When people hear “localization,” they often think it’s just a fancy word for translation. But that’s like saying a chef just heats up food. The reality is much deeper. Translation is simply swapping words from one language to another. Localization, on the other hand, is about adapting an entire product or experience to feel like it was made for a specific local culture.
It’s about making sure your message, visuals, and overall feel are natural and familiar to a new audience. This goes way beyond a simple word-for-word conversion.
Understanding the Core Idea of Localization
Here’s a good way to think about it: imagine a global coffee chain opening a new store in Japan. They wouldn’t just translate their menu from English to Japanese. That’s the bare minimum.
Instead, they’d introduce matcha-flavored drinks, design the store with a minimalist aesthetic that fits local tastes, and run promotions around holidays like Golden Week. That’s localization. It’s the extra effort that makes a global brand feel genuinely local and welcome.
This strategic process involves juggling several key components to create an experience that clicks with users. It’s a holistic approach that respects the cultural, technical, and even legal nuances that make each market unique.
At its heart, localization is about empathy. It’s the practice of meeting your customers where they are—not just geographically, but culturally and linguistically—to build genuine trust and connection.
The Four Pillars of Localization
To really get what localization entails, it’s helpful to break it down into four core pillars. Each one covers a different, crucial aspect of adapting your product or service for a new market.
| Component | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Linguistic | Goes beyond translation to adapt idioms, slang, and tone. | Changing “hit a home run” (US) to “score a goal” (UK). |
| Cultural | Modifies colors, images, and symbols to be culturally appropriate. | Using red for good fortune in China, not for warnings. |
| Technical | Adjusts formats for dates, times, currencies, and measurements. | Displaying dates as DD/MM/YYYY instead of MM/DD/YYYY. |
| Legal | Ensures compliance with local regulations, privacy laws, and standards. | Adhering to GDPR in Europe for data protection. |
This multi-faceted approach is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s becoming absolutely critical. The localization industry was valued at roughly $71.7 billion in 2024, and for good reason. For the first time ever, English usage online has dipped below 50%.
The business imperative is crystal clear: to succeed globally, you have to speak locally. You can dive deeper into these trends and the growing importance of language localization in our detailed guide.
Going Beyond Words: Translation vs. Localization
It’s easy to throw the words “translation” and “localization” around like they mean the same thing, but that’s a rookie mistake. Getting this distinction right is critical for any team serious about global support.
Think of it this way: translation is like swapping out ingredients one-for-one in a recipe. It’s the straightforward process of converting text from one language to another. You change a “Submit” button to “Enviar” in Spanish. The word is different, but the button, its color, and its function are exactly the same. It’s a literal, direct swap.
Localization, on the other hand, is like redesigning the entire recipe to suit a completely different local palate. It’s a much deeper process that adapts the entire user experience to feel natural and intuitive for a specific culture. It asks the bigger questions: Should that even be a button? Does this color scheme resonate with our audience in Tokyo? Is this workflow logical for someone in Berlin?
This is about more than just words. It’s about creating an experience that feels like it was built just for them, from the ground up.
As you can see, connecting with a global audience requires far more than a dictionary. It demands a thoughtful, comprehensive cultural and technical adaptation.
Translation vs. Localization: A Clear Comparison
To really nail down the differences, let’s break it down side-by-side. While translation is a crucial first step, localization is what truly connects and builds trust.
| Aspect | Translation | Localization |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Word-for-word accuracy and linguistic correctness. | Cultural relevance and the overall user experience. |
| Scope | Limited to the text itself. | Encompasses text, visuals, formats, and cultural norms. |
| Goal | To make content understandable in another language. | To make the entire product or service feel native and familiar. |
Ultimately, translation ensures your message can be read, while localization ensures it will be felt.
It’s Not Just About the Text
This is where the real magic of localization happens. It tackles all the non-textual elements that simple translation completely overlooks—the very things that determine whether you build trust or create friction with your users.
Here are a few key elements that go beyond words:
- Visuals and Imagery: Using photos with models, settings, and symbols that reflect the local culture is a must. The last thing you want is an image that is confusing or, worse, offensive.
- Colors: Color psychology varies dramatically across cultures. For instance, white often symbolizes purity in the West, but it can represent mourning in some Eastern cultures.
