We are bringing graphs and changes tracker to insights

Since the last product update, we have been busy working on several great enhancements. While some of the improvements to the platform will be shared over the next couple of weeks and months, today we are excited to announce that from Thursday, October 24th 2019, all clients regarding active subscription plan, with be getting better Insights.

### __Better Insights better decisions__
One of the major benefits of Layerise is the easiness of data collection and the user-friendliness of data visualisation. After several rounds of revisions and testing, we are finally releasing much better Insights to track the performance of your Product Assistant's. We’re more than convinced that these aggregate data insights will help you continuously follow Product Assistants success and to further improve the customer experience.  

### __New features__
With this update to Insights, you will be able to quickly get short and long term performance measurements. On top of that, you will be able to see performance changes to all measured KPI's (Key Performance Indicators).

![Layerise Insights Since Beginning](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/CPYx38njZtJBKToXpVcez/1ca23cbec4e16d6b36872cfa91687ff5/zoom.png?w=1200&q=80)

#### Measured KPI's
Following KPI's are measured across all date ranges.

- Registrations 
- Customers
- Conversations
- Cost saved on paper (Layerise Product Assistant vs. conventional printed product manuals)

#### Date ranges
Following dates ranges and data granularities are available.

Date ranges and with daily data granularity
- Last 14 days   
- Last 28 days 
- Last 90 days

Date ranges and with monthly data granularity
- Since beginning 

#### Customers
One highly requested feature over the last couple of months has been the ability to measure product adoption by customer group and track product model registration. With this update, it is now possible to see product adoption down to the individual customer. This feature is supported by the Dialog customer & product satisfaction rate ([Read more](https://www.layerise.com/resources/blog/post/introduction-to-layerise-dialog "Product Satisfaction Rate")).

That’s all for this update. If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Community"). As we move with 🚀speed we expect to be able to unveil something awesome already next week. Get the update directly [here](https://admin.layerise.com "Layerise Admin New").


Better insights - Product Announcements

The core of a company’s success is a happy customer. No wonder great customer service programs focus on treating customers well, answering questions, and exceeding expectations. 

But in the contemporary society where customers don’t always want to reach out for support - and would rather find answers on their own- how do you attend to them at their every need, without delay? Self-service support is your savior, and it needs to be just as good as your agents.

In this guide, we explore the building blocks of self-service customer support. What it is, and why it is the best way to cut down on your costs while still maintaining your customer happy.

### What is self-service support?
Self-service customer support means that the company provides customers with all the tools necessary to meet their needs in full autonomy. In other words, customers use company tools to find solutions to their problems, rather than contacting the support team. This way, customers can quickly find answers to their questions easily, at any time. 

### Examples of self-service customer support
There are several tools businesses can use to offer self-service customer support. Here are a few examples:

#### Use Layerise as your customer self-service software
Layerise is a CRM software that combines technology and data to improve the customer experience. It has several features that can help your company to introduce an excellent self-service support. 

Some of the features include:
- It provides customers demographics like __feedback and scores__, giving the company more insights into the client's behavior.
- It provides a __chat widget__ that provides customers with real-time customer service support using client's data, e.g., demographics.
- It uses highlights to provide visual content using images and videos to __educate the customers__. The video is enabled due to the Youtube Integration that Layerise supports.
- It provides a __virtual assistant__ that makes it easier for customers to search and find your company content on Google.

#### Use of forums
A forum is a large community where customers can share posts about their experience with the product and get feedback from other users who have encountered the same problem and may have already found a solution. The users who contribute with relevant answers get the label of experts.

Forums give users many options to find solutions since most are already suggested by users. On your side, during their free time, your customer service team has to look at the questions asked and respond to the ones nobody answered yet.

Forums work well with companies who have a lot of customer queries or struggle with coming up with other solutions in terms of customer support service, such as knowledge base and FAQs. Forums allow the creation of a community of users and connect the company with its users thanks to direct interaction.

