Stephenson Electric has been offering services to the community for decades. Now, it’s also offering servicios.

The company’s new Hispanic division is designed to better serve the area’s large population of Spanish-speaking people. “Nobody else is trying to accommodate those people,” Trent Stephenson said.

The communication barrier has impeded Stephenson’s ability to both understand problems and communicate solutions with potential Hispanic customers, Stephenson explained – making it almost impossible to lay out a plan for service and determine proper pricing. Often, he has wound up communicating in English with customers’ young children, who then relay the information in Spanish to their parents and translate their parents’ questions and answers into English to share with Stephenson – a challenging situation.

His office manager, Keri Hester, has experienced the same thing. “The language barrier is huge,” she said.

So, seeing a need, several months ago Stephenson and his team began the addition of a dedicated Hispanic division. It will be headed up by Rego Ornelas, who can put both his Spanish and English skills to work to help Stephenson’s client base.

Ornelas was previously a traveling electrician, who had worked at Stephenson in the past and recently settled in Russellville. He said he has already received positive feedback from the community about the Hispanic division.

Russ said being able to communicate with customers in their own language will help to build a trust factor, as well as make it possible to explain some of the more complex aspects of some maintenance and repair jobs, such as city codes involved.

“We care and want to understand what they need and what they want,” Russ said.

“We have a desire to help them,” Trent added. “I just feel like it’s important to be able to treat them fairly.”

For information on the new Hispanic division, call 256-361-3813.