- Formats: You have to get the details right. This means adjusting dates, times, currency symbols, and units of measurement to match local standards (think DD/MM/YYYY vs. MM/DD/YYYY).
Localization is the difference between a foreign company speaking at a market and a global brand speaking with a community in its own voice.
It’s this comprehensive approach that explains the massive growth in the global language services industry. Valued at USD 60.68 billion in 2022, it’s projected to skyrocket to USD 96.21 billion by 2032. That’s a huge market driven by the need for authentic connection.
If you want to dive even deeper, check out our detailed guide on the core differences between translation vs. localization.
Why Localization Matters for Customer Support
Knowing what localization is is one thing, but seeing its direct impact on customer loyalty is something else entirely.
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer in Japan who’s struggling with your software. They reach out for help, only to get a canned, automated reply in English. It’s frustrating. It makes them feel like an afterthought. Now, imagine they instead find a knowledge base article written in perfect Japanese and get a reply from an agent in their native language. That’s how you build trust.
When a customer feels genuinely heard and understood in their own language, their entire perception of your brand can shift. It stops being just a transaction and starts feeling like a relationship built on respect and care. This isn’t just a “nice-to-have”—it’s a powerful way to keep customers happy and loyal.
From Cost Center to Revenue Driver
For years, many businesses have viewed their support department as a necessary cost. A line item on a budget. But when you introduce localized support, that whole script gets flipped. Suddenly, support becomes a proactive tool for growth that directly moves the needle on key business metrics.
Think about it: when customers can solve their own problems through a self-service portal in their native language or communicate clearly with your agents, the entire support journey gets smoother and faster.
This leads to some very real, tangible benefits:
- Faster Resolution Times: Clear communication cuts through the confusion, letting agents solve issues on the first try. No more back-and-forth trying to decipher what someone means.
- Higher CSAT Scores: It’s no surprise that customers are a lot happier when they don’t have to battle a language barrier just to get the help they need.
- Lower Customer Churn: A positive, effortless support experience is a huge factor when a customer is deciding whether to stick with your service or look elsewhere.
When a global company provides a local touch, it demonstrates a deep commitment to its customers. This effort doesn’t go unnoticed and is often the deciding factor that keeps users loyal to a brand.
Tools like Jira Service Management become exponentially more powerful when they’re properly localized. Instead of being a support bottleneck, the service desk transforms into an efficient, global communication hub. It allows a single, centralized team to offer multilingual customer service without having to hire native speakers in every single region, turning your support team into a scalable asset for global expansion.
Alright, let’s move from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’. Knowing you need to localize is one thing, but actually doing it is another beast entirely. A successful localization project isn’t about guesswork or trying to boil the ocean. It’s a strategic process, designed to turn your support portal into a place where global users feel seen and understood.
Think of it like building a house. You wouldn’t just show up with a pile of lumber and start hammering. You need a blueprint. This framework is your blueprint for localizing your service desk, especially within a tool like Jira Service Management. It all starts with figuring out where to focus your energy for the biggest payoff.
Identify and Prioritize Your Markets
Your first move? Follow the data. It’s tempting to try and support every language from day one, but that’s a surefire way to spread your resources too thin. A much smarter approach is to dig into your existing customer base and support ticket trends to see which regions are knocking on your door the most.
- Analyze Ticket Volume: Jump into Jira and use JQL queries to see which countries or languages are creating the most support requests. A high volume of tickets is a massive, flashing sign that there’s a clear need.
- Review Market Growth: Now, look at your sales and user data. Where are you seeing the fastest international growth? Getting ahead of the curve by localizing for these markets prepares you for the demand that’s right around the corner.
- Assess Strategic Importance: Finally, think big picture. Which markets are absolutely critical to your company’s long-term growth? Your support strategy should always be in lockstep with your business goals.
This data-first approach means you’re putting your localization budget where it will have an immediate impact, making life easier for your largest groups of non-English-speaking customers right away.
The goal is to move from a reactive support model to a proactive one. By anticipating the needs of your key global markets, you build a foundation for scalable, world-class service.
Getting this right isn’t just a “nice-to-have” anymore; it’s becoming essential. The global software localization market was valued at USD 4.9 billion in 2024 and is on a serious upward trajectory. This boom is partly because modern software makes it so much easier to adapt platforms like service desks for specific regions. You can dig into some more insights on software localization growth if you’re curious.
