3-16-11  My friend Kurt Hines at HLC Technology Solutions just sent me an excellent article in today’s New York Times about a whole slew of companies that have started communicating directly with their customers via web video.  It also mentions one thing I’ve been saying for years, that video now is what having a web page used to be: the way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed.  It’s well worth the read.

My favorite points from the article:

1. A series of videos posted on one company’s website reduced customer questions by half.  This not only freed up sales staff to be more productive, it actually allowed the owner to avoid hiring several more employees.

2. The videos also allowed the same company to shave 40% off their customer service budget and do away with phone support completely.

3. Instruction manuals and how-to guides work much better as videos for more and more companies.

Here’s the article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/business/smallbusiness/17sbiz.html?_r=1