A girl faints in the street and you try to help her. The police arrive and instead of regarding you as the Good Samaritan you have to explain them you have no relationship with the girl and you have nothing to do with her fainting. What do you do? If you don’t speak Chinese you can call China Help Line.
China Help Line started in January 2005 and is a telephone-based interpretation and information service serving the foreigners who live, work, and travel in China. Curious about what they do and how it works I asked Jean Wu to answer some questions. Jean got involved with China Help Line in August 2005 and started as a part-time English interpreter, quickly moved to the Marketing and Business Development area, and then started to manage the company in March 2006.
Jean, Can you introduce yourself and tell something about your background and how you ended up working for China Help Line?
I grew up in Beijing and spent 15 years in the US before moving back to Shanghai due to my husband’s new job. While in the US, after graduating from the MBA program in Simon Business School in Rochester, NY, I worked five years in FedEx (Memphis, Miami), and 5 years in Gap, Inc. in the Bay area. I have two daughters.
I studied English for 10 years before first landing in the U.S. At the time, I still found myself unable to understand what people were saying, and struggled all the time with what’s the most appropriate or simply didn’t know the words. It took me a while to be at ease with chatting about the local news, and able to follow the jokes at the late night shows. My colleagues learned the habit of stop.
What is the habit of stop?
After my colleagues got familiar with me, whenever I was part of the group discussion, they always paid attention to stop after using a cartoon story in the conversation, and turned around to explain why they used it. It became a habit of theirs.
What was it like to move back again to China?
With all the relocation experience, and the fact I grew up in China with Chinese as my native language, the relocation back to China was not easy for me.
I can imagine, what was the hardest part of adapting again?
For me, it’s a different world. China has changed so much compared to 1991, the same with the people.
For the same question, there are often many answers, some maybe halfway or wrong-way. And it’s mostly up to you to dig the details and try it out.In the beginning, my local friends laughed at me for things such as how much I paid the ayi (the maid) or that I talked way too nice to the gardener. I could tell right away from people’s face that I didn’t get what they were saying. And I can’t hide behind the language barrier here.
That’s interesting; you still talk friendly to the gardener?
Well, always the same the first time. If they return with a different way, then, I sometimes find myself sound differently
How did you get involved with China Help Line?
I discovered China Help Line through Shanghai Expats’ website. I thought it was a very innovative idea with a tremendous potential and a very strong team. I started as a part-time English interpreter, quickly moved to the Marketing and Business Development area, and then started to manage the company in March 2006.
What does China Help Line do?
China Help Line is a telephone-based interpretation and information service for foreigners in China. All you have to do is to call our nation wide service hotline 4008-808080, press 1 for English, and press 2 for German.
Our English-Chinese services have been in the market for 3 years now, and we are the only company in China that provides the German-Chinese interpretation over the phone.In addition, we also offer other traditional translation services such as document translation, on-site interpretation for conferences or tours, virtual personal/office assistance, and concierge services.
How did China Help Line get started and why?
Two students at Harvard Business School who traveled often to China to visit factories started China Help Line. Although both had studied Chinese previously, neither was fluent. After several language-related mishaps while traveling in Guangdong and Zhejiang, the two tried to find an English-language service they could call when they needed help. Finding no such service anywhere in China, they decided to start China Help Line themselves.
I see, they had a problem and they came up with the solution.
Where there any hurdles in setting up the business?
In the beginning, it was tough to find the right call center.
Since most of our customers have a lot of experience with the service standards and quality overseas, we need to provide what they need from here. For example, it was hard to explain to some call centers that we need our specialists to see all the related customer info when the call comes in and then after the call, the call record needs to show up in the customer’s online account right away, with details of charges, length, etc.
How many people are working for China Help Line? And are all agents working in the China Help Line office?
We have sales teams in Shanghai and Beijing, supervisors, operation and administration team, and 12 full time specialists, and many part-time specialists who will fill in during the peak or work on projects. They all work in either the call center or the China Help Line offices
Currently there is the English service and the German service was launched at the beginning of 2007.
Which language is next on the schedule?
Our customers have asked for Japanese, French, and even Dutch. We will look at the demand for each probably in a couple of months.
And which one will be the likeliest to be next on schedule you think?
My personal preferences are Japanese and Korean.
The web plays an important part in your service. I noticed users have to register online. What’s the benefit?
