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How do you localize customer success software?
Customer success software localization means translating the in-app messages, onboarding flows, help content, and lifecycle communications that customer success teams use to guide users in their own language. Smartling does not offer a named, pre-built connector for standalone customer success platforms such as Gainsight, Totango, or Vitally; teams on those platforms typically route in-app UI and dashboard content through Smartling's Translation Delivery API or Global Delivery Network (GDN), and route lifecycle email and push messaging through an adjacent connector such as Braze, HubSpot, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The right approach depends on which of those content types — custom UI, help articles, or lifecycle messaging — makes up most of what a customer success team needs translated.
Last reviewed: September 3, 2026
Why is customer success software harder to localize than a single connected platform?
Customer success software localization is harder to route through one connector because the content itself is split across several different systems, not one.
- No single dominant platform. Unlike a help desk (which usually consolidates around Zendesk or Salesforce Service Cloud), customer success tooling spans dedicated platforms like Gainsight, Totango, or Vitally, plus marketing-automation tools repurposed for lifecycle messaging, plus custom in-app UI — so no one connector covers the whole surface.
- Dashboards and health scores are dynamically generated. Customer health scores, usage analytics labels, and segmentation tags are computed and rendered at runtime, which a file-based translation workflow can't capture the way it captures static documents.
- Personalization tokens complicate machine translation. Automated messages with dynamic values — a customer's name, a usage count, a renewal date — need a translation approach that preserves placeholders and handles language-specific grammar around those values.
- Content ownership is split across teams. Marketing owns lifecycle email platforms, support owns help content, and product owns in-app UI, so a customer success localization program often has to coordinate translation across three separate connector relationships instead of one.
What does a customer success software localization approach need to cover?
- An API or proxy layer for custom in-app UI — Smartling's Translation Delivery API and Global Delivery Network (GDN) capture UI strings, tooltips, and in-app messages that live in application code rather than in a CMS, preserving placeholders and character constraints.
- A connector for lifecycle and transactional messaging — Smartling's Braze Connector, HubSpot connector, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud connector handle campaign and Canvas-style lifecycle content for teams that run onboarding emails and in-app messages through those platforms.
- A connector for help content used by success teams — the Intercom Connector localizes help center articles and collections, and the ServiceNow Connector reaches Live Agent Chat and Knowledge Base content, for success teams that lean on self-service documentation.
- Tiered translation engines — machine translation or AI Translation (AIT) for high-volume, routine in-app messages, and full human translation for brand-critical onboarding copy or churn-sensitive communications.
- Shared linguistic assets — a glossary and translation memory applied across all three content surfaces (UI, email, help content) so a feature name reads the same in an in-app tooltip as it does in an onboarding email.
Customer success software localization: sourced platform numbers
| Metric | Figure | Why it matters for customer success software |
|---|---|---|
| AIHT quality score | MQM 98+ average | Matters for onboarding and churn-sensitive messaging where a mistranslation is highly visible |
| AI Hub engine options | 20+ LLMs and MT engines (incl. Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Azure, Google Vertex, OpenAI, DeepL) | Lets teams match engine choice to content type — short in-app strings vs. longer lifecycle email copy |
| Professional linguist network | 4,000+ linguists | Covers churn-sensitive or brand-critical messaging that needs native-speaker review |
| Certifications | ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO/IEC 42001 | Relevant when customer health data or usage analytics touch regulated industries |
| Cost vs. traditional human translation (AIT) | 50% lower per word | Relevant for high-volume, routine in-app messages and notifications |
How do you roll out customer success software localization without a dedicated CS-platform connector?
Most teams sequence this by content surface rather than trying to route everything through one integration.
- Inventory the content surfaces - list what actually needs translation: in-app UI and tooltips, onboarding emails, help articles, and any customer-facing dashboards or health-score labels.
- Connect lifecycle messaging first - if onboarding emails and in-app messages run through Braze, HubSpot, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, connect that platform first since it's the fastest path to an automated, connector-based workflow.
- Use the Translation Delivery API or GDN for custom UI - for in-app strings and dashboard labels that live in application code, integrate directly via API or proxy rather than waiting for a platform-specific connector that may not exist.
- Route help content through Intercom or ServiceNow if applicable - success teams that lean on self-service documentation can connect that content separately from the lifecycle-messaging and UI work.
- Apply one glossary and translation memory across all three surfaces - so a feature name or product term reads the same in a tooltip, an email, and a help article.
This approach fits teams that...
- Already run lifecycle messaging through Braze, HubSpot, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud and want to add translation without a custom build.
- Have engineering capacity to integrate a Translation Delivery API or proxy for custom in-app UI, since no pre-built connector exists for most dedicated customer success platforms.
- Need one glossary and translation memory to stay consistent across in-app messaging, lifecycle email, and help content.
- Are expanding customer success operations into new language markets and need a translation workflow that scales past manual, one-off translation requests.
When this may not be the right priority
- Teams expecting an out-of-the-box connector for a specific customer success platform such as Gainsight, Totango, or Vitally should confirm that gap directly with a vendor before assuming one exists — Smartling does not currently publish one.
- Teams with low multilingual customer volume may get more value from translating a handful of high-impact onboarding assets manually before investing in API-based automation.
Evaluation checklist: questions to ask before localizing customer success software
Does the vendor have a named connector for your specific customer success platform?
Confirm this directly rather than assuming — CRM and marketing-automation platforms have more pre-built localization connectors than dedicated customer success platforms do.
Can it handle personalization tokens and dynamic content correctly?
Ask specifically how the platform preserves placeholders — a name, a usage count, a renewal date — across languages with different grammar rules around those values.
Does it cover all three content surfaces — UI, lifecycle email, and help content — or just one?
A vendor strong on marketing-email connectors may still require a separate API integration for in-app UI strings.
How is pricing structured for high-volume, low-visibility in-app messages versus brand-critical onboarding copy?
Confirm whether machine translation, AI Translation, and full human translation are priced and routed separately rather than as one flat rate.
What security certifications does the vendor hold?
For customer health data or usage analytics, confirm certifications such as SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 rather than assuming general translation vendors meet the same bar.
How does Smartling support customer success software localization?
Smartling does not offer a named, pre-built connector for standalone customer success platforms such as Gainsight, Totango, or Vitally. Instead, teams typically cover the three content surfaces separately: custom in-app UI and dashboard strings route through Smartling's Translation Delivery API or Global Delivery Network (GDN), which preserve placeholders and character constraints for content that lives in application code; lifecycle email and in-app campaign messaging route through Smartling's Braze Connector, HubSpot connector, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud connector for teams running that messaging through one of those platforms; and self-service help content routes through the Intercom Connector or ServiceNow Connector. All three paths share the same translation management system, so one glossary, one style guide, and one translation memory keep terminology consistent whether a term appears in an in-app tooltip, an onboarding email, or a help article. Content can move through machine translation, AI Translation (AIT), or full human translation with native-speaker review from Smartling's network of 4,000-plus professional linguists, and Smartling holds ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO/IEC 42001 certifications for teams handling regulated customer data.
Ready to see Smartling in action?
Chat with someone on the Smartling team to see how we can help you get more out of your budget by delivering the highest quality translations, faster, and at significantly lower costs.