How Do I… Make YouTube into a Self-Service Channel?

Our panel of experts explain how you can make YouTube into a self-service channel.

Identify your simple and repetitive queries

Look at your contacts and see where the repetitive, simple queries are. Make videos for these if possible.

Embed the videos on your website and share them on forums

YouTube links can be easily pasted into webchats and forums.

They can also be embedded on the company website – negating the need to make contact at all.

Your videos should convey the same message as the contact centre

Ensure that your YouTube videos are well scripted, as concise as possible and don’t contradict advice given by the contact centre.

Get your agents involved and reassure them their jobs aren’t at risk

You should show your agents the videos once they’ve been created. Or, better still, get them involved with making them, so they know they are there and how to use them.

Also make time to allay any fears about the YouTube videos taking their jobs away, by reminding them that the videos will just free up time for the more complex conversations.

With thanks to Carolyn Blunt at Real Results Training

Filter out the issues that can be resolved with video instructions

Many of your customers will already be going to both Google and YouTube first to look for solutions to problems with your products. The complication arrives when considering the types of issues that can be resolved in a video format.

If you’re a retailer or manufacturer with physical products, ‘how to’ videos should be a given. But not every brand’s products lend themselves so perfectly to ‘how to’ — what if you’re an insurance broker, for instance? The opportunities are going to be less frequent, but here it’s all about monitoring what kinds of queries can be suited to video.

You will already be monitoring the types of issues that regularly get put to agents, so filter these into those that could potentially be shown in video format.

With thanks to David Ford at Magnetic North

Focus groups and buzz meetings help to keep content up to date

We use both YouTube and in-house videos to provide self-help guides to applicants and parents.

To help keep these up to date with the latest queries and topics, we practise the following:

• Floorwalkers – As our Team Managers and Quality Coaches respond to agent queries, they update a log on the iPad which enables us to identify both staff training needs and current customer trends.
• Buzz meetings – We have regular buzz meetings where Team Managers can gather information from the team members about hot topics.
• Focus groups – Our Customer Experience Manager holds monthly sessions with advisors where he is able to delve in more detail in to the latest customer issues or problems.
• Feedback from Quality Coaches – Our Quality Coaches provide feedback based on the call listening to our market intelligence team. This is used to improve all aspects of our communication from YouTube videos to the website to emails.

With thanks to Paul Allen at UCAS

You need a clear strategy for YouTube to be an asset

Without a clear strategy to ensure that YouTube will meet a well-defined customer need, it could generate higher email, phone and chat volumes for the contact centre.

You can take steps to ensure your videos are fit for purpose by having a consistent presentation and search approach – and also making them accessible from other self-service channels.

Use YouTube to supplement rather than replace your contact centre

Rather than being a stand-alone channel, it’s much more likely that video will be a useful tool to help your customer service agents resolve customer enquiries in a timely and satisfying fashion.

It’s important to consider when video content would be most applicable.

Bear in mind that some customers will want the dedicated attention of a trained and helpful customer service agent, some will fly solo and others will adopt YouTube as long as they can affirm the success of their actions.

If you ignore these factors, you may well end up with even longer queues of frustrated consumers lining up to speak to your agents, not to mention some rather lovely but under-utilised videos.

Create content that is short and specific

It’s important to remember that videos need to be structured in the same way as you would any customer interaction.

The purpose of the video needs to be clear, and the content needs to be short and specific, so that customers can quickly use it to solve their query.

Capture customer feedback to understand satisfaction levels

It is also vital to capture customer feedback to measure levels of satisfaction, as you would with any other customer service channel.

With thanks to Andy Smith at EvaluAgent

YouTube self-service in action

Here are some examples of how companies are using YouTube as a self-service channel.

How do you use YouTube to support customer service in your contact centre?