Video Customer Support to Improve Customer Service and Reduce Costs

Videos have become a popular and effective tool in the realm of customer support, revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their customers. These engaging and visually appealing assets have significantly enhanced the customer experience and streamlined problem-solving processes. According to recent statistics, incorporating videos in customer support has yielded remarkable results. Research shows that 80% of customers prefer watching a video over reading a traditional text-based solution. This preference is driven by the fact that videos offer a more immersive and comprehensive way of understanding complex topics or troubleshooting steps in video support.

The customer satisfaction rates have soared as a result of integrating video customer support. A whopping 68% of consumers have expressed their preference for video assistance when dealing with support-related issues. It’s not surprising, considering how videos enable businesses to visually demonstrate solutions, making it easier for customers to follow along and resolve their problems effectively.

The positive impact of videos extends beyond support interactions alone. Brands that incorporate videos into their customer support strategy also experience higher engagement rates across various platforms.

Websites featuring videos tend to enjoy a 41% higher click-through rate compared to those without videos, making them more effective in capturing the attention and interest of customers.

These statistics underline the tremendous potential of videos in customer support. They offer an immersive and visually appealing means of enhancing the customer experience, streamlining support processes, and ultimately driving positive business outcomes. By leveraging the power of videos, businesses can create more satisfied customers while simultaneously reducing costs and increasing engagement.

Emergence of videos in customer support

In the rapidly evolving digital age, as businesses strive to meet their customers’ ever-growing expectations, the adoption of innovative strategies has become a necessity. A major development in this realm has been the rise of videos in customer support. Referred to as “video customer support”, this approach revolutionizes the way businesses address and resolve customer queries and issues.Customers today want instant, efficient, and effective solutions to their problems.

Traditional means of customer support like text-based instructions, email exchanges, or voice calls often fall short of meeting these expectations. They might prove insufficient in explaining complex technical details or could lack the personal touch that customers appreciate. This is where video support bridges the gap, offering visually rich, interactive, and engaging content that not only solves issues but also enhances the overall customer experience.

“In 2022, the most popular video content for businesses to create was product videos.”

As digital connectivity flourishes, an increasing number of businesses are exploring video support. It’s not limited to tech-savvy industries but spans across sectors, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, and more. This trend is a response to changing consumer behaviors, where the inclination towards video content is palpable.

“According to a report by Wyzowl, 86% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s explainer video. This clearly emphasizes the significant role video content plays in influencing consumers.”

The shift towards video customer support marks an exciting chapter in the customer service landscape. It makes it a much more personalized, accessible, and efficient mode of customer engagement, where the video customer support is not just about solving issues, but also about delivering a memorable customer journey. In further sections of the blog, we will uncover why video customer support are game-changer and how businesses can leverage it for superior customer satisfaction.

“54% marketers believe that video marketing has helped reduce support queries” -wyzowl

Types of video support in customer service

Product demos – Product demo videos demonstrate how a product works in a real-world context. These videos highlight the key features and their benefits for the customers. For example, a smartphone tech company may use a video to showcase the features of the newly launched smartphone. Videos have a higher retention rate and people understand the product in a much better way compared to text. This significantly increases the product sale if the video is highly appealing.

Explainers – Explainer videos are usually short and explain a business idea or product in a simple, precise and easy to understand language tone. These videos break down complex workflows and make them easily understandable by the audience. Recently, Dropbox used an explainer video to explain the concept of cloud storage to potential users.

How-To’s – These videos are very helpful for customers as they show how to use a product or perform tasks in step-by-step instructions. For example, you purchased a product online which requires simple assembling. The seller gives a how-to video explaining the assembling steps. The video delivers an actionable assembling process in easy to follow steps, which reduces support calls or queries.

Screen recordings – These videos capture actions happening on a computer screen. Commonly used for software tutorials, the videos provide clear, visual, and step wise explanations. This replaces the need for text-based documentations and customers can easily take specific actions the way they proceed in the screen recording.

