Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

How to Put Video to Work in Customer Service

October 29, 2013

There's no doubt that video and business goes together very nicely. Video has been a major part of marketing's toolbox for years, and human resources have been using video to various degrees of effectiveness for some time as well. But putting video to work as a customer service tool is something that many companies haven't yet considered, and those that have are finding that the tool that lets customers know about new products, and employees about new policies, can be just as effective in addressing customer concerns as well.


The easy access to information, products and service, and other things that the Internet has provided has brought with it the less-than-pleasant side effect of making users in general less patient. People are less inclined to sit through hold times, or wait for an e-mail. Customers want rapid responses. But hiring staff sufficient to field rapid responses can be expensive, and since customers may not always want those rapid responses at the same time, it can even mean wasted money as the rapid-response customer service team runs into long stretches of nothing to do just by the circumstances involved. But that's where video can make quite a bit of difference for a company by considering using video in three particular situations.

One, using video at the pre-sale point can actually help push sales. While photos and text-based descriptions have uses in this process, there have been reports that indicate that using video to show a customer actually using the product in question, in much the same way said product would be used in real life can improve sales. Said video should be produced with one question in mind: “But how does it work?” That's the question that's on a lot of potential customers' minds, and video can answer it very effectively.

Post-sale videos can also be a big help, but post-sale videos may have some different angles to take. When it comes to post-sale videos, focus on the questions that customers frequently ask, specifically as those questions relate to how something is installed or operated. Video won't fend off every question a customer can generate, but being able to tackle many of the common questions means that customers will have about certain issues will in turn reduce the number of calls that come into the business about those issues, meaning a smaller rapid-response team to answer questions and in turn much less waste.

Finally, there is the issue of one-on-one replies to parts of the customer base. For instance, using video submitted by customers addressing other customers can be a powerful tool in both customer service and marketing, as the impact of a regular person telling other people about experiences with a product can be a powerful promotional tool if used properly. Having customer service staff create videos as well, responding to individual customer concerns—even going so far as to mention those customers by name—can be a great way to not only build rapport but also solve customer issues.

There are a large number of uses for video when it comes to business. A marketing tool, a public relations tool, a tool for the press, and so on. But putting video to work in customer service is a tool that not only can cut costs, but actually encourage repeat business as well. This is a combination of benefits that's hard for most any company to turn down, so looking into video as a customer service tool should pay off well for companies in the long run.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi



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