4 Ways to Supercharge Your Customer Support through Videos

Over the last decade, videos have become an increasingly popular tool in customer support.

15:39 14 January 2022

Have you ever tried to fix your cell phone when it doesn’t work? And have you searched for an online video that shows you how to do it? You’re not alone. 

 

Most consumers who buy a product often encounter difficulties using them. For example, a receptionist may struggle with how to do a call transfer on the new office phone system. A video demonstrating the use of the new system is helpful in this situation.

 

Over the last decade, videos have become an increasingly popular tool in customer support. With businesses adopting a more intensive focus on customer experience, it’s no surprise that the global customer experience management market was valued at $7.6 billion in 2020. Videos are a great way to inform and engage with customers.

 

In this article, we’ll look at four ways businesses can use videos to supercharge customer support. We’ll also explore the process of creating videos. But first, let’s consider why it’s important to include videos in your customer support initiatives.

 

 

The Importance of Videos in Customer Support

According to a recent survey, 96% of consumers watch “how-to” videos to learn about a product or service. The same survey shows that just 3% of consumers would prefer to download a manual or an e-book instead. This proves that videos are the most effective method for informing and educating customers about a product or brand. 

 

• Answers questions faster

Consider this: a small business owner wants to know about wireless network deployment for their workplace. Your company provides wireless solutions for small businesses. An instructional video on the deployment of wireless services will be the quickest and most effective way to inform the potential customer about the process.

 

• Saves support time and resources

Instructional videos provide customers with the opportunity to self-serve. This means they don’t need to rely on support staff to answer all their questions. For example, a customer who wants to find out about a SaaS company’s CRM integrations can get all the information they need from an instructional video. This saves time and resources for the company that they’d otherwise have to spend on support staff to address these customer queries.

 

• Enhances customer experience

Videos make it quicker and easier for customers to get their questions answered. Also, a well made video improves the overall experience of the customer whilst engaging with your business. Videos can provide support for everything from product info to glitch guides. Customers can now solve certain issues without having to contact customer support, boosting customer experience.

 

How to Create Videos

Before you start building an inventory of videos, ask yourself the following questions:

• What kind of videos do you need to make?
• Who’s your target audience?
• What issues are your videos trying to address?
• Where do you want to display or share your videos?

 

It’s important to understand the kind of videos you want to make. Are you trying to demonstrate the features of a new product? Or do you want to show how your company follows certain business processes? This could be anything from your company’s remote work arrangements to best practices for CRM integration. Once you identify the kinds of issues you want to address, you can then start creating the videos.

 

Next, you need to identify the kind of audience your videos will cater to. Are they new customers looking for support to use your product? Or, existing customers who you’re trying to engage with? Maybe you want to give your customers a sneak peek into your company’s virtual team celebration. Knowing who you’re addressing will help you create tailored content which is more valuable.

 

It’s equally important to pinpoint the specific issues that you’re trying to address through your videos. Could your product cause any possible pain points or software contain glitches that would need instructions to navigate? Identifying the problems you’re trying to solve is a good starting point for making videos.

 

It’s also important to edit your videos according to the specifications of the different video platforms where you want to publish your content. Remember different platforms like Instagram, Facebook all have different aspect ratios and maximum file sizes. Facebook has a 1:1 or 4:5 aspect ratio while for YouTube it’s 16:9 or 1:1.

 

The Fabulous 4

These are four of the most popular kinds of videos used by businesses for boosting customer support:

 

1. Product Guide Videos

Video guides are a great way to introduce and explain all the unique features of your product. They allow your customers to explore and understand your products at their own pace. Videos are particularly useful for tech-related products and services. Let’s say you’re in the business of selling smart home systems.

 

An instructional video on how smart home systems can assist in your day-to-day tasks is a great way to introduce your product to customers. Product guides also help establish your brand and position it in a real-life context. So, customers find out about its features and also how those features can be adapted for their own use.

 

1. FAQ Videos

There are “how-to” videos for using pretty much any product or service. Then there are how-to videos for fixing a glitch in the same vein. In this article, the first example we mentioned was trying to fix your cell phone that doesn’t work and finding a video that shows you how to do it. This is where an FAQ video could prove useful. 

 

Videos that address your most frequently asked questions are great resources in your customer support plan. A good rule of thumb is to ask customers about their experience using your product and conduct surveys to identify possible pain points. As mentioned earlier, videos are far more effective in explaining an idea or conveying a message than text.

 

With a video, customers can actually see a step-by-step progression of how to solve a particular issue. Seeing a solution “in action” makes it easier for customers to follow those steps and address their problem faster and more effectively. This provides a more enhanced customer experience.

 

1. Live Video Chat

Live video chats are one of the most effective tools to address customer queries. They’re a type of one-on-one support that’s very similar to the kind of service you would receive at a brick-and-mortar store. Video chats are particularly useful for advanced troubleshooting of specific issues.

 

Video chats can guide customers in real-time to navigate a series of steps to solve a problem. For example, if a customer needs advanced tech assistance, conventional customer support like live text chat or phone chat becomes a highly time-consuming process. So if you need help on how to optimize your router for VoIP, a live video chat can be an effective guide.

 

This is because they involve a constant back and forth between the customer and the support agent as they try to troubleshoot the issue. Video chats expedite the troubleshooting process. Customer support agents can use a screen sharing tool to review issues in real time and offer solutions. This improves response time, boosting overall customer experience.

 

Imagine you’re a small business owner trying to introduce an automated system for sales call reporting in your company. A live video chat with the service provider can help you get set up much faster with real-time assistance on using the automation system.

 

1. Webinars

Webinars are becoming an increasingly popular communications tool for businesses around the world. Webinars can include product demonstrations as well as live Q&As from SMEs. By their very nature, webinars can address large numbers of people at the same time. Customer support teams play a pivotal role in setting up webinars by conducting surveys and gathering feedback from customers.

 

You can build a library of webinars addressing some of your most popular queries and touch points. Imagine you’re a digital marketing company providing 360 degree marketing solutions for small businesses. A webinar on bounce rate that covers what is bounce rate and how it affects your traffic is a useful source of information.

 

This is the kind of information that your customers and website visitors will keep coming back to, thereby boosting engagement.

 

Supercharge Your Customer Support Through Video - Solved

Throughout this article we looked at the four ways to supercharge your customer support through videos. We considered the importance of videos in customer support and also explored the four most popular types of videos used by businesses in their customer support initiatives. 

 

Whether used for a product demo or as an explainer guide for a business process definition, videos remain the most effective form of communication.

 

As companies around the globe adopt an intensively customer-centric approach, providing enhanced customer support becomes key to business success. Videos can be effectively used to inform and engage with prospective and existing customers and pave the way for an enhanced customer experience.

 

Bio:

Jenna Bunnell - Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Dialpad

Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted unified communications system that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Here is her LinkedIn.