This blog post was co-authored by Genesys technology partner, Streem.

Take a moment and list all the weekly chores you could do with your eyes closed. Now think about which ones you could do efficiently and effectively. I’ll bet the list isn’t very long. But every day, we ask our contact center agents and customers to perform complex workflows with only a text-based or spoken description of the issues.

Self-service web, IVR and chatbots are improving — staving off most common, low-complexity requests. This means the interactions that actually go to your experts are more nuanced and complex than ever. To address this reality and meet rising customer expectations, customer experience teams should add real-time, interactive video to their toolboxes.

In many of these complex use cases, adding visual context transforms interactions from poor handle-time metrics to winning customer experiences that deliver double-digit improvement on KPIs like first-call resolution, handle capacity, sales conversion rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and agent retention.

Visual Context Creates Speed

Look at the example below. What if I read aloud the text on the left to describe the building shown on the right, instead of just showing you the picture? Studies show that an image conveys context more efficiently and effectively, sometimes by 60,000 times. Video allows agents to see the full context of a situation — nearly instantly.

Visual Context Promotes Accuracy

Adding visual context to your sales and support functions creates an incredible level of accuracy and precision. Less information is left up to interpretation; visual context reduces, if not completely eliminates, language and jargon barriers.

Interactive video uses your team’s deep expertise to solve and document your most complex customer transactions (i.e., metrics busters) at the first interaction. This saves on product returns, extended handle times, follow-up calls and potential technician truck rolls.

Visual Context Builds Customer Relationships

When your agents see what their end users see, they can collaborate more naturally to find a solution. Reps are fully engaged and their brains can work at a natural speed. Furthermore, your customers are at ease knowing agents understand their situations completely.

Teams that use Streem interactive video in their customer workflows have reported NPS of up to 96 — with customers noting the ease and efficiency of the secure, no-download video call.

Four Considerations for Visual Collaboration Tools
  1. Focus on customer requests; consider one-way video using the rear-facing camera. In many use cases, the “world camera,” not the “selfie-camera,” enables the agent and end user to focus on the issue at hand — with minimal distractions and disruptions.
  2. Easy to test and integrate with existing tools. Customer experience teams don’t want to be burdened with another tool, login or IT project. Look for video services that don’t require extensive set up and programming to prove their value. Start with trials that can be incorporated into your key workflows quickly. And ensure your provider has simple but robust off-the-shelf integrations, SDKs and APIs that you can tie into your technology stack seamlessly.
  3. Reduce barriers to great experiences. A quick and easy resolution is every customer’s goal — not bloated software downloads and complicated user interfaces. With Streem web-based tools, agents can easily guide customers with simple tools like a laser pointer or marker. And they can capture photos and data-rich notes.
  4. Leverage call logs and rich media for additional context. Enterprise customer experience teams drive deeper value from video calls when they have flexible and secure abilities to reference — and when they share recordings, pictures and notes captured during interactions. Pull valuable insights from not only your voice recordings, but also visual accounts of your products and services “in the wild.”
Visual Context Delivers Results

Customer experience teams that use virtual tools like StreemCore™ video see transformative growth. Plus, they can identify new business opportunities within the first weeks of use.

Streem clients report notable improvements across business units and customer teams, including:

  • 126 agents hired back from COVID-19 furlough using virtual consultations
  • Increased agent capacity by three times for quotes and assessments — while improving time-to-revenue from just over a month to less than a week
  • 49% faster case resolution for home warranty claims
  • Over 20% increase in first-time fix rate for direct-to-consumer brands
  • Double-digit improvement in customer experience and agent experience scores
The Time Is Now

In 2020, the rules have changed for most businesses. Customer experience teams want new ways to connect with existing and prospective customers, provide best-in-class remote support, and build resilience into their current business models. With months of work-from-home under our belts, teams and end users are not only open to video, they demand it. And this especially the case when they can offer it seamlessly through devices they already use.

Enterprise customer teams are transforming their customer experience and their bottom line with the added connection and context of interactive video and virtual tools. Don’t leave your team in the dark. Learn how you can transform your business with a visual layer.

Discover more about Streem Web Platform with Genesys Cloud in the AppFoundry marketplace.