How Video Can Personalize Customer Engagement

Make work easier, not harder. Record your screen as a video. Communicate easily with your team. Make Videos For Free Everyone is looking for a personally tailored experience. From social media channels to music playlists to retail, providers are curating content and making suggestions specifically for consumers to boost engagement. Customer success and support teams can leverage video to deliver a more personalized approach to boost customer engagement. For business, providing a personalized customer experience for each client can seem like a daunting task, but it can be done. Those that are able to do it well see results in the form of better customer engagement and higher customer satisfaction. A touch of personalization goes a long way in establishing and strengthening connections with your customers, especially in a largely virtual world. Far less common are the days of visiting multiple customers on location in a single day, given the ability to connect with customers in such vast geographical locations. With fewer in-person interactions, it can be more challenging to create that feeling of giving your customers valuable “face time” and making them feel special. Text can also come across as templated or fabricated. Was this response to my issue just copy and pasted with my name inserted in a few places? Did a real person actually write this or is this just an automated response? These types of questions are put to rest when a personalized video is sent. It is a real interaction that can’t be faked. Referencing the customer name, their issue or reason for your communication, and your actions provide a more interpersonal connection. There are two major types of video communication: synchronous and asynchronous.

Asynchronous vs Synchronous Visual Communication

So what’s the difference? Synchronous communication happens in real-time for all parties involved and requires everyone to be present for it to occur. This usually takes some planning and scheduling to make sure the necessary parties are available. Think Zoom or other video conferencing tools. Asynchronous communication can occur at different times for the parties involved. These are videos that are recorded and sent to be viewed at any time by the recipient. Below we’ll touch on a few ways businesses can use video to provide a more personalized experience to increase customer engagement.

Ways to Personalize Customer Engagement Through Synchronous Video

As mentioned above, synchronous video may require some planning to pull off smoothly, but it does have advantages. Synchronous video allows more of a conversation style of communication where discussions and feedback happen instantly. Live video chats are a great way for customer support teams to use video to deliver a more personalized experience and boost customer engagement. Live chats can provide an interactive experience that can be lacking from some pre-recorded videos. The back and forth that happens in these meetings can be invaluable. Video chat also gives the opportunity to bring more people together in the same setting, since it doesn’t require being in the same physical location.

Ways to Personalize Customer Engagement Through Asynchronous Video

Not every interaction or touchpoint needs to, nor can it be, scheduled. Knowing what does and doesn’t need to be a meeting is vital in today’s world. Life gets busy. Scheduling can be difficult. It isn’t uncommon for teams to look at their calendars and see it full of meeting blocks. We’ve all heard of, and most likely experienced, the unfortunate reality of Zoom fatigue. Asynchronous video can be a life-saver at times like these. Below are 4 examples of asynchronous videos that you can use to personalize your customer engagement. 1. Welcome Videos First impressions matter. Establishing a connection early with a customer can go a long way in engagement and retention efforts. An easy way to get off on the right foot and get face time early is to send a welcome video. Whether they just signed up for a newsletter, webinar, or service, a quick recorded video thanking them for joining and giving a brief introduction to yourself or the product can resonate with your customers. This makes them instantly feel like they’re important and cared about. Customers are also more likely to engage with your content right after taking that action because they have just expressed their interest in your company. 2. Milestone Videos People want to feel like they’re valued and appreciated. Sending a quick video when customers reach a specific milestone can be an easy way to show that. Let’s say a customer just reach their one-year anniversary of working with you? Shoot over a quick video telling them how much you’ve enjoyed working with them and congratulating them for the achievement. 3. Check-In Videos Again, not everything needs to be a meeting. Say you just want to catch up with a client to see how everything or provide a status update on a project you’re working on together. Sending a video message that they can review on their own time can be highly effective. A video message also comes across as taking an additional effort to the communication, making recipients more likely to respond since they feel they need to reciprocate. Product features, updates, and tutorials also present an opportunity to send a quick asynchronous video. These can even be prerecorded and more general in nature. For example, it may be a software engineer introducing themself and then giving an overview of the product. This still provides a more personalized experience and boosts engagement because you’re providing content that is valuable and of interest to the customer. 4. Thank You Videos Much like a welcome or intro video, a thank you can go a long way. The added value of producing a video rather than just an email will also add to strengthening your connection with the customer. Time is a valuable resource, so thanking someone for theirs can make an impression. Even if the desired outcome or resolution wasn’t met, this can greatly drive customer satisfaction.

How Video Personalization Can Boost Engagement Through Customer Support

Not every issue can be solved through an FAQ and some will require additional steps and attention. Sending a video still allows customer support teams to send a more detailed explanation along with the visuals, but also presents the opportunity to tailor the response specific to that particular customer and their issue. Using a screen recording tool, like Zight (formerly CloudApp), your customer support team members can personalize video responses to match the support needed while also showing themselves in the recording as well to strengthen the connection with customers and give them the feeling of added face time. There are so many aspects and nuances of communication that are often lost with just written words. An email can come across as cold or flat or like a generic response even when it isn’t. A personalized video isn’t something you can fake. You are clearly focused on them and are showing that you care about solving their issue. By sending a personalized video response to their issue, you’re not only providing your customer the solution to the issue but also talking to them on a one-on-one level. In a largely virtual world, video can be an incredible tool for customer success teams in providing a more personal experience. Download “How To Deliver Incredible Customer Support Experiences” for insight on how some of the best customer success teams operate. We make work easier by making communication visual. Connect with us on Twitter here.