Hello, everybody. Thank you for, well, just giving us your time in this really hot room. I'm hoping that we're not gonna say too much that's gonna put you to sleep anymore than what it feels like it is. I'm Kirsty Ferguson. I'm key account director at Premier SCX. Premier SCX specialize in customer engagement over audio, video, WhatsApp, and employee engagement. But today, I'm gonna be talking about the usage of video for customer communications. And I've brought with me Dan from Cadent who is one of our lovely customers. But this is a bit of a full circle moment for us. But before before we explain that, I'll let Dan introduce himself. Afternoon all. And thank you for staying around to the end. Dan Edwards, I'm the Head of Client Center Operations. I look after a number of teams for Cadence. And for anyone that doesn't know Cadence, we own and operate the biggest gas distribution network in The UK. Around 11,000,000 calls, customers, 22,000,000 households. One of the teams I look after also operates the National Gas Emergency Service. So we'll cover some of that with one of the videos later on. We're really happy to be here supporting Premier CX. So when we were asked to do this talk, it was like, why video? Why video for customer engagement? And to be honest, so Dan and I met at this very event last year, and we didn't have a meeting booked, did we? There was a talk in the morning that sort of grabbed your attention, and we chatted about, you know, various challenges and stuff. So do you want to just sort of go into the sort of challenges that you were experienced that we kinda had a bit of a Eureka moment that video might be able to help you with. Yeah. It was following... Gareth did a presentation on the use of WhatsApp and customer journeys. And in the middle of that presentation, gave some demos that I I didn't come in with the idea of thinking our video is gonna be a really cool thing. We should look at using it. But it did flick a switch for me and allowed me to think, how could we use this kind of stuff with our customers? How could we explore a different channel that we've not really used before? Now my customers' strange environment. They're they're not really our customers until they need to be, until they need us, so we don't have a whole database of all customer information. We're quite reactive. And a lot of people don't know what we do because our pipes are in the ground away and 99.999% of the time, you never need to know because you turn your copper on and gas gas is there. But when it's not, it becomes a problem. And that's where I could see video being a really helpful use for us in being able communicate with customers in certain situations rather than just verbally over the phone in a three to five minute conversation. Actually, what could we do that would help our customers better understand the services that we're offering or providing at that point in time in a way that's suitable for them to be able to understand and maybe be able to look back on it. And the session with Premier CX just really prompted me to think differently led to where we are today. It did. It did. And sort of why video? So statistically, the average reading age in The UK is 10 years old. So you put a wall of text up to somebody, and you're asking them to be able to read it, digest it, and act in a certain way on it as well. And it's just too much of a big ask. So for us, you know, the research that we've done around video, I'm not gonna read them out verbatim, but you can see them there. In terms of the statistics, so, you know, 95% of the message that's in a video, an FAQ video specifically, is retained. And, you know, when it comes to text, you're looking at about 10% if you're lucky. And I'm sure that you've probably all experienced that in your contact centers. You know, it's like, well, we we put this on our portal and customers just aren't aren't reading it and they're not doing what we need them to do. And and that's where where video comes in as being really, really effective. And it's not just around customers either. It's the same with employees and the same, you know, when you're doing onboarding, especially in contact centers, that first sort of thirty, sixty, ninety days. Video within training and onboarding in a knowledge base and an intranet really helps with attrition. You've probably all seen it with your agents. They'll, you know, great CVs, great interviews. They go in. You do the training. They're great in the classroom, great on a bit of role play, and then they sit with somebody, they're brilliant, but actually there was something that they learned on their second day in the classroom that they now need that they can't remember. And they... They're like, well, there's no one around that I can ask, and I don't really want to ask because that's gonna make me feel make me look like I've not taken it in. So all those little things add up. So being able to have a video on the Internet that they can just do a quick search on whatever that thing may be, fill up the video, watch it in their own time, watch it by themselves, Helps them build confidence. They learn more quickly, and it helps to to keep them into contact center. There's lots of things that video is really good for. But, I mean, Dan, what surprised you within Kaiden after deploying the videos? What was, you know, what surprised you the most? Think what surprised me the most... In some ways, what I was most impressed with is working with Molly and Kirsty and team, how they could take what I talk about every day, and I've talked about every day for the last twenty plus years, how they can transfer that into something visually attractive and clear and concise to pass the key bits of that information across to our customers or even to to our new starters. Now don't get me wrong, that when we started off on this journey, we've we've we've done our first five kind of main customer journey videos already with a plan to do a lot more. But even doing those, it uncovered an eye opening moment of... For