(l-r) Hannah Brigham, Carolyn Burgess and Tony Jopling

KC Contact Centres has signed a deal with local language specialists Language is Everything to use its interpretation services to handle calls from non-English speakers.

KC Contact Centres, part of communications provider KC, provides outsourced customer services to a range of clients including Hull City Council and a busy central Government department.

From next week, all calls from non-English speakers to its Prospect House call centre will be connected to one of Language is Everything’s qualified linguists. A three-way conversation between the customer, the call centre adviser and the interpreter means that the customer’s enquiry can be handled quickly and with confidence that their needs are being met.

Language is Everything provides telephone and face-to-face interpretation services and written translation services to public and private sector organisations throughout the UK and internationally.

It employs 20 people at its offices in the World Trade Centre in Hull and has a network of qualified linguists based around the UK who cover more than 170 different languages.

Tony Jopling, Head of KC Contact Centres, said: “We receive calls every day from people whose first language isn’t English and we want to give them the same high standard of service that all our other customers receive.

“Language is Everything shares our passion for customer service excellence and we’ve been impressed by the quality of the interpreters they use, the efficiency of their operations and their innovative approach.

“The fact that they’re based locally is the icing on the cake. During 2010 KC contributed more than £150m to the region’s economy and a big part of this came from our policy of using local suppliers wherever we can. We’re happy to beworking with a company that’s creating local jobs and contributing to the region’s economy.”

Language is Everything Chief Executive Carolyn Burgess said: “We’re delighted to be working with KC Contact Centres.

“Through our interpreters, non-English speakers can gain access to the vital public sector services they need, and it’s great to be working with a company that recognises how important it is to use qualified linguists.”

The contract will be managed by Hannah Brigham, Business Development Manager at Language is Everything. She said: “As our communities become more diverse there’s a growing need for language services within the public sector and our work with KC Contact Centres will see us interpreting calls speakers of languages including Polish, Russian, Latvian, Portuguese and Mandarin."