Tips For Customer Support Videos On Your Support Portal
Video is a great tool for improving the customer experience, even for business-to-business (B2B) organizations. This is especially true for customer support - according to Pitney Bowes, video content improves a customer's understanding of your products or services by up to 74%. Video tutorials show your customers the exact steps to take to troubleshoot or resolve an issue, breaking complex solutions into small segments that are easy to follow. Videos featuring actual agents via webcam also put a real face to your company, increasing its relatability, and makes customers feel more comfortable. Customer service expert Shep Hyken says seeing an agent gives customers a much more personal experience. They know that they're interacting with a real person who can empathize with their situation, not a robot. Here are a few tips for creating customer support videos for your customer support portal that are engaging, informative, and easy to follow:
Creating instructional screen recordings
These screen recordings allow agents to create detailed instructions on how to resolve a particular issue by capturing their screen movements as well as their voice. This can be completed directly within the customer support software.
To create a good instructional video, agents should start by writing a script. This ensures they don't lose track of what they plan to say, accidentally jumble their words, or fill the video with lots of pauses. If your reps can't write an entire script, they should at least draft an outline listing the video's key points.
When writing these scripts and outlines, agents should consider their audience so they can tailor their words accordingly. If the video will address only a single issue, be very specific and show detailed steps for each component. On-screen text to reaffirm what is said can also be helpful if added after the video is recorded. However, if agents make videos to address multiple issues, they should stay focused on the goal and provide general information, as well as consider editing the video after it has been recorded.
The instructions agents provide should be clear and precise. Adding too many steps or wildly moving the mouse around the screen confuses customers, causing them to lose sight of what's supposed to be accomplished. Your solution should also allow customers to offer feedback for your videos. This lets you know if videos are helpful or not and sometimes how they can be improved in the future.
"Bad production ends up diminishing the customer experience."
Creating live videos with agents
Although seeing your agents improves the customer experience, bad production ends up diminishing it and makes your business appear less credible. Make sure your agents are equipped with a webcam - preferably one with HD (720/1080) capabilities - and a quality microphone. If your camera or computer comes with a built-in microphone, test its quality to make sure the audio isn't distorted. Have your agents talk about a newly launched product, then replay the video and listen to determine if his or her words come through clearly.
Lighting is also important, as a lack of light reduces the amount of information your camera picks up and lowers the video quality. You don't have to invest in a studio set-up. Entrepreneur suggested at a minimum placing a few lamps around your camera instead.
A script can also help for these types of recordings, but agents should speak naturally and avoid sounding like they're reading. They should also look into the camera or at each other as much as possible. Glancing away too often is a dead giveaway that they're reading a script.
With the right customer support software solutions, agents can do much more with these videos than just add them to the customer portal. Comprehensive support software allows them to embed videos straight into customer tickets. This way, your customers are hand delivered an easy-to-follow solution to their problem. They can also add these videos to sections of your website or customer portal, making it even easier for customers to learn about the products or services they've purchased. What's more, placing them within knowledge base articles gives customers the benefits of both text and video.
In fact, your reps should feel free to use these customer support videos as much as possible as long as it feels appropriate. For example, if social media is part of your support strategy, you can add these videos to your Facebook and Twitter pages in response to customer questions.
With a great script, a proper setup and the right customer support software, your agents are able to provide top-tier support. Meanwhile, customers get a clear, visual guide to answer their queries that can be found independently or sent to them in multiple ways to address their issue.