for me and for my team, how do we transfer that message that we talk about so often into that message of what means something to a customer. And that's where you guys did really, really well time and time and again. So I think it's probably about time we showed you one of the videos. So I'm hoping the sound is gonna work. If you smell gas or think something isn't right, staying calm and knowing what to do can help keep you and everyone around you safe. If it's safe to do so, start by letting fresh air in. Open doors and windows to ventilate your home. It's really important not to have any sparks, so please do not operate any switches on or off. Leave them as they are unless we instruct you to do so. Never smoke or use naked flames such as matches or candles. You should then turn off the gas at the mains. Your gas meter can be inside your property in a cupboard under the stairs, kitchen or garage. If your meter is in a cellar or basement, it's important not to enter and to leave the meter as it is. In some homes, it may be outside in a meter box on an external wall or near the front of the property. Once you found the meter, turn off the gas by rotating the handle a quarter turn so it sits across the pipe. This helps stop any more gas from entering your home. Call the National Gas Emergency number on 0800111999. You'll be given clear safety advice, and an emergency engineer will be sent if needed. When an engineer visits, they'll always carry official photo ID and will focus first on making things safe. They'll explain what they found and what happens next. Acting fast can make all the difference and help protect lives. In an emergency situation, obviously, it's highly emotive. And really, that's a situation where you really need to get understanding and to actually get instruction followed by the customer. Dan, when we went on this journey, we did the kickoff, and we were like, what's really important about this and it's around, you know, not just simply providing information. You know, why do you think understanding is just as important as providing the information on this video? It it makes a difference. The service that we offer hundreds of times every day saves lives, and it's never in the newspapers. It's never on the news on the TV because the customer turned the control valve off to stop the gas leak and our engineers went and made it safe. That's something I'm extremely proud of. But without the video, that's something that is managed over a phone call and a phone interaction. Just imagine for a minute trying to explain to someone in your family how to go and turn the gas meter off, or where it is, or what the importance is, or what they should do if they can smell gas. I'm doing that in a calm way because in the back of your head somewhere you're thinking, if they can smell gas, what if it goes wrong? What if the worst happens? You come in your brain's going a million miles an hour and my team are there to try and calm you down, try and get you through that safety advice, and they do a great job of that. But being able to follow that up with, and here's a video. So just in case you didn't quite do it, you can still follow the steps whilst setting the right expectations of what is that journey going to look like from you reporting it to me on the end of the phone right through to an engineer coming out and and making you safe. And this... The the beauty of video is it also allows us to share on socials and and advertise. And we have in the past, we've done lots of different advertising campaigns. Can you imagine if you're you're driving along, you see a billboard that says, if you smell gas, ring 80111999. Yeah. Well, I can't smell gas now. So then you've forgotten about it. It's gone. We need something to to land in the memory of people to make to make them know that there are teams around to help. There is a service there that will help and and come and make you safe. And this video helps along that journey, and it's something that we didn't have previous to working with Premier CX. Then the accessibility as well. Oh, I that. In terms of like, you know, you will deal from anybody that is in their first new home all the way up to, you know, non English speakers and video is a good way of sort of getting that that message across, you know, multilingual and all the rest of it. So the next video, we're just gonna play. We know losing your gas supply can be worrying and disruptive. Our priority is to restore gas safely and as quickly as possible. Gas interruptions can happen for a number of reasons. It might be damage from outside contractor work, water getting into the system, or something else entirely. Whatever cause, one thing stays the same, there are strict safety steps we must follow. First, we need to visit every affected property to safely isolate the gas supply. It's really important that you don't turn your gas on or off unless instructed to by Kadent. If you're not home, we'll leave a card and come back again. If you, a neighbor, relative or someone you know in the affected area will be away on holiday, absent for an extended period or may have ongoing difficulties accessing their property, please contact us. We often need to dig holes to reach our pipes. That means you might see barriers, roadworks or traffic management in your area. Timeframes can vary based on the size and complexity of the repairs required. It also depends on the reason behind the issue and this is different for each situation. So it could be hours or in more complex situations, days. During larger incidents, we often set up customer and welfare hubs usually in places like community centers, leisure centers, or village halls. Those who require extra support can receive this at the hubs as well as ongoing updates. If you see our incident command unit, please do not approach it for updates as it is being used by operational teams managing the incident. For information, assistance, and the latest updates, please visit our website or where we have set up our community customer