How to increase customer lifetime value with the video?
In this article, we will discuss how customer support videos can help B2B SaaS companies boost their customer satisfaction levels, and revitalize their businesses.
Most SaaS start-ups fail because they hardly ever prioritize customers and their needs. Without ensuring customer satisfaction, even seasoned SaaS players will find it difficult to scale their business, stay profitable, or be in the business at all.
Let us look at some numbers to understand the importance of customer service:
1 | Microsoft | Globally, more than half of all consumers expect better customer service expectations than they did just one year ago |
2 | AE | 81% of Americans report that they are satisfied with customer service because they either meet or exceed expectations |
3 | Microsoft | Globally, 52% of people believe that companies need to act on feedback provided by their customers |
The writing is on the wall; as the figures reveal, many SaaS companies have already started working on improving customer satisfaction.
And those who have not, had better start listening to what their customers have to say.
Because engaging with your customers is important to find out if they are a satisfied lot or if they are about to ditch you and court more attentive SaaS suitors.
So, what makes customers happy?
“According to McKinsey, the three Cs of customer satisfaction are consistency, consistency, consistency.”
The statement refers to the importance of being consistent in three main areas: Customer journey consistency, emotional consistency, and customer communication consistency.
Customer service is reactive and apologetic; its aim is to placate an unhappy customer. It follows a predefined framework of dealing with customers; you solve a problem for them, and it ends there. But it does not qualify to be called a memorable customer experience.
“Customer experience, on the other hand, is proactive and offers that extra something.”
As a B2B SaaS business, you should try to upgrade from just offering customer service to providing a customer experience.
When it comes to choosing a SaaS product, one factor that could tip the scales in your favor, all other factors being equal, is the customer experience.
Your added incentive? Customers who have had a pleasant customer experience with your brand are more likely to return to you or even recommend your business to others. As a B2B SaaS business, your strategy should be to create more and more VIP customers.
For a more in-depth explanation with examples, watch this video:
As any B2B SaaS marketer will tell you, companies should pay as much attention, if not more, to retain their customers as they do to win over new ones.
In fact, Customer lifetime value (LTV) is one of the important metrics to watch out for when you calculate the ROI on your SaaS marketing investments.
So, what is at stake? Let us find out with some insights and statistics:
1 | AE | 70% of consumers say they are likely to support a company that provides great customer service |
2 | AE | Americans are willing to pay 17% more to do businesses that are known for their customer service |
3 | Kolsky | Retaining a current customer is 6-7 times less expensive than attracting a new customer |
4 | Dimensional Research | A positive customer service experience can make 52% of consumers to make an additional purchase from a business |
5 | Bain | Profits can be increased by 25% if customer retention increases by 5% |
Satisfying customers is not difficult if you use the right strategy and tools. In fact, using them is the most reliable way to retain customers and make them come back again and again.
One such tool is video, which is emerging SaaS marketers’ favorite medium for customer communication.
Video has become highly influential in e-commerce, SaaS, and marketing. Many B2B SaaS businesses use videos on their website, social media pages, and external reviews to push their message.
“With customer support videos, you are a step closer to offering a pleasant Customer Experience.”
Here are more reasons to pay attention to videos that can help B2B SaaS companies to upgrade from delivering a boring customer service routine to creating a fully-fledged, pleasant, and memorable experience for the customers.
Video is an extremely versatile medium that you can use to:
But make no mistake; video may be a great way of making your website more interactive and engaging for your users, but most viewers will abandon a website if they cannot get a video to load or are made to watch a video with mediocre production values.
An example of a well-produced product explainer video, created by Content Beta for Pipe, the company that helps founders to find the best way to finance their companies.
As we discussed earlier, SaaS businesses don’t often make clear distinction between customer satisfaction and customer service; but the two are not quite the same.
Customer service is the interactions a customer has with a company, while customer satisfaction is how well a company meets a customer’s needs and expectations.
As the SaaS space gets more crowded, an increasing number of SaaS companies are finding it challenging to actively engage their customers.
This is where SaaS companies can use customer support videos to:
“In short, videos make it easy for B2B SaaS businesses to stand out in a crowd.”
What type of customer support videos should SaaS companies create to better engage with customers and boost customer satisfaction?
A B2B SaaS company can create videos that are informative, funny, inspirational, or educational. However, it is important to keep in mind the main purpose of the video.
For example, if the video is informational, it might be better to have a narrator. If it is inspirational, you might want to have a celebrity or someone famous in it, and so on.
The use of customer support video in B2B SaaS customer service is growing quickly and is fast becoming a preferred method for engaging with customers.
Moreover, more people are discovering the power of visual learning as learning goes digital. Statistics show that videos help people retain what they learned better than traditional methods of learning.
