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Use Visuals In Customer Service Increases Customer Engagement
Image credit – Branddrivendigital.com
Did you know that optimizing content with compelling visual elements can produce a 37% increase in customer engagement. Problem-solving customer service and customer engagement service, both vital to building a strong customer relationship, can be amplified by adding visual content such as photos, videos, and infographics to online platforms.
I asked TeamSupport CEO Robert C. Johnson to share his 7 tips with us:
1. Create a personal touch
Videos and live video chats help customers feel more comfortable by making messages more personal. Putting a face with a name can greatly increase the trust a customer has in a company. This boost in trust ultimately deepens relationships more than written communication ever can.
When an actual person provides instructions to customers, it’s much more engaging and, in many ways, easier for customers to follow. It also helps reduce the level of separation that has been created by the new age of digital customer support – rebuilding the personal connection that gets lost in email and phone interactions.
A great example of using visuals for personalization is creating a personal welcome video for new customers. The video could be from the CEO, the sales rep, or the customer service agent who is handling their account. This effort helps make your company more personal, and more human, to your customers. In a world where many of our business relationships are purely digital, this small effort can make a big difference.
2. Improve communication & clarity
It can be very frustrating for customers with a difficult issue to try to write out a long, involved description of the problem. Many times, especially with technical issues, it is much easier to show the exact issue. Giving customers access to video tools like screen recording and video recording via webcam can significantly reduce their amount of effort and frustration, while simultaneously providing clarity to the agent who is trying to help resolve the issue. Consider a written explanation, “The yellow thing with the green light is making a weird noise” versus a video showing the exact component, including audio. With video, the agent will know exactly what the customer is talking about, allowing them to resolve the issue faster and better.
3. Show instead of tell
Simply telling your customers what to do can seem somewhat cold. It can also be difficult to write out a complex narrative detailing a complicated solution. Many issues are more easily resolved by actually showing the process. Visuals allow customer service teams to show customers exactly how to fix specific issues. A screen recording featuring a strong narrator can provide step-by-step instructions to customers in a much more efficient way.
Showing instead of telling is highly effective for FAQs and product tutorials, but it can also be extremely useful for service updates and specific ticket resolution. If needed, you can even combine several forms of visual communication. Instructions could include webcam videos, screenshots and infographics to better illustrate a solution.
For agents, visual support can include adding video to tickets using their webcams. Through the video, reps can explain to a customer why they’re experiencing issues, how to diagnose problems and offer step-by-step instructions to remedy the situation. For example, the support director at A.C.T. Lighting was able to use webcam recording to quickly show a customer what buttons to push and where specific cables should be plugged in so that the customer could use the product correctly.
4. Self-service and proactive instruction
A good customer support software solution will have a searchable central repository for customers to browse before they actually submit a ticket. While these databases typically house written communications, visual supplements also work well for this type of library. Useful visual aids for customer self-service include videos, infographics, screenshots and photos.
In addition to providing visual content for self-service based on common customer issues, it’s beneficial to implement proactive customer service measures. By anticipating questions or issues customers may have and posting relevant visual content, you’re providing customers with a quick and easy way to access the answers they need. Creating how-to videos, printable step-by-step instructions with screenshots, or images at each stage of the process are also great ways to reduce the number of tickets coming into your support team.
5. Customized solutions for each customer
While some visual communication can and should be used multiple times, creating personalized videos and screenshots for specific customers is one of the best ways to ensure your customer feels important. The data complied in your customer support software will help you keep track of what information a customer has provided previously, which can help customer service reps determine what information the customer truly needs. This customized approach will help prevent reps from detailing items and features a customer may already understand, providing the most concise and best answer possible to the customer.
While visual communications are important for customer service, there is no disputing the fact that written communications are still highly valuable. When a company utilizes both visual and written communication in its customer service approach, it provides customers with service that’s highly effective and efficient.
The post Use Visuals In Customer Service Increases Customer Engagement appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.
Ramon Ray, Editor & Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com
http://www.twitter.com/ramonray | http://www.facebook.com/smallbiztechnology [email protected]
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Source: http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2015/11/use-visuals-in-customer-service-increases-customer-engagement.html/