hub. We'll keep you updated every step of the way. That might be through letters, drop cards, text messages, speaking with our customer liaison officers and of course through our website where you'll find a dedicated incident page with the latest information. Once repairs are complete, we carefully control how gas is reintroduced to the network. An engineer will need to visit every home again to turn your supply back on and ensure that your gas is flowing to all appliances safely Depending on the size of the incident, this will be carried out in phases and could also span over a couple of days It's important you do not restore gas yourself When a cadent engineer arrives, you can feel confident they're legitimate. Every engineer carries official photo ID and will show it to you giving you time to check. During large scale incidents, our teams are working together to address the situation get gas back to your property as quickly as possible In the event of an incident, additional engineers and specialist teams may be deployed from across the country to support the response You can expect to see increased activity in the area with crews working extended hours including late evenings and early mornings to restore gas supplies safely and as quickly as possible. You will see our vehicles and teams working in your area throughout, however some aspects of the resolution will involve waiting for gas to be reintroduced to our network and will require our teams to be waiting to test the flow, pressures or waiting to commence the next steps in the restoration process. Having our teams there on-site and ready to act is a crucial part of our restoration plans. The best way to stay up to date is by checking our website for the latest information. And remember, if you ever smell gas or think there's an emergency, call 800111999. So there's a lot of information in that video. How do you communicate critical information without overwhelming your customers at a point where the unexpected has happened and they've lost their supply? That is a challenge for us to to be able to do it effectively. Know, touch wood, good luck, whatever. Since this video was made, we haven't had to use it yet, but it's there for if we do need to use it. And in a situation, we... Well, we tried to make this first version of the video generic enough to cover every different kind of gas incident, but specifically a loss of supply. If you think, if you have a power cut and your electric goes off, that's relatively quick because electric you can just turn it back on again. If there's an interruption with your gas supply, there's potential that air has got into that network and as you think that through, imagine you're cooking a roast on a Sunday in your gas cooker, that pot of air turns off the flame and then just carries on with just gas coming through. So there's a lot more controls and care that's needed, a lot of time and effort that's needed to go out and make sure everyone's turned off, carry out the repair, re gas the network and then safely and strategically make sure that everyone gets turned back on in the right order. That's not understood very well nor expected to be understood very well from our customers. So trying to put it in video format that is something that we can send out to... Once we've got the the village all open, once we've got contacts for the relevant people, or even on... Let's say, if there's an incident in Stockport, odds are there's, like, a Facebook spotted Stockport or something. We can share out on those kind of socials to make sure that customers can watch this and understand what's actually going on, understand when they need to contact us, when we want them to contact us, so if they can still smell gas. But if it's still an issue, yeah, ring us. But do we really want you to ring us to say what's happening, what's going on, how long is it going to be off for to do that expectation setting? Ideally not, because we want to try and manage that traffic down and try and have the customers self serve where possible and in some ways a little bit deflection. One bit that was called out in the video, the nice picture of our incident command unit, is when we have these situations, being able to split the teams that are working on the operational strategy and doing their permits to work, doing their approvals to go and carry out the repair. They're busy doing that. The last thing they need is Mrs Jones knocking on the door asking when's my gas going to be coming back on. So trying to split the customers away from engineering and into our customer area where we've got the right people there to offer the right support is key. Historically, we would have gone around and done letter drops or we would have gone around and done door knocks for for updates or or used some of the socials with different messages. What this first iteration of the video does allow us to do is instantly at the start of an incident, just get something get something out to our customers that we can then follow-up with with more specifics and more more information. It's it's quite a lot to to take in, especially for somebody that's thinking, well, my my gas has gone off. It's the December 23. I'm cold. I'm worried I'm not gonna have Christmas dinner ready. I'm worried about my parents, my family, whoever else is. I want to know what's going on. If you try and imagine what that does to our incoming contact center, all of a sudden an unplanned spike in demand that we can try and manage through different ways. And that's what the video, hopefully never to be used, but odds are it's going be used at some point, will allow us to do. Excellent. And and just on that sort of expectation setting, journey setting, I think, you know, whether it's sales, whether it's service, you know, sort of FAQs coming into a contact center, you know, if you were to sit down and go, right. If I was to create a video about something, what... What's gonna be the thing that's gonna have the biggest impacts? And I think, you know, just getting in front