Companies are always trying to be on the cutting edge when it comes to customer service. Not only is it a competitive advantage for your business development team, it also is a great way to keep current customers happy. One of the leading trends in customer service is a much stronger emphasis on visual support methods. The reason behind this shift in communication can be attributed to the fact that sometimes it’s much easier to show someone an issue than try to explain it in detail with words. Here are a few methods of visual support that are becoming more common in customer service…
Image sharing – This is the most common type of visual support and the easiest to use with a customer who is not “tech-savvy”. Image sharing includes sending a real-life photo or screen capture to assist in working towards the resolution of an issue. This has been a staple of ticketing solutions for many years, but now some chat offerings support image sharing as well. When images are shared between two parties, conversations become even easier and thus the length of the average chat session decreases.
Screen sharing – Especially in the software and technology industries, this solution is increasing in popularity. Screen sharing lets an agent OR a customer view their screen so a step-by-step demonstration of the issue, if it can be replicated, is displayed in real time. Some visual support technologies can also make it easy to toggle control of the shared screen back and forth as needed. This type of visual support can be a huge time saver instead of going back and forth with text in long email chains. The process lets you solves issues that once took a week to resolve in just a few minutes.
Video sharing – As the “new kid on the block” when it comes to visual support, the concept of video sharing has really emerged since internet connections have become more reliable and powerful. A video sharing conversation is like a video call on Skype, where it enables a customer and an agent to see each other and describe the issue face-to-face. The big benefit of this type of support compared to a traditional phone call is when products are involved. Some companies use visual support to have a customer show them what isn’t working for a product so the agent can demonstrate the correct usage. This conversation can also be recorded by the agent and sent to the customer afterwards so they may share it with colleagues who are experiencing similar issues.
In short, visual support is the future of customer service because it enables new forms of communication that makes solving issues faster and more efficient. Image sharing is a great starting point for visual support because it’s easy for any customer to utilize to get answers faster. Screen sharing is great for technology companies who need a real-time demonstration of the issue so they can understand what is occurring and how to solve it. Video sharing is the latest method of visual support and it’s a great fit for companies that need to demonstrate the correct usage of products to their customers.
So how can your customer service team get started with visual support?
One route is to choose one-off visual support providers and utilize their limited integrations with a CRM solution. This is a lot of work and requires constant upkeep. The smarter method is to deploy a customer service software solution that has all visual support elements incorporated directly into the software. Live chat, a key component of any leading customer service software, is a great home for visual support in your technology ecosystem. This is primarily because of its ease of access for customers but also due to all visual support conversation being stored directly in the software for agents to reference at any time.