanish, especially in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the number of customer service positions in general to grow faster than the national job growth average, and with a growing Hispanic population, the industry will definitely need Spanish speakers.
And it’s easy to understand why Spanish speakers will be in demand. Why would a company want to hire one person to provide service in English and another person to provide service in Spanish, if they could just hire one person who could do the work of both people?
Bilingual customer service positions also often offer higher pay. In 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the median income for customer service representatives was $15.25. Since an additional language is a major skill, bilingual employees are often paid more to reflect this.
Even if a position doesn’t require you to speak Spanish, knowing Spanish for customer service can give you a leg up on the competition. After all, it makes you more flexible and able to fill in if the company suddenly needs a Spanish speaker.
If you’re likely to encounter Spanish-speaking customers, learning customer service Spanish is often just easier than relying on someone else to translate. It can be a pain to wait for another employee to come help you do something. Even learning some basic customer service vocabulary could help you save yourself and the customer valuable time.
Before you know it, you’re sure to be speaking Spanish and helping out people like it’s no big deal. Good luck!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing…
If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.
Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
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