of all those FAQs that come in time and time and time again, grouping them into topics, and then thinking about videos in that respect, you'll you'll hit quite a lot in a single video. It's amazing what you can pack into into a couple of minutes. And like for you with connections, you know, that whole thing of like, well, what's gonna happen? What is the process? So this is the the connections video that we've done, and it is the last one that you'll be watching. If you're moving into a new home, building from scratch, or planning changes to your gas supply, Cadent is here to help you get connected safely and smoothly. Cadent looks after the gas pipes that bring gas to your home. That means if you need a brand new gas connection, want to move your gas meter or pipework as part of a renovation, or no longer need a gas supply, Cadent can support you every step of the way. Throughout the whole journey, Cadent keeps customers informed, supported, and reassured from application through to completion. It's all part of making sure your connection is handled safely, efficiently, and with as little disruption as possible. Getting started is simple. You can apply online or speak directly to Cadence Connections team who will talk through what you need and guide you through the process. And if you're new to gas connections, don't worry, their experienced team is there to make everything clear and straightforward. Once your application is in, Cadent will help you decide the best location for your gas meter and check there's a safe, clear route for the pipework to your property. You'll then receive a quote for the work. After you accept and make payment, Cadence will stay in touch to arrange dates and keep things moving. Before work begins, a site visit may be arranged to go over the details and make sure everything is ready. When the connection work takes place, Cadence engineers will carry it out safely and professionally. Once finished, they'll tidy up the area, reinstating things like turf or flower beds if they've been disturbed. If you're extending or renovating your home, you might need to move your gas meter or pipes. Cadent can take care of these alterations, making sure your supply continues to meet safety standards and works for your new layout. And if gas is no longer needed at your property, Cadence can also disconnect the supplies safely. If you're ready to get started or just want to find out more about your options, Cadence Connections team is on hand to help guide you through your connection journey. So that's very much about setting out the store, what's gonna happen, what's in the process. And so, Dan, what's the impact this type of video has had from previous sort of comms before someone's had any connection? What this video does for us is... And similar to the others, it allows us to put something in the in the customer's hands that they can rewind, play again, listen to. Previously, if you can imagine the amount of terms and conditions that go with having a new connection or having a a meter move, they would have been read out, which, obviously, I'm sure we all listen to all the terms and conditions that we have read out to us, or they would have been in the paperwork in the pack, but obviously we all read all of those. But what this does is, again, really clear and transparent, shares that journey expectations that it's not as simple as ring up today and say, can I a new gas connection, and by tomorrow, it's there, and it's all working? It's a bit more complicated than that. Kirsty mentioned earlier, one of the challenges we had was the adaptability to different demographics, different customers. We can easily translate this into a language required for for a customer who's not... Who English speaking isn't their primary language. So we can share that information so they they know what they need to do from their part. They also know what to expect from from us. And so far, sharing sharing the video is proving successful in terms of sharing that journey. He's also given us some insight. So one one particular area, I think. In in the video, there is a picture of scaffolding when they're doing the the extension. Now we are gonna go through another iteration, but one of our biggest complaint areas are replanned connections jobs. So imagine the customer's gone through, they've paid for the for the meter move or the alteration. They've gone through the survey, and at all points, it's documented and told we we can't work if the scaffolding's still up. And the engineers turn up to do the work, guess what? The scaffolding's still up. They say we can't do it, and then the customer goes right back into the planning cycle again. We're gonna amend the video to really call that out so it's up front and visual as well as it being in all of the documentation. The benefits there for us will reduce wasted visits, but more importantly, reduce that wasted time for the customer that's waiting to get their extension done or waiting to get their their new connection set up. Because even even having these live is an ongoing learning journey for us. And working with with Kirsty, working with Molly and the team to add an iteration onto something. Once we've got the the base video there, it's ever so simple. Really simple and really quick. Yeah. I'm trapped. So thinking about how you can all take the learnings back to your business, you know, things to really consider. So if you're thinking about video, you can think about use cases. Generally, what will happen is you'll think of something, and then you'll go, oh, actually, if I'm doing it for this, then I might need it for this as well. And it snowballs. Trust me. And as soon as one department sees it, another department sees it. They've got their own use cases. They've got their own snowball going on. So the use cases are, you know, you've got to think of your top contact reasons. You know, if you really want to get return on investment on video, think of your top contact reasons why your customers are getting in touch. Where in