Yes it’s very important. Our goal is to provide a service that is very efficient and easy to access. The online account provides a very important part of it - after registration, when the customer calls with the phone number registered, our specialists will be able to see the customer’s information, for example, their last name, and address them right away on the phone. And after the call, the customer will be able to go to his online account, and check the call record and the exact charge, and call us if he has any questions. It also will enable our customers to pay for our services wherever they are.
True, and as we are at the topic of cost, what are the costs involved for a customer? Is it charged by the minute or …?
Our retail rate for the English line is RMB 5 per minute, and RMB 6 per minute for the German line. We also offer our corporate customers monthly subscription packages. The rate there represents very good discounts compared to retail.
Is the majority of your clients corporate or individuals?
Right now, two third of our customers are registered through corporate accounts.
What is the average call duration?
Some calls are long, such as business conference calls, could be 1-2 hours. Some could be as short as 20 seconds, such as giving directions to the Client’s taxi driver. There is no charge for holding, greeting and ending time.
Our specialists are trained to pick up the phone within the 2nd ring.
Before we get into a bit more about the users, I have a question about the business model. How does China Help Line make money? Does it get a kick back from the Telco?
All payments are sent directly to China Help Line. Currently we are managing the payment process ourselves, not through any other companies such as telecom companies. I understand it’s common in the U.S. , but right now, we haven’t found a better way to manage it.
Interesting solution, as you track the total call time and can bill your clients directly instead of having to go through a Telco and see whatever kickback comes out of it. You are using a premium number, nation wide, are there extra cost involved for the caller?
Yes, we set up this nationwide hotline so that the customers can call from anywhere in China, and only pay for the local toll charges instead of the long distance.
In that sense the cost for a client are his local charges + the 5 Rmb/minute if I’m correct.
Yes, however, with this nationwide hotline, for every call from outside of Shanghai, China Help Line needs to pay 0.7 Rmb per minute to the telecom company.
Just to completely understand it. The user pays his own phone cost + the additional 5 Rmb/min that is charged through China Help Line. For having one available number in China, China Help Line also pays a fee per minute.
Yes, and we also paid a pretty big set up fee for this nationwide number.
Some more questions about the users, you mentioned 2/3 is corporate.
Are there specific foreigners you target? Business, tourists or ..?
The service lines are open to everyone. The most frequent users are corporate expats families and individual entrepreneurs. We even received calls from local Chinese even though we have not yet promoted our services in Chinese.
Some more demographics, what is the background of your users, old/young and are there specific nationalities that use the service more?
We have a very diverse group. Not many calls from teenagers and small kids. There are people who relocated to China due to a job transfer, want to set up their own ventures, like to find the dream life style, or simply want to live here after retiring. About 40% come from the US, 40% from the EU, and the others are from countries such as India, and Thailand, etc.
How many people use it? Can you say something about the number of calls you get on a daily basis?
The total numbers of customers is in the thousands. The calls per day are in hundreds.
Do you have examples of requests/help you provided, preferably some interesting / entertaining examples?
We get a lot of calls from newcomers, and when people are in need, such as when they are about to board the plane but need to have a 5-way conference call when the plane lands. Others are from clients that have locked themselves out or left their wallet in the taxi.
What is the future for China Help Line. Do you have plans for new services?
With all what is happening in China, especially with the growth of web and telecom technology here, what people need now is a service that can help them first to understand, and secondly to maximize the opportunities that this country can provide. We believe China Help Line provides exactly just that, and in the near future, we will be able to provide more varieties of services for this purpose.
Anything you can say about what kind of services?
With the current structure, we can help people with a lot of different services, such as personal assistance, travel, etc. I believe the question for us is what we should focus on and become the leading brand name.
What are your favorite websites/blogs about China?
Websites in China, baidu.com, and Dianping and Dangdang
I can get a lot of good books from Dangdang without going through the traffic.
I don’t really have time for blogs.
I see, busy busy. Is there anything I forgot to ask and you like to mention?
Yes, I like to give you more examples of the requests we got.
One client wanted us to tell the Ayi not to install anything without her permission even if it is beneficiary to the client.
Another client was about to leave home, and the Ayi told her to sneak out so that the baby will not discover that she is leaving. The client firmly requested us to tell the Ayi that she would rather tell the baby directly that ‘mummy is leaving but will definitely come back’.
Great examples. Thanks a lot Jean for the interview.
In case you Chinese doesn’t cut it, China Help Line may be able to assist you.
English service 8am - 12 midnight 5 Rmb/min
German Service 8am- 8 pm 6 Rmb/min (after 8 pm it’s 8 Rmb)