#### Use of chatbots
Chatbots use artificial intelligence and natural language processing to initiate conversations on different platforms like websites, emails, applications, Slack, Facebook messenger, mobile apps, etc. They can be used to offer self-service support in different ways. For instance, chatbots help in displaying common answers to clients when they ask a question, especially the FAQs. 

They play a significant role in automating customer services, saving both the company and users time and costs. On the customer side, they can easily ask for support by writing a message in the chat, it is simple and convenient. On the company side, there is a significant saving in human resources.

When configuring the chatbots, you have to set the company logo as profile picture to avoid confusion among the customers. Examples of common chatbots include Kommunicate, ChatBot, Blue Diamond, and Chatfuel. Remember to ensure the grammar of the answers is correct and the period between responses is adequate. Some issues can get out of hand, and humans have to intervene and help the customer.

![in-articles-chat-bot](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4L6fef2axTlbHqvxbAVDiR/6d90ec2376c4a454a0f40182c2248e9c/in-articles-chat-bot.gif)

#### Use of Interactive Voice Recognition(IVR) system
If you conduct most customer service by phone, you can create an interactive IVR menu that can automate all the calls. The IVR system allows customers to use an automated voice system that guides them through a variety of service options. This allows the customer support team to focus on critical tasks that require human intervention while automating the standard queries. 

#### Use of knowledge base
A knowledge base is a collection of information about company services or products. This knowledge base includes troubleshooting guides, articles, FAQs, video tutorials, product manuals, etc. Both the customer and the internal team have access to it.

Having a robust knowledge base significantly enhances the self-service experience. Most clients want to fix their issues without involving others. The knowledge base helps them spend little time solving their problem and get on with their day. Especially tech-savvy customers prefer using the knowledge base. 

The knowledge base should be easily accessible, well organized, seamless to navigate, able to solve all the common issues, and up-to-date to address the latest complaints. It should act as documentation, not a boring storyline.

When designing the base, ensure that you understand the main elements of the base, i.e., search functionality, FAQs, and contact details. Cover all the basics and onboarding processes and categorize them into several groups. Structure your content with a good flow and use visuals like screenshots on how the customer can follow the specific steps with the help of arrows.

#### Use of self-servicing portals
Another way to introduce self-service support is by creating a portal where customers can sign up, ask questions, track the response status, communicate with agents, place orders, etc. 

For example, if your customers want to check the status of the service they paid for, they log in and check the status of the estimated delivery time autonomously through the portal. This reduces the calls to the company's customer support team.

#### Having a Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) page
FAQ page is the section on a website that consists of questions and answers to the commonly asked questions by customers. It acts as a manual where users can find all the answers. When designing this page, you don’t use ordinary questions. You talk to your team and tell them to check what customers ask.

Companies use different tools like CRM to check the data of all the previous questions. Customer representatives also know which questions most of the clients ask. Filter the questions and offer several solutions to every question.

After setting up your FAQ page, make sure Google indexes it by applying several SEO tactics so that users find it easily.

### 8 key benefits of self-service support
There are several advantages in using self-service customer support both for the customer and the company. Have a look at 8 key benefits we’ve outlined below.

#### 1. It gets rid of repetitive tasks
With self-service support, support agents can focus on important requests instead of wasting their time answering repetitive questions. Having to repeat the same answer over and over can be exhausting and make them feel undervalued. Self-service support eliminates the need to address demands that do not require human intervention, challenges expertise, and increases productivity.

#### 2. It is user-friendly
Some companies use content such as videos and blogs to offer self-service support. This method is better for customers than having an agent explaining the same issue. It makes it easier for the customer to understand.

#### 3. It improves the customer experience
When a business provides answers to clients without contacting customer service, their experience is incredible since they use less effort to get help. It leads to more satisfaction since there is no burden to receive support throughout their user journey.

#### 4. It offers 24/7 support
Customers have a lot of expectations that increase with time. They expect companies to be able to provide assistance at any time to solve their problems. Using self-service support makes all the services available anytime the client wants help, without increasing staff headcount. 