the customer journey you place those videos, so obviously that's something that we specialize in. So we work with Dan and the team to figure out what is the context that this video is gonna sit in. And then the look and feel of the video. The videos are supposed to invoke trust so that people actually take action. And the best way of doing that is making sure that it is on brand and that it is relevant. And then when you've got all these myriad of use cases of videos to actually prioritize that. And is there anything else that you think that would... Should be added to that? I think I will openly say I am not a video expert. That's not my expertise. That's not the job I'm hired for. I have absolutely loved having the team on board to do... To be that video expert and to be that prompt of... And that little voice on on my shoulder saying, Dan, you don't want... You don't necessarily need to do that. There's a simpler way you can share that message. There's a simpler visual that you can that you can use. Or where appropriate saying, actually, we understand that that particular aspect needs to be crystal clear, so let's do it this way. I don't think I've ever been coached as much as I have from you guys over the last few months developing these videos, but I I am really impressed with what's been done so far. So what's the process? If you go to a glossy marketing agency, you're looking at probably about six months for a single video and thousands of pounds on a single video. But once it's done, it's then yours if you get the rights to it that you purchase. And then if you need any updates, you then got to ask for a whole new video. That's not what we do. It's contact center specific. So it's unlimited en masse, and our process is very simple. You come to us with a PDF that you want more engaging for training or a FAQ coming into contact center that your agents are sick of talking about. We will go away and knowing your brand, your tone of voice, your color palette, etcetera, we'll go and create a script. That script will then get sent back to sign off, make sure sure the process is correct, and that brings a whole host of magnifying glass onto your own processes. It's amazing what some departments think is correct and other departments think the actual opposite is correct. But once that's all signed off, then we go into production. It comes over to you as a URL. You literally click on I want this green and not pink, then it comes back over. We make the changes. The final video gets signed off, and then that's it. We go into deployment mode. It's deployment and maintenance, so it's not a case if you get the video and then it's done. Analytics as well plays a really important part because we need to know when videos are no longer performing. We need to know... We need to be led by the data as to how this is being used. And we obviously work quite closely together doing analytics on videos very regularly. And we try and get these videos out as quickly as possible. So you're looking at about two to four weeks of the first video, and then updates and tweaks can be in hours or days, depending on what needs doing. But the data is key because the moment that a video stops working, we need to find out the reason why. Is it that you no longer use web page? Is it that it's just been forgotten about? Or is it just that it's been buried by a whole load of other stuff that's been added on top of it? And that's really important. So I think that's that's kind of what makes us a bit different and and a little bit unique. But in terms of what I was saying about the data, you know, the sorts of data that we look at play rates, engagement, time viewed as well. So if you've got a half way through, are we answering all the questions in the first bit? And is the video needlessly long? Can we make it shorter? Do we split it out into two? All those kind of things. So the data tell us what the issue is. But I mean, Dan, for you, how do you how do you sort of tell how the video actually works? Because customer to customer is very different for us. We we see the benefit in, as an example, in reduced customer... Reduced traffic. So customers asking questions that they previously felt the need to ask because they weren't given the answer. They now got the answer. Not in all cases, and and certainly video isn't the fix all forever, but it's a really good tool that we've got to be able to use amongst others to help customers understand, to help put them in a position of knowledge so that they don't have to call us back or email back in or make another contact just to find out what the next steps are. And where I've been really impressed, just talked about the data, but down to the point, the analytics that can be shared, we'd be able to see if at thirty seven seconds into the video was the highest drop off point. What... Does that actually mean that the customers got the information that they wanted? Or does that mean that the video was really boring and it's not... The hook's not there, They're not cutting, and that feeds right back in. And these guys are are really great at saying, we'll just change this or just change that, and we can we can see improvements as we go through through the back end monitoring. So we've spoken about training videos as well. On the screen is a QR code. If you give that a scan, that will give you access to some example videos. There is all sorts across all industries, so there's probably something of your own own sector on there. Have a look. And then if you've got any questions or anything like that, then then then let me know. But, yeah, scan the video, and then, you know, if you want to to sort of catch up at any point. I mean, does anybody have any burning questions right now? No? I'm sure we're all quite hot and bothered and probably just wanna go to the bar and get a drink. Cool. That's what I'm So, yeah, thank you to Dan for joining me, and thank you for being able to stomach this room for as long as you have. I really appreciate it. Is that right? Like that? Okay.