Video customer support is one of the best strategies for creating customer loyalty. Consumers expect timely solutions, and video provides immediate answers that are easy to retain.
These days, customers commonly seek out information to solve their issues, only contacting the company if those answers cannot be found.
This has prompted businesses to create knowledge centers that support customers’ needs, and video is the ideal medium.
In fact, video can be used for support and retention throughout the customer’s journey. 93% of consumers appreciate it when companies include post-purchase video instructions.
In this article, we will discuss the many use cases of video for customer support and retention, and how to generate customer loyalty with high-quality video support.
What is Video Customer Support?
Video customer support is when a business uses video to convey helpful or instructional information at any stage of the customer’s journey.
Video might replace or supplement text to create an engaging experience. It can expedite response times and increase communication clarity between the customer and support staff.
Why You Should Use Video for Customer Support
Customer service isn’t just about ensuring a smooth sale. Its goal is also to create a frustration-free experience at every point of interaction with your company. The following are five reasons why video is the optimal medium for customer service.
- Streamline Video Support: Video can provide your support team with the ability to quickly receive and share video demonstrations to easily solve customer issues.
- Create Quality Control: Video can be used to teach new support hires how your company approaches support and what to do in difficult situations.
- Provide Immediate Answers: Customers can become overwhelmed by large text-based knowledge articles. Make it easy to absorb the information with video.
- Reduce Support Tickets: You can continuously improve the knowledge offered at each stage when video customer support is woven into the customer’s journey. In turn, you create a seamless customer experience, reducing the need for people to reach out.
- Reward Customers: Reward buyers with in-depth and exclusive content. These bonus offerings encourage a community to form around your product or service.
7 Ways to Use Video for Customer Support & Retention
Video Knowledge Base
When using instructional materials, 83% of people prefer watching videos over reading text. Therefore, adding videos to your knowledge base can make it more effective as a whole.
Start by determining what questions your support team answers again and again. Then, create instructional videos that demonstrate how to complete the task or solve the issue.
Finally, utilize video SEO to make it easy for users to find the answers they need. This will also boost your organic reach. Those searching for specific answers may stumble upon your company and decide to test your products or services against the competition.
This way, your video knowledge base can serve customers at the bottom of your marketing funnel and build awareness for those near the top.
How to Use Video
- Boost Organic Reach: Improve SEO with a library of direct and helpful how-tos.
- Automate Support: Allow users to immediately find solutions to their problems.
- Make FAQs Shareable: Create and easily send videos that answer common questions.
Customer Service Training Videos
Video is a highly effective medium for training. When attempting to create a consistently high-quality customer service experience, video training can be used to prepare new hires, infuse their job with purpose, and encourage them to share their insights and ideas.
In our examples of customer service videos below, former CEO Vineet Nayar outlines his case for putting employees first. He discusses his strategy as a leader and argues that exceptional employee service starts with the company’s actions. This highlights the importance of customer service training materials that reflect modern working culture.
How to Use Video
- Train New Hires: Create consistently high-quality service with your support model.
- Lead with Purpose: Inspire employees with the purposeful mission of your business.
- Create Dialogue: Encourage new hires to share their ideas for how to improve their job.
Welcome & Onboarding
What does a customer need after making a purchase? Providing set-up instructions, sharing content for deeper learning, and building a community all contribute to your customer service experience.
How a customer feels post-purchase will determine their likelihood of becoming a repeat buyer or long-term subscriber. Therefore, consider the ways you can continue to create a frustration-free experience as your customers begin to use your products or services.
A video is an effective tool for onboarding customers because you can directly show them how to use your product or navigate your service. In under a minute, they can jump right in and go.
How to Use Video
- Guide through Setup: Walk users through the initial steps of using your product.
- Provide Knowledge: Produce how-to videos to help users excel with your product.
- Create Community: Build brand loyalty by fostering community around your products.
Thank You Videos
A business doesn’t function without its customers. Thank you videos take time to acknowledge the community of people who drive the company’s mission forward. Thank you videos can also be used to showcase customer achievements or congratulate someone.
Sincerity is key. Saying “thank you” conveys a sense of awareness and appreciation that goes beyond the company’s accomplishments. An especially fantastic “thank you,” like the Charity: Water video in our examples below, will go the extra mile.
How to Use Video
- Celebrate Achievements: Send personalized videos to celebrate customer milestones.
