Video is the new voice of customers and brands. In 2008, Best Buy’s Enterprise Customer Care (ECC) department began proactive and reactive communication with customers on Twitter, Facebook, Forums and YouTube. From meager beginnings with a borrowed camcorder, Best Buy’s Social Media team began proactively communicating policies, procedures and support messages to customers. The videos are uploaded to the contact center’s YouTube page (http://youtube.com/bestbuycommunity),posted on the main page of the Best Buy Unboxed Support Community and can be found on BestBuy.com.
Over the past three years, the Best Buy Unboxed video series has grown to become a strategic differentiator for the brand. Best Buy’s corporate contact center is perhaps the only one in the world with a full on-site video studio – lights, HD camera, green screen, teleprompter and even make-up. The team’s Community Advocate is responsible for filming, editing and producing each production in-house – there is no third party outsourcing. Video scripts, music and graphic are all created either by the Community Advocate or contact center agents.
Through social media monitoring as well as traditional channels, the Best Buy Social Media team identifies issues that can be addressed through the creation of proactive videos. There are two primary types for video: policy/procedure or product/technology concept. All videos are about unboxing an experience for customers. From firmware to smartphones, the contact center is there to proactively support through video by providing a knowledgeable Blueshirt to help customers and provide a trusted perspective.
It was determined that many international customers from Latin American were contacting Best Buy in the Spanish language wanting to place orders on BestBuy.com Espanol for pick-up in the United States. Some customers were coming for short visits and wanted to pick-up product while in the US while others wanted to send gifts to relatives. The process to accomplish this on BestBuy.com Espanol can be complex, resulting in many customer contacts and failed orders. Seeing a need the ECC Social Media team made a video, featuring a Best Buy BlueShirt to help customers through the procedure. Via video, we were able to walk the customer through each step in the process visually with a knowledgeable BlueShirt explaining everything in the Spanish language. When the video was launched, a graphical call-to-action was placed on BestBuy.com Espanol just below the navigational bar above the fold – this was prime real estate dedicated to a customer support message. It was determined that the video resulted in a fifty percent decrease in contacts regarding this issue. A second video explaining the process in the English language was also created. Now international IP addresses visiting BestBuy.com are served a pop-up window providing customers with the two videos. By listening to customers, the Best Buy ECC Social Media team was able to proactively support customers and provide increased efficiency to the brand.
The ECC social media has created other videos that focus on a specific product or complex technology concept. Best Buy BlueShirts from the contact center perform video unboxings of many of the latest and greatest products for customers. The unboxing videos of products like the Canon Rebel T3i and the Midland weather radio walk customers through product set-up in a step-by-step manner and explain the nomenclature associated with the technologies. Technology concept videos explain firmware and the importance of updating it and also highlight Best Buy applications such as Best Buy Mobile Codes and ShopKick.
Best Buy’s Unboxing videos provide proactive support to customers and contact deflection in a one-to-many format. They humanize and personalize the brand by explaining policies, procedures and products in a fun manner to customers. Since launching in 2008, the videos created by Best Buy’s contact center have been viewed about a million times. Video is a new contact resource channel for customer support. and it is a low-cost option for amplifying a brand’s support for customers. Best Buy is leveraging this emerging medium to enhance the customer experience and deliver on our brand promises.
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