Improving a Customer Service Email with Video

Make work easier, not harder. Record your screen as a video. Communicate visually with co-workers. Make Videos For Free Customer service plays a vital role for any business in customer acquisition and retention. A bad experience can turn off a customer for life, but a great (especially continually great) customer experience can grant you a lifelong customer and brand advocate. So what is an easy way to make sure your customer service experience is delivering and exceeding expectations to create those word-of-mouth evangelists? Using videos to improve customer service emails. Unfortunately, we have all experienced poor customer service before. The back-and-forth got you nowhere, or you were on hold for far too long, or the interaction felt dismissive. In a more digital world, many customers now expect the option of asynchronous customer service and the ability to reach customer service departments when it fits into their busy schedules. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than to contact a company’s customer service department and still not reach a resolution or solve their issue after the interaction. Yet, 25% of customers report reaching no resolution during their first customer service interaction. In addition, nearly 85% of customers expect a follow-up from the interaction and 50% of those would prefer the follow-up in the form of an email. Email follow-ups provide a number of benefits for both the customer and the company. They can easily be referenced, so vital information doesn’t need to be remembered or written down on a sticky note that will inevitably go missing. Emails can also be accessed anywhere at any time, so no scheduling is needed or hoping a voicemail isn’t full if they don’t pick up.

Why Customer Service Emails Should Include Videos

Customer service teams and representatives can use video as a preferred method of contact for a variety of reasons. These could be preemptive emails, customer or company updates, or acknowledgments. Regardless of the reason, incorporating videos and visuals into a response will provide a better customer experience. By adding video into these emails, you can provide greater clarity, boost and personalize customer engagement, and drive an increase in customer satisfaction.

Improved Clarity

Reaching a resolution or providing the necessary clarity and explanation of the root cause of the issue can be a make-or-break for customer satisfaction. But in communication, there is more than just the words or content used to explain. There are nonverbal cues, intonation, and context that can all affect how a message is received. There are drawbacks to virtually any form of customer service interaction. For example, a phone call provides both parties with the tone being used and the synchronous conversation can make the interaction feel more natural, but the visual cues are nonexistent. Live chat can provide the natural dialogue, but unless it is a video chat (which requires a bit of luck or scheduling or waiting to make it happen) then you lose the tone and visual portions as well. The same goes for an email. Even the most well-written response can be interpreted in a variety of ways and still leave customers confused, especially if it is a complex topic. Using video in customer service emails, however, is able to improve clarity and eliminate much of the confusion. With a video, customer service representatives are able to walk through the issue and solution step-by-step, while also being able to show the actions that are needed to take to resolve the issue (say if they need to login to a portal and follow a series of prompts or clicks). These provide an extra layer of context to the equation and can be rewatched, or paused, and customers can follow along at their own pace as they complete the actions. This can also then serve as a reference for your customers in the event they come across the same issue again in the future.

Better Customer Engagement

Video has become one of the most common tools for content, largely in part due to engagement. For many, it is much easier to ingest information when they are not having to read, but can listen to or see the information being presented. When customers receive a video message, there is also a perceived additional level of effort than just typing a message. You cannot “fake a video” or simply copy and paste a video response. When the customer watches the video that addresses them by name and their specific issue, it becomes clear that it wasn’t just a canned response. As a customer service representative talks through the issue and resolution, acknowledges the customer’s concerns, or preemptively reaches out to the customer, they are making the interaction feel more personal and establishing a greater connection with the customer. Customers want to feel heard and as if they matter to a brand, not just another sale or revenue stream. Sharing a personalized video reinforces the fact that the brand cares about its customers and makes customers feel like the company is going the extra mile to deliver a better customer experience.

Using Zight (formerly CloudApp) to Easily add Videos to Customer Service Emails

There are a few ways to send a video in emails, but most just feel clunky and archaic and come with their own set of issues and challenges. You can try to upload the file as an attachment, but you run the risk of the file being too large to send and the recipient needing to download and buffer the file before playing it. Sure, you could send a transfer link from a site that hosts the video, but then the recipient still needs to download the file to view it. Neither provides the most seamless customer experience. Zight (formerly CloudApp) is an easy-to-use cloud-based application that makes asynchronous visual communication simple. Zight (formerly CloudApp) contains a screen recorder that enables the user to create instantly shareable videos, annotated GIFs, and screenshots to add visual context to communicate without having to schedule a video call. Users are able to record videos using their webcam in conjunction with a screen recording, so users have the option to be displayed on-screen while also showing a walkthrough or whatever information they’re displaying on screen, for continual added personalization. Since Zight (formerly CloudApp) is cloud-based, once videos are recorded they are instantly uploaded and a shareable link is generated. This link can be opened by any recipient, requires no downloading or software, files, or video players, and can be rewatched as much as needed or wanted. Schedule a demo to learn how Zight (formerly CloudApp) easily integrates into customer service workflows! We make work easier by making communication visual. Connect with us on Twitter here.