- Highlight Contributions: Thank customers for making charitable donations possible.
- Show Appreciation: Create a general “thank you” for customers and the community.
Exclusive Video Library
Consumers love valuable (and free) bonus content. Have you ever seen someone post on social because a company sent them stickers, a handwritten note, candy, or some other small extra items? That’s all it took for the customer to feel special when the package arrived.
An exclusive video library with valuable or entertaining content for your audience can create the same sense of excitement and loyalty.
In one example, fans of Warhammer miniatures can pay a minimal membership fee to receive exclusive miniatures, animations, and shows through their app. This is one digital example of giving special access to customers and building a community with video content.
How to Use Video
- Offer Bonus Content: Offer customers video content that provides useful information.
- Secure How-to Content: Securely share in-depth knowledge of your product with users.
- Share Practical Uses: Teach the various functional applications of the product you sell.
Support Demonstration
When it comes to the daily exchanges of information between customers and support staff, nothing is more frustrating for both parties than illustrating the issue and how to solve it.
With video, support staff can quickly create a video demonstrating the solution. If the question comes up again, they will already have a video to share. This also makes it easier for customers, who can easily review the steps they need to take.
Video for customer support is a more cost- and time-effective alternative to offering live video support. Instead, reserve live video support as an offering for high-tier customers.
How to Use Video
- Review the Problem: Ask customers to include a video screen share of their problem.
- Use Video Demonstration: Quickly make and send password-protected how-to videos.
- Create Support Tiers: Offer live video support or expedited service with the time saved.
Optimize Support with Analytics
An added benefit of using video for customer support is the ability to evaluate the success of that support with data. Video analytics allow you to measure engagement and review the most popular or skipped-over sections of the video.
You can also compare the analytics of support staff videos. If you find that one agent is producing videos that significantly reduce support time while effectively solving problems, they can train other support staff on how to make demonstration videos.
Additionally, analytics makes it easy to know what videos are continuously being played from your knowledge base. This is a good sign that users want more content about this subject.
Plus with SproutVideo’s individual tracking, you can ensure new hires have fully completed video training.
How to Use Video
- Optimize with Heat-Mapping: Review what parts of videos are skipped or re-watched.
- Track Engagement: Ensure new hires have completed customer service training.
- Improve Consistently: Make sure all videos are helping customers as intended.
Examples of Customer Service Videos in Business
Education & Onboarding
Headspace
Headspace is a mediation app. This calming how-to video helps new users quickly get started. It covers the main offerings and how to navigate within the app.
Canva
Canva creates a lot of short, screen-share-style videos that quickly show users how to complete various tasks within the application.
Moz
Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays skilfully tackle useful knowledge for people who use SEO tools in around ten minutes. The series is still going with over 400 videos for potential and existing customers.
Retention & Thank You
John Hopkins University
Based in Baltimore, John Hopkins University shared this “Thank You” video that features members of the community who help make it strong.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp shares in-depth tutorials to set users up for success and provide an understanding of the many available tools that can be used in business. The information is educational, but customer retention is the result of having a library of useful content.
Charity: Water
When Charity: Water turned five years old, it wanted supporters to feel appreciated. Not only did the staff write letters, send emails, and make calls thanking people — they made hundreds of personalized videos.
Training & Inspiration
Ross Shafer
Ross Shafer is a TV host, comedian, and motivational speaker. He shares how he was affected by a moment of above-and-beyond customer service at a Marriott hotel.
Zendesk
Zendesk is in the business of customer service. This video got the attention of customer service workers across industries who dubbed it, “highly relatable.” It’s a great ice-breaker for new support employees who will experience these types of scenarios daily.
Bob Farrell
Bob Farrell trains people in customer service. But he began as a restaurant owner. In this video, he shares the experience with a customer that led to his motto, “Give ‘em the pickle.”
Vineet Nayar
“Millions of employees walk through our organizations every day not just to get paid but to be inspired by the vision we have for them,” Vineet Nayar is a bestselling author and former CEO of HCL Technologies who shares his “employees first, customers second,” philosophy.
The ability to put a face to a company cannot be understated. This is perhaps the most underrated benefit of video for customer support and retention: customers get the chance to feel connected to the people within your organization. When these relationships are fostered through support, the natural result is satisfied and returning customers.
Ready for more? Check out how to structure instructional videos for great pre-production advice. Learn the easy way to write a video script, or review the six components of a successful testimonial video.
