The Future of Video Calling for Sales and Customer Service

(This is a guest post by Matt Lind of the Customer Contact Council, our sister program for heads of customer service and contact centers.)

If you own a smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer (okay, that should cover just about everybody), then you're likely familiar with the slick video-recording capabilities that now come standard on these gadgets. And if you're like me, you've been wowed at the ability of face-to-face video conferencing to bridge physical limitations, seemingly bringing people much closer together, even if only in a 'virtual' sense.

With technology enabling the world to better capture, store, and share video content, we've certainly seen a rise in the number of organizations wondering how they can use video to serve their customers.

Indeed, the recent and rapid rise of services like Apple's FaceTime, Google Hangouts, and Skype naturally leads us to think about the potential for sales and service organizations to leverage this technology, and while it's certainly too early to say for sure, here's my take on the future of video calling for sales and service:  

Employee-to-Employee

Companies looking to at least experiment with the benefits (and limitations) of video calling are likely to first pilot the technology internally, using their employees to prove (or disprove) the value in using video calling with customers.

(SEC Members, learn more about running effective pilots for new tools and technologies.)

This pilot phase needn't be restricted to just the call center, though; in fact, the biggest benefits may be found in enabling better communication and collaboration between the field and other areas of the organization.  For example, we've heard from a few financial services organizations considering video capabilities between branch employees and call center staff.  In addition, video conferencing often comes up in the context of coaching and engaging with remote reps.

Employee-to-Customer

In my mind, face-to-face video calling between organizations and their customers isn't likely to become 'the next big thing' in the immediate future, but that future is certainly up for debate. With video increasingly becoming a part of people's social lives, it stands to reason that customers may become more comfortable with the idea of video conferencing as a convenient sales or service option. We needn't look further than social media as an example of a recent cultural change that's had a big impact on the sales, marketing, and customer service world; maybe video is poised to be the next example of just such a change?

The extent to which organizations are rolling out iPads® and tablets to the sales force (75% are already using the technology or plan to use it within the next 12 months) perhaps suggests this may very well be the case.

On the other hand, for most customer issues, video calling just doesn't seem to offer much added benefit to the customer that couldn't be achieved via today's phone or web chat interactions. But for certain issues there may just be value in having a helpful rep to talk you—and show you—through the mechanics of the solution to your problem.

I can think of at least several times when I've called a repairman for something that turned out to be a simple fix—something I could have repaired myself by watching someone who knew what they were doing. Maybe this is taking the idea of customer "self-service" a bit too far, but there's no denying the potential of video to be valuable for certain customer issues.

What's your experience with video applications—either internally or in customer-facing scenarios? What do you think about the future of video in the sales and service organization?