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Product registration – the process of capturing new customers’ information – enables brands to connect directly with consumers and engage with them during their relationship with the company. It allows device suppliers to communicate updates, safety recalls, and recommendations for product accessories or consumables such as capsules and cartridges. They registration process is also the ideal moment for warranty activation, ensuring that customers receive optimal support throughout their lifecycle. Investing in the post-sale relationship boosts brand loyalty and drives long-term revenues.
The challenge for brands is to get their customers to take that first step: register their products. Despite their best efforts, however, the number of consumers who complete the product registration process remains low.
Traditional paper-based registration and user-initiated website registration often fall flat because consumers forget or can’t be bothered to take the initiative. The level of effort involved in proactively registering their products is often too high, even though without product registration, brands cannot validate the warranty in order to provide effective service.
Product registration process trends
As with many consumer pain points, technology experts and marketers have found various initial solutions to alleviate the stress caused by the product registration process.
Mobile product registration
Brands have been turning to mobile to simplify the product registration process. Data shows that 52% of consumers register their products when offered an option to do so on mobile and are more likely to purchase extended service plans or buy related parts and accessories.
Data in exchange for value
Younger consumers have grown up as digital natives and are less focused on data privacy. One study found that 58% of Americans are open to sharing their personal data with businesses if the benefits are clear, and 63% believe that sharing data and personal information online is an essential part of the modern economy. Brands are making good on this shift by immediately providing value in exchange for product registration, in the form of improved warranty terms, digital product manuals, and discounts on consumables such as coffee machine capsules, ink cartridges, or electric toothbrush heads.
Post-sale automation
Brands know that consumers are most likely to register their products immediately after purchase when their engagement is at its peak. Automating this process significantly increases the likelihood of a positive outcome – a greater number of registrations. In addition, automatically transferring customer information to a product registration form greatly reduces customer effort. Enabling buyers to scan the barcode or QR code reduces effort still further, accelerating the product registration process and enabling brands to benefit from higher customer engagement and closer long-term relationships.
Warranty management
Managing the end-to-end-lifecycle of consumer product warranties can be a costly endeavor. Brands are therefore seeking new ways to automate the warranty claims process – from verifying validity to determining claim accuracy. Streamlining data collection and analysis allows brands to gain actionable insights in order to collaborate with the right suppliers and cut costs, while enhancing customer experience.
The next step: Remote Visual Assistance
Remote Visual Assistance uses screen-based technology that allows an agent to see a customer’s device via their mobile camera, and visually guide them to a resolution using on-screen Augmented Reality annotations, if required.
For example, if the customer is trying to register a new printer, they can show the serial number or barcode to the agent, who can scan it and register the device, with no additional effort on the part of the customer. In the future, if the printer has an issue, the customer can again use remote Visual Assistance to show the serial number or the receipt, enabling the agent to quickly and easily validate their eligibility for service.
Visual self-service product registration
Customers can now complete the product registration process using visual self-service channels, thanks to advances in Computer Vision AI – the processing and analysis of digital images and videos to automatically understand their meaning and context. It allows customers to visually interact with virtual assistants that can guide them through the registration or warranty validation process, saving significant time and effort.
For example, if a customer’s coffee machine isn’t heating up properly, instead of spending time searching for the warranty or reading the serial number to an agent, the customer can simply capture an image of the machine, scan the barcode or take a picture of the receipt. They can then indicate the issue by tapping a button or entering text into a chat box. The visual assistant analyzes the images and verifies that the warranty is valid. It then identifies the nature and source of the issue by analyzing the cabling, LEDs or error messages, providing AR-based guidance to resolve the issue or escalating the case to a human agent.
Summary
Remote Visual Assistance – either from an agent or in Computer Vision-powered self-service mode – can simplify product registration and streamline warranty management. Customers benefit from an effortless experience, superior service and access to discounts, while companies benefit from significant cost savings, greater brand loyalty and the ability to follow up with their customers post-sale with other engagement and revenue-generating opportunities. To learn more about how Visual Assistance drives product registration rates, click here.
