Screencast videos are already a big hit in the education industry. Tuning into a video demonstration gives your audience a step-by-step guide, showing them exactly what to do.
This is exactly how big providers such as Khan Academy and Treehouse got started.
But screencasting doesn’t just have to be about how-to videos, it’s also a powerful tool that can be used to create clever customer-focussed videos or provide feedback on client assignments.
This means that the technology has applications across a range of industries for businesses of all sizes.
Essentially, screencasting is recording your computer screen and adding audio to it.
Screencast programs usually highlight your cursor to make it clear to your viewer where the focus of attention should be.
Screencast videos can be sold as a series of tutorial products or uploaded as a how-to or explainer on a video platform or website.
There are several key benefits of creating screencasts:
Screencasting is a great way to provide a positive customer service experience. You can establish trust and credibility by using your voice (and face if you like) through feedback rather than having your customers read a toneless email.
This is especially important in a customer service role, where you need to connect with people on a human level. This simply can’t be done with email. The next best thing to actually turning up to your customer’s house with the solution in your hand is to provide an audio screencast, with thumbnail of you, if possible, going through it instead.
When a customer hears your voice, they will resonate with the emotion in it and build a closer relationship with you.
For many website owners, analytics is a forever-changing, jargon-filled grey area. Those website owners who have employed the services of a web analytics company might still be baffled by explanations the analytics company give them.
Providing a screencast with audio, which will talk the viewer through the various charts and data that goes with analytics, is much more time-effective than explaining the process and results through a report or phone call.
A copywriting agency might want to use screencasting to explain the structure of a piece of writing to a customer.
Rather than speak to the customer on the phone, and hope they have the writing in front of them, using a screencast enables the copywriting agency to highlight certain parts of the text, zoom in on key features and flip to other examples on the internet.
Having a visual and audio tool allows viewers to listen to your voice and see what you are talking about. A study into using screencasting in an educational environment found that this has been proven to enhance customer experience, with one student saying:
“It’s one thing to just read your instructors feedback but to be able to see it and understand what you are talking about really helps!”
Read more about it here.
If you were proofreading a book or essay for a client, you could provide them with a document with tracked changes or comments on. Or, you could choose to create a screencast with tracked changes. You will be able to give your customer much more detail in audio feedback and they can quickly see what area of their writing you are talking about.
Screen casting for a web design company makes perfect sense. The designer would be able to submit his web creation to his client along with a screencast video, explaining why tabs, text and images have been placed in certain areas of the screen. He could also move things on-screen, showing customers what different configurations would look like.
In fact, anyone who works in graphic design could utilise screen casting to explain to their clients why and how certain grids and layouts have been created that way.
You can also use screencasts to empower your customers. Some customers find it difficult to verbalise a technical problem they might have, for example an IT based query or problem with their website. Often, they will send lengthy emails with screenshots, which is frustrating for the customer and customer support staff.
Enabling your customers to record and send their own screencast makes sharing their problem with the support team so much easier – for both the customer and the support crew.
Screenr, from Happy Fox, is an easy-to-use program which integrates screencasting into their customer support system. Users are presented with an easy-to-follow recording process, so they can simply capture their screen, verbalise their issue and send it off to the support team.
Image courtesy of Happy Fox https://www.happyfox.com/help-desk-integration/help-desk-screencast-integration/
Video has been used to improve customer service experiences in the past. Instead of bog standard replies, NatWest have used video for customer service with their series of quirky Vine videos to provide answers to typical queries, such as how to change notifications.
https://vine.co/v/hbYjz0Qzh5V
NatWest have also used this technique to appeal to university students with its university survival guide videos, providing advice on cleaning your student digs and how to amplify music from your smartphone. Apart from the obvious cringe worthiness of a big bank trying to be down with the kids it is at least good to see them making an effort to be a bit different.
Any media tool comes with its own challenges. In order to record a decent video, you will need to be in a quiet environment with no distractions. If you’re working in a busy office, this may pose a problem.
Another potential issue is server space. Ensure that you have sufficient infrastructure to support screencast videos. Will you host them on YouTube? Send them via email? Or provide a portal for customers to sign into to access the screencast?
Screencasting is cheaper than creating other types of video, but be wary of free screencasting apps. These provide low resolution and poor audio recording. This is fine for testing out screencasting, but will send the wrong message about your brand if you decide to use it in your customer service offerings.
Techsmith have a free product called Jing that is good for basic screencast videos so we recommend that you start with that.
Screencasting is a great way to connect with your customers and give detailed feedback or friendly customer service, just as you would if they were sitting next to you. Create a couple of different screencasts and get feedback from your customers.
These are the people who will be able to provide you with valuable insight into this customer service method.
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