Unlike in the past, customers today expect engaging experiences when they sign up for a SaaS application. If their user experience does not reach their expectations, they will switch allegiance to the competitors.
As customers become more demanding, B2B SaaS companies are investing in video technology as customer support videos provide a better way to interact with customers.
One way to ensure customer satisfaction is to use the right message with customers, depending on what stage of the marketing funnel they are in.
“The idea is to create a message that best suits the customer journey and guide them to the next stage.”
For example, product marketing videos work better during the awareness journey, whereas testimonial videos are the right choice during the conversion stage.
Using a How-to video in the awareness stage might annoy the customers because they have no idea about your product nor how it is beneficial for them.
Example of a product explainer video created by Content Beta for similarweb
Many software companies focus on delivering a perfect product, but they ignore the importance of customer satisfaction.
Customer support is a vital part of running a B2B SaaS business. Without good customer support, a SaaS business will not only struggle but may also lose clients steadily.
As a business owner, you want to make sure the customer is satisfied and happy with your product or service. If you can create satisfied customers, they will keep coming back.
Mind you, SaaS companies don’t need to jump through hoops to make customers happy. They just need to pay attention to basics and make sure:
How to use customer support videos
What should a well-thought-out customer support video look like? Take the case of the plug-in your company has developed as an example.
A good customer support video shows how to install the plug-in using a step-by-step procedure. But that would be termed as good customer support or service.
Let us use another way of creating the same video that can turn a routine customer support exercise into a more personal customer experience and boost customer satisfaction.
Such a video should:
You can see how going that extra distance can make customers feel that they are valued. Remember, a satisfied customer is your SaaS business’s greatest asset.
Watch this video to learn more about delighting your customers, improving customer experience, and boosting customer satisfaction levels.
A SaaS product demo video is used to highlight the features and benefits of Software-as-a-Service to potential customers.
How to use customer support videos
Let us see how to create a good product demo video that can make customers want to make an instant decision to buy. Such a video should:
Watch this video created by Content Beta for Prosimo.io, who provide autonomous multi-cloud networking. The video not only explains how the product is better than their competitors but also shows how to use the tool in about 3 minutes!
Customers expect clear communication and transparency from B2B SaaS companies before they would buy, sign up, or upgrade their software.
How to use customer support videos
This is where customer testimonials can help. A word from a satisfied customer works better than a random testimonial from a nameless person to convince prospects and leads.
Testimonials are important for software businesses because they lead to better word-of-mouth marketing as such customers are more likely to recommend it to their friends, family, and industry peers.
Software companies should constantly ask for feedback from customers such as these. This will not only help them create a better product but it also helps build customer trust and loyalty.
Here is an example video from a satisfied customer of Galley, the mobile restaurant app.
When a B2B SaaS business creates customer support videos, be it onboarding videos, troubleshooting videos, how-to videos, or video courses, they can get as creative and different as they desire.
However, they should pay attention to some fundamental rules of video creation that can make videos engaging and fun to watch for customers. The videos should be:
How to use customer support videos
Next, let us see what SaaS Explainer videos are.
As customer preferences and content consumption patterns change, many SaaS companies have been left wondering how to engage with their customers.
Fortunately, videos have come into prominence to fill the gap left behind by brochures, manuals, PDFs, and other traditional marketing collateral that software companies previously used to engage with customers.
An explainer video is a quick and powerful way to communicate the benefits of a product or service.
An example of a an explainer video created vt Content Beta for DataWalk:
By now, SaaS businesses understand that they need to create an empathetic and effective explainer video to enhance customer experience and boost customer satisfaction.
The question the B2B SaaS companies want an answer for, however, is, how to avoid making just another boring, run-of-the-mill video.
Here are some basic guidelines on how to create customer support videos:
Before we wrap up, let us think of how else we can boost customer satisfaction.
Along with producing useful customer support video content to educate and guide the customers, B2B SaaS businesses should also make their customer service more empathetic by:
Finally, nobody expects SaaS companies to solve every problem, but they must take the trouble to always guide customers to find a solution.
Create customer support videos that can provide a great customer experience, so that the customers will come back to their business again and again. Make them feel valued. Be helpful, be available, and be empathetic when they interact with customers.
An ideal customer journey with your SaaS company should go through four levels of customer satisfaction. At a bare minimum, you should deliver what your customer paid for. In the next stage, you should go beyond what you promised. The next level would be delighting them with your thoughtfulness. In the fourth stage you amaze them with exclusive benefits.
Videos have been proven to be the most effective medium when it comes to training service staff to be at their courteous and efficient best. Moreover, customers can benefit from well-trained customer support staff as well as get the most out of their investment.
Given the available choices, many consumers would consider dropping a company after a single instance of bad customer service. This means if they don’t clean up their act fast, customers will simply go over to their competitors at the first opportunity.