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The homeowner was on the verge of canceling over the phone.

She had scheduled the visit, but now she was unavailable—and her mother, who spoke only Spanish, stood alone at the door, arms folded, unsure of what to say.

The project was seconds from collapsing when Donaldo, a project manager at , stepped forward.

“” he said, gently.

The tension cracked. The homeowner exhaled slowly, relieved, like she’d been bracing herself all morning. The conversation started. The job moved forward.

Donaldo’s translation steadied the moment. His calm familiarity said, your home—and your mom—are in safe hands. That five-minute pivot from English to Spanish kept the job from stalling, but more importantly, it built trust.

Moments like this are easy to miss. But in the restoration industry, where emotions run high, timelines are tight, and trust is the only real currency, they can mean the difference between landing a contract or losing one.

In a recent Cleanfax + KnowHow webinar, Donaldo joined restoration educator Luis Suarez and KnowHow CEO Leighton Healey to talk about what most restoration companies miss when they treat Spanish-speaking workers like a communication challenge, rather than the competitive advantage they actually are.

The million-dollar blind spot

Here’s what most restoration owners don’t realize: , 1 in 4 construction workers were Hispanic. With Latino-owned businesses growing at twice the national average and the Hispanic population being the fastest-growing minority in the US, that workforce percentage has only grown.

Yet most companies operate with systems designed when their workforce and customers were 90% English-speaking. The result is missed revenue opportunities and thousands of potential hard-working restorers underemployed. When Donaldo steps in to save that appointment, he’s not just translating. He’s accessing a multi-million-dollar market of Hispanic homeowners that most restoration companies can’t effectively serve.

The technician who couldn’t Read (but could see everything)

Luis Suarez discovered this blind spot when a technician who spoke minimal English walked into his organization.

But his technical instincts? Flawless. Traditional training materials, though, were not helpful.

Most managers would have made excuses. Luis made pictograms.

He created pairing equipment photos with numbers. Chemical No. 7 got a picture of carpet plus the number 7. pH testing became a color-coded visual guide. “It worked perfectly,” Luis recalled, “and the whole crew started requesting the visual guides.”

The transformation took three months. The man who couldn’t read English became their textile restoration specialist, generating revenue for the company.

Luis accidentally solved the training problem for visual learners of all backgrounds. But his experience revealed something bigger: what most companies see as accommodation needs, successful operators recognize as untapped competitive advantages, and .

From ‘liability’ to competitive advantage

Leighton Healey, who’s studied across the restoration industry, puts it bluntly: “The number one retention tool is culture, connectedness, and community relationships.”

In a world where many crews are siloed and digitally distant, Latino workers are different.

“They’re like gold medalists at belonging,” he says, adding that “multicultural teams have better retention when [companies] take it seriously.”

Donaldo agreed.

“We bring joy, food, and fun to our meetings—because we’re family oriented,” he said.

That family approach is operational gold. Teams that eat, celebrate, and solve problems collectively are less likely to jump ship for a $2 hourly increase.

But the impact doesn’t stop at your warehouse door.

Hispanic communities often have higher homeownership rates and strong referral networks.

When your project manager can explain water damage protocols in fluent Spanish—and understands how decisions are made in Latino households—you don’t just get a satisfied customer; you earn a brand ambassador.

And in communities built on word-of-mouth, that advocacy snowballs into serious revenue.

Behind it all is a kind of emotional intelligence, powered by migration and family sacrifice, that you can’t teach in corporate workshops.

It shows up in the quiet moments: The patient tone when explaining drying timelines during a CAT-3 cleanup. The calm reassurance after disasters. Lingering to listen while a family watches their kitchen get demolished. All of which, in turn, show up in glowing customer reviews, repeat jobs, and a referral pipeline that money can’t buy.

The technology breakthrough that changes everything

The biggest objection—“How do they document jobs if they can’t navigate English interfaces?”—is rapidly becoming irrelevant.

AI-powered translation now works in real-time during customer calls. Platforms like support in Spanish and 10-plus languages.

But here’s Leighton’s key insight: “Tech will solve for language barriers, and not stigma and bias barriers.”

The companies winning this transition push vendors for multilingual interfaces, invest in visual training systems, and train managers to lead across cultural differences. They also recognize that respect is expressed differently across cultures and that quiet loyalty often masks leadership potential.

Your three-move competitive advantage

Start with the mirror test. Walk through your onboarding, training materials, and promotion criteria, asking: “Could this process be easier if I didn’t speak perfect English?” If the answer is yes, you’ve found your first improvement target.

Audit for bilingual ROI. Calculate the value of Hispanic homeowner contracts in your market. Then count how many bilingual team members can effectively serve that segment. The gap represents an immediate revenue opportunity.

Invest in visual systems. Like Luis’s pictograms, create training materials (color codes and ) that work for different learning styles. This doesn’t just help Spanish speakers—it improves comprehension for all visual learners and reduces training time across your workforce.

Any of the above might be the five-minute difference between a canceled appointment and a project that moves forward smoothly.