#### 5. It provides more insights into your customer's needs
Businesses can use different technologies to analyze customer queries and fix any loopholes the self-service support does not address. The possibility to constantly collect information and insights about cutomers' needs, allow you to improve the self-service experience accordingly, making your customers every time happier to use your products.

#### 6. It increases traffic to your business which leads to more sales
If you have a business website, create a section where you list answers to all the questions could customers ask. Customers will visit the section every time they need help, making Google value it as important, thus improving the search rankings. The traffic increase will lead to an increase in inbound leads that convert into customers.

#### 7. It increases efficiency
Businesses can use self-service support tools to automate the majority of the tasks. The automation eliminates many issues that would delay the customer support experience.

#### 8. It cuts costs
Self-service serves many people simultaneously, getting rid of large queues that would require a big team of people working for customer support. Self-service support gives your company a chance to reduce human resources, which leads to a decrease in costs.

### Best practices for having a better self-service customer support
To ensure that the customers enjoy your self-service support options, you have to use good practices.

Layerise provides features that enable businesses to build resources that can support customers in their user journey. Among the others, is the use of videos and chat widgets.

It is essential to make all the support resources easily accessible to customers by adding the links to your website "home" and "about us" pages, as well as by providing answers using chat widgets, indexing FAQs, and knowledge base on search engines.

Remember to provide a contact link in all the different support resources: FAQs, forums, knowledge base, etc. This way, it will be easier for customers to contact the support team.

After having introduced all the different self-service support resources, makes sure your team is keeping track of the customer activity. And, most importantly, when customers start facing problems in consulting these resources, your team must be quick to correct them accordingly.

On top of that, ensure the content is well presented and relevant. Having a good team for content creation makes sure that the content from the knowledge base, forum, and automated chatbots are high quality.

### Conclusion

Self-service support tools are essential for any type of business, and most customers nowadays prefer them over the other methods of support. Use effective methods to make your customers happy. 

Ensure all your self-service support resources are easily accessible through mobile phones, desktops, and tablets. Having a good self-service support makes the customer's experience great and reduces the number of calls to your customer desk.

Are you having difficulties in managing your customers? [Book a demo](https://www.layerise.com/) to see how Layersie can help you introduce self-service support and improve your customer's experience.


Self-service support: How to make your customer happy

At a first glance, customer excellence might seem as simple as giving customers what they want. However, you will soon realize that serving customers is way more complex and things are not so straightforward.

It can be hard to discover what customers really want, and even when you do, what they want could quickly change over time. For this reason, it is very important to keep acquiring new information about your customers and find a way to meet their requests. 

Up to [77% of customers](https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-service-trends/) say they’d be loyal to a business that offers top-notch service, while [88% of customers](https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-service-trends/) say they wouldn’t return to a website after a bad experience. With that in mind, let’s explore the various trends businesses are adopting in their quest for customer excellence in 2022:

### Improving the Customer Experience
Historically, businesses offering post-sales support have been way more focused on how easily the customer can send requests or complaints. Nevertheless, a smooth back-end is a crucial part of offering effective customer support.

Going forward, there will be a greater need for tools that answer a number of vital questions about the agent experience such as:

*How can the agent quickly find what the customer is looking for and relay it?*

*How can the agent quickly get the customer’s history and adjust their help accordingly?*

*How can customers easily forward the complaint to the more appropriate support agent or get others to collaborate?*

In that sense, there will be more products offering the possibility to track customers and collect data about their experience. Companies will be able to track the pages they read, the agents they had a conversation with, the product features they used, reviews posted and surveys they participated in, and a lot more.

These capabilities are properly captured in the timeline feature of a product like Layerise, which enables you to view a chronological list of actions taken by a customer. These even extend to actions on the product itself such as checking tire pressures and changing certain settings.

### Streamlined omnichannel communication
Contrary to