Customer service
How video-assistance can contribute
to your customer loyalty
24/06/2021Web Master
How video-assistance can contribute
Table of contents
Today, one of the main challenges for brands is to build customer loyalty. Indeed, studies show that increasing the retention of the best customers can lead to an interesting increase in economic results. This strategy is even more obvious when we know that retaining customers costs less than acquiring new ones. One of the best ways to retain customers is to offer customer service that facilitates their user experience. Video-assistance can undoubtedly be one of the tools to improve the customer experience and contribute to customer loyalty.
We can all agree that nothing is more difficult than winning new customers. However, retaining existing customers is just as important, and if you focus solely on acquisition and leave loyalty out of the equation, you miss out on significant growth opportunities.
According to an Invespcro study, the cost of acquiring a new customer can be five to seven times higher than the cost of retaining an existing customer. Unfortunately, most brands spend more time on acquisition than on retention. In the absence of an active customer retention strategy, some brands struggle to understand the reasons for high churn. Nevertheless, there are studies that provide interesting data. According to the marketing specialist Econsultancy for example :
- 68% of customers leave because they are not satisfied with the customer service offered by the brand
- 14% of customers leave because they are not satisfied with the product they purchased
- 9% of customers leave to do business with a competitor
It is therefore clear that the quality of customer service is very important when it comes to customer loyalty. This fact should not be neglected, especially when we know that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70%, while the possibility of selling to a new prospect is 5 to 20%.
Loyalty would therefore make it possible to increase overall brand sales at a lower cost than the cost of acquiring new customers. A study from the Journal of Management Studies shows that increasing the retention of acquired customers by 5% could even increase profits by 25% to 95%. The calculation is quick, but what strategies can help improve customer loyalty?
Reducing customer effort: a key element of customer loyalty
First of all, let’s talk about customer effort. The book The Effortless Experience, Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty explains this concept applied to customer service very well: the more effort a customer has to put into solving a problem, the less likely he or she is to be loyal to a brand. Examples of unappreciated customer efforts include having to call customer service several times, having to use multiple communication channels before getting effective assistance, or having to repeat information several times.
The authors found that 96% of customers who had a very stressful experience with a brand said they were not loyal to it.
Brands should therefore offer solutions or tools that reduce customer efforts.
How video-assistance can help reduce customer effort
Many of the tools used by customer services today are based on digital innovations. Indeed, today 77% of French people have a smartphone, compared to less than 20% in 2011. This boom in smartphones and their daily use is broadening the range of digital solutions for customer relations.
Another study also shows that the number of applications downloaded is falling sharply, with an average of 10 applications downloaded per month in 2018, compared with a maximum of 2 per month in 2019. Mobile users therefore appreciate solutions that allow them to do without an application, particularly for one-off uses.
Video-assistance is therefore an example of the type of solutions that can be integrated into support and contact centers to reduce customer effort. Video-assistance makes possible the ability to ensure an efficient, easy and fast remote and first call intervention.
Video-assistance allows you to assist a customer remotely by sending a URL via email or SMS, without the need to download an application or software. This technology is adaptable to all uses, it allows to communicate in video with a remote agent and to be assisted thanks to collaborative tools. The customer no longer needs to search for words to explain a problem or describe a situation to the customer advisor. He just has to show his environment thanks to the camera of his device.
Video assistance tools can be used to respond to various problems:
- Solve a problem on the first call: A customer has a problem with a device purchased in a store. We know that many of the problems encountered in after-sales service are due to a bad configuration or a bad use of the device. The customer service representative can check whether the device is configured or installed correctly and, if necessary, guide the customer to correct the problem that prevents proper operation. The customer will have an immediate response and will not have to wait for an intervention or travel to the store for a problem that can be solved remotely.
- To diagnose a failure remotely: to solve a problem with an internet box for example, you must first go through a diagnostic step. During a call to a customer service, the support technician needs to check several elements to make a diagnosis (connections, lights, configuration…). With video-assistance, instead of asking the customer to describe everything in his own words, the agent can simply ask him to show him the box and the different connections in order to make a simpler and faster diagnosis.
- Make a remote quote: a customer who already knows a brand can use it to make a new purchase or subscribe to a new service. For example, a customer can call on a furniture specialist to get a quote for fitting out a space. Thanks to video-assistance, he can show the customer advisor the room to be furnished, get advice and a personalized estimate for furnishing the room. No need to go to the store to get an immediate estimate.
These are just three examples of the many situations in which video-assistance can reduce the customer’s effort and therefore be an interesting lever to increase customer satisfaction and build a long-term relationship with its customers.