Once you’ve pinpointed your target markets, the next crucial step is adapting your content so it truly connects on a cultural level.
Automating Localization in Jira Service Management
Trying to handle multilingual support requests manually is a recipe for pure chaos. Just picture it: agents juggling a dozen Google Translate tabs, frantically copying and pasting conversations, and losing crucial context with every ticket that comes in. This is exactly where technology steps in, transforming what was once a messy, manual slog into a smooth, automated workflow.
A dedicated tool like Issue Translation for Jira Service Management builds localization right into your existing support environment. This simple change allows a single, centralized team to communicate flawlessly in over 100 languages without ever needing to leave the Jira ticket. The whole idea is to get rid of the friction—for both your agents and your customers.
Streamlining Global Support Workflows
Automation takes all those manual, error-prone tasks that bog your team down and gets them off their plate. Instead of copy-pasting, translations pop up automatically right inside the ticket, keeping the original context intact and creating a perfect audit trail. This means even a lean team can deliver world-class global support, massively scaling their reach without having to scale their headcount.
- Eliminate Manual Translation: Agents no longer have to bounce between browser tabs. This cuts down on errors and shaves precious time off every single ticket.
- Preserve Ticket Context: Every bit of communication, both original and translated, is stored right there in the Jira issue. No more guesswork, just total transparency.
- Empower a Centralized Team: Forget about the nightmare of hiring native speakers for every single region. One team can efficiently handle requests from anywhere in the world.
The real goal of automation isn’t just about translating words. It’s about translating the entire support experience into one that feels fast, seamless, and completely native to every user, no matter what language they speak.
The screenshot below gives you a peek at how Issue Translation for Jira presents both the customer’s original comment and the agent’s translated view side-by-side.
This bilingual view is a game-changer. It gives agents the complete picture, letting them double-check the automated translation’s accuracy while still replying in their own native language. The customer, on the other hand, just gets a reply that feels personal and direct.
By building this capability into your workflow, you’re not just managing tickets anymore—you’re building stronger customer relationships across borders. To dig deeper into what this means for your team, it’s worth exploring the key differences between a basic translation and a full localization service.
Common Questions About Localization Strategy
When you start thinking about going global, a few key questions about localization always pop up. Getting these sorted out early is the secret to building a process that actually works and scales, helping you sidestep a lot of common headaches later on.
One of the first hurdles is getting your head around the difference between localization (L10n) and internationalization (i18n). Here’s a simple way to think about it: internationalization is like designing a house with universal electrical outlets that can accept any type of plug. It’s the foundational tech work—coding your software to handle different languages, currencies, and text directions—that makes everything else possible.
Localization, then, is the act of actually installing the specific plug for France, Japan, or Brazil. Internationalization builds the framework; localization makes it feel like home for a specific audience.
How Do We Prioritize Languages?
Another big one: where do you even start? Which languages should you tackle first? The best way forward is to let the data lead, not your gut feelings.
Dig into your existing support ticket volume and user data. Where are most of your questions coming from? Which regions are showing the most growth? This points you right to where your resources will make the biggest splash, right away.
If you want to go deeper, you can actually map out the user’s entire journey to see exactly where language barriers are causing friction. We’ve got a handy guide on creating a customer experience map that can help you pinpoint where localization will deliver the most bang for your buck.
Prioritizing languages isn’t just about translation; it’s a strategic business decision. Focus on markets that offer the highest return on experience, where improved communication will directly boost satisfaction and retention.
Finally, a lot of teams ask if modern AI is “good enough” to handle it all. While AI translation tools have become incredibly powerful, they’re at their best when they have a human partner.
AI gives you speed and scale, but you still need a human touch to catch subtle cultural nuances, keep your brand’s tone consistent, and fix any weird, context-specific mistakes. A hybrid approach—using AI for the heavy lifting and a human for the final polish—gives you the perfect mix of efficiency and quality.
And as you build out your strategy, don’t forget to make sure people can actually find you. It’s smart to implement proven local SEO strategies to boost your visibility in each new market you enter.
Ready to break down language barriers in your support desk? resolution Reichert Network Solutions GmbH makes it simple. Try Issue Translation for JSM and see how seamless multilingual customer service can be.
