Easier Done than Said: Using Video in your Customer Support

With web technologies constantly evolving, my job is to stay on top of trends and strategies that can make our clients' websites more effective and competitive, and then filter through that pool of knowledge such that I can explain these trends to our clients in ways they can understand.

"...in ways that they can understand" is the hard part. I write a lot, to the point of it being overwhelming, and it I know it. So this year I started using short video clips using Screencast-o-Matic to explain concepts and offer visual examples of training & troubleshooting, and the feedback we've had has been along the lines of "this is exactly what we needed!"

Example of a Customer Support Video (Screencast)

Below is an example of one I did to show a client (Kate) how to update a section of her website. I've also used video to explain web design concepts such as responsive design, something that can definitely be confusing. 

Benefits to Using Screencasts

There are several benefits to incorporating video into your support mix:

• Reduced keyboard fatigue
• Video forces you to parse what you need to convey into a format that lets clients visualize and retain more, without being as overwhelming as a 5 paragraph email.
• Using video also demonstrates that your company is in-step with the latest trends, and adds credibility which strengthens your clients' reliance on us as a service provider.
• These short, quick-fix/how-to videos are easier to produce than a series of screenshots and narrative.

How "Produced" Should it Be?

One of the goals here is to streamline your own efforts, so taking hours to produce a 1-minute "quick-fix" clip isn't very practical. However, every piece of content you put out there should carry your company's voice and be representative of your brand. So, you should find a balance that works for you.

In the case of customer support videos, it's important to keep the production quality high enough (which includes the narrative) to be able to use it in your support library with other clients. You should set up some standard editing & production guidelines (titles, title screen/end screen text, video dimensions, zooming & tooltip effects, etc.). If the topic is more complex, consider a series of short tutorials covering each step (so you can send off a single video to someone stuck at a certain spot in the process). Then, spend some more time reproducing the tutorials into an in-depth video with a higher production quality (scripted narrative, overlay effects, possibly support material below the video).