On-boarding videos – These videos help new customers understand how to get started with a product or service. For example, a fitness app may use an onboarding video to give a walkthrough of the profile setup and starting of the first exercise. On-boarding videos set the tone of the customer journey, and ensure customers understand and get the product/service knowledge as quickly as possible.

Live video support – In this support process, the customer success representative guides the customers through solutions in real-time. Live video support gives a personal touch and solves the problem quickly. For example, a representative can help customers to assemble their new purchases quickly via live video support.

FAQs videos – Videos around Frequently asked questions guide customers about product or service. An ecommerce website may have FAQ videos addressing questions around shipping and cancellation. FAQ videos are more engaging over text-based FAQs and reduce burden on the customer service team.

Troubleshooting guides – To diagnose and resolve common problems faced by customers, troubleshooting videos provide immediate assistance. For instance, a tech company may use troubleshooting videos to help reset a device to factory settings.

All these video types have different levels of engagement to support customers, yet serve the same purpose of making the user experience better. By delivering information in the format of visual and often interactive, videos improve understanding, problem solving and fast customer support.

Benefits of customer service videos for customers and companies

Videos lead to a faster response time

Delays and waiting time is a common part of most product/service experiences.While facing complex issues, customers as well as support struggles to correctly convey the message in textual form. If the customer shares their screen recording, service agents can efficiently grasp the problem. Similarly, the customer support team can send a video to eliminate multiple rounds of clarifications, thus reducing the resolution time.

Engaging and easy-to-understand

There are specific details which may be challenging for customers to understand through text or just images. Videos in such cases give a visual description of the issue or solution, which is easily comprehensible by customers. Videos help customers in understanding complex processes easily and eliminates any confusion or misunderstanding.

Adds human touch or personalized support

Videos give much more personal feeling than a phone or text call. One-to-one video communication lets customers who are on the other side experience the same satisfaction they receive in a brick-and-mortar environment. A personalized thank-you or a personalized video from a service agent catches the customers attention and goodwill.

Reduces workload and customer service cost

When customer support uses videos for various purposes especially repetitive issues, the support has to deal with less phone calls and support tickets. This significantly reduces the workload and the team can focus on more important things. Getting time to handle new tasks improves the working experience of the customer support.

Multimodal communication

Videos have both visual and auditory elements, thus enhancing the communication. This multimodal approach improves information comprehension and retention. It also minimizes the chances of miscommunication which may arise when solely relying on one form of communication.

Reduces miscommunication and increases conversion rates

Reduced miscommunication in customer support ultimately leads to increased conversion rates as the overall customer experience is improved. Though empathic messaging and visual storytelling, videos establish rapport, build trust, and address concerns of customers more effectively. When customers are clear and have good support, customers are more likely to actively engage with the product/service.

Multilingual subtitle support

Videos are a mode to overcome language barriers by relying on visual demonstration rather on verbal or written communication. People from other countries and cultures can easily comprehend the content with multilingual subtitles.

Best Practices for Creating Effective Video Customer Support

Understanding your audience – Before creating any content, it is important to know who you’re creating it for. Understanding your audience’s needs, pain points, and their technical abilities will help you tailor your videos to be as useful as possible to them. For instance, a highly technical product may require in-depth explainer videos, while a simpler one might just need quick how-to guides.

Simple and clear – Your videos should be easy to understand. Avoid jargon, keep the language simple, and explain processes in a step-by-step manner. Consider using visuals and annotations to further clarify your points.

Professional quality – Quality doesn’t only refer to the video’s resolution or production quality but also to its content. The video must address issues effectively and provide accurate, useful information. High-quality audio, clear visuals, and good pacing are also important factors in making the video easy to follow and professional.

Using subtitles and transcripts – Making your videos accessible to everyone is key. Subtitles help those with hearing impairments or those watching without sound to follow along, and transcripts can improve accessibility and SEO.

