In the last blog post, Remote Demos: The Next Evolution in Sales & Customer Support: Part 1, we learned what sets remote demonstrations apart from in-person demos along with the advantages of remote demonstrations. In brief, remote demos are interactions between your staff and customers using a digitally rendered product. The advantages in sales are numerous, including accelerated sales cycles and reduced costs. While in Part 1, we focused on the sales team, in Part 2, we will explore the broader range of remote demo uses including training and customer support.
Remote demos benefit training and customer support, not just sales
In a remote demonstration, training becomes not only more convenient, it also allows students to explore the device in depth, at their own pace. Classes are taken online, requiring no travel to a centralized classroom. For example, if your staff needs to learn about an upcoming product launch, new update or how to properly troubleshoot an instrument, you can set-up specific training while the audience is not tied to an office. Your instrument or device is rendered digitally, and each member can interact with your product on their own time and pace. This is extremely helpful when dealing with products that are highly technical (e.g., biotech instruments) and difficult to fully understand. It can also be useful when it is simply impractical to provide enough product to allow individual training or when the product is large/bulky and difficult to ship.
Remote demonstrations in training allow users to learn at their own pace and at lower cost
No more hovering around an instrument trying to see what is happening. With a remote demo, you work directly on the digital product yourself with an unobstructed view. Want to see how modifying the instrument parameters work? Dial in new parameters and visualize it digitally without the danger of destroying or damaging a valuable piece of equipment.
Customer service or technical support for complex instruments can be frustrating for both the provider and user. A good remote demo platform can be utilized as a bridge for troubleshooting. With the user in front of the real machine and viewing the digital demo platform, technical support can walk them through the troubleshooting protocol using the digital device as a guide. Technical support can highlight mechanisms, buttons or toggles, and software while getting immediate feedback from the user on the instrument response.
Remote demo platforms can guide users in real-time troubleshooting, resulting in faster resolutions
This approach gains many of the advantages of sending a technical support person onto the customer site since they are interacting directly with a customer in front of the product. However, since there is no travel involved, both costs and technical support travel time are substantially reduced. As importantly, it is likely both faster and easier to schedule a digital troubleshooting event with the user, compared to having them wait for technical support to arrive on site. This has two important outcomes, both of which are positive: 1) The user gets the problem resolved quicker, and 2) Technical support can move onto their next ticket faster, thereby decreasing overall customer response time.
While the most obvious applications for remote demonstration platforms are in sales, there are distinct benefits for both training and customer service/technical support. Organizations can receive better training at a far lower cost using remote demonstration platforms compared to onsite training seminars. For customers requiring product troubleshooting, remote demo platforms can be used as a bridge to technical support. This can generate quicker resolutions for customers while, for technical support groups, it both decreases customer response time and travel expenses.
Want to talk to experts in remote demos? From biotech instruments to large equipment, Envoke can help. Contact Us