Need for video hosting services to host customer support videos

“A 2023 Zendesk report reveals that customer satisfaction rates rose by an impressive 30% when video assistance was utilized, underscoring the effectiveness of this approach.”

Moreover, the Social Science Research Network found that viewers retain 65% of information three days after a visual presentation, compared to only 10% when reading. This highlights the efficiency of video hosting services in improving knowledge retention, resulting in fewer repeated queries and lower support ticket volumes.

Yet, adopting a video hosting service isn’t merely about uploading videos. It’s about finding a reliable and scalable platform that ensures high-quality video production, easy content management, and 24×7 uninterrupted service. Importantly, video hosting services provide tools for analytics and insights, enabling businesses to monitor user engagement, identify areas of improvement, and continually optimize their support efforts.

In essence, the adoption of video hosting services for customer support is a necessity in today’s digital age, ensuring enhanced customer experience, efficient knowledge transfer, and proactive support management. As we navigate an increasingly video-centric world, this service promises to be a cornerstone of effective, modern customer support.

How VdoCipher Stands Out in the Realm of Video Hosting

Serving over 3000 customers in more than 120 countries, VdoCipher offers the best-in class video hosting and streaming solution for business and enterprise customers. Apart from AWS powered servers, VdoCipher offers customizable HTML5 video player, dynamic watermarking, easy to use dashboard, video analytics, plugins for easy integrations, and much more.

The various key features VdoCipher delivers:

Custom Video Player

Player SDKs for all platforms – React Native, iOS, Android, Flutter, JS. Supports Chromecast and Airplay
Fully customizable with ease of buttons. No code required
Chapters within player to jump to a specific video section
Multi lingual closed captions with search function
Easy toggles
Adaptive streaming to adjust the video quality as per the network speed

User based Watermarking

VdoCipher app video player comes with dynamic watermarking to discourage screen capture. You can display user information such as email address, user id as text overlay on the app video player.

Dashboard

Dashboard is simple to use and navigate. In ease, upload videos, import or create folders. You can easily browse various sections on the dashboard like Accounts & payment, analytics, support, and custom player. Also, within the dashboard, you can find important tutorial videos to give a walkthrough of important workflows.

Video Analytics

In the analytics section within the dashboard, you can analyze your bandwidth and video usage. You can generate multiple CSV and download with fields as video ID, Date, Name, and bandwidth used. Analyze your per video views and average watchpercent.

Plugins

VdoCipher supports most popular Content Management Systems and has plugins for WordPress and Moodle. The plugin handles the OTP and PlaybackInfo generation by itself, so embedding videos to your website is simple and straightforward. Our WordPress video plugin supports all popular WP membership plugins, including Members, Restrict Content Pro, MemberPress, and WP eMember. The video plugin also supports LMS such as WP CourseWare, LifterLMS, Sensei, and LearnDash.

Amazon AWS Server

The videos are stored in the Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service. Huge data files are securely stored on Amazon S3 with data security, management efficiency, and storage optimization. Even in cases of network problems or hardware failures, your data always stays protected.

FAQs

How can videos be made accessible for all customers?

Videos can be made accessible by including options like subtitles or closed captions, providing transcripts, and ensuring the content is clear even without audio for those who are hearing-impaired.

How can the effectiveness of customer support videos be measured?

Key performance indicators could include the number of views, viewer engagement levels (likes, shares, comments), reduction in support tickets about the covered topic, customer satisfaction scores, and feedback from customers.

Should customer support videos be produced professionally?

While high production quality can enhance credibility and brand image, the most important aspect is clear and helpful content. Even videos produced with simple tools can be effective if they deliver the right message and truly help the customer.

Can videos replace other forms of customer support?

Videos are an excellent addition to a support strategy, but they don’t usually replace other forms such as live chat, email, phone, or text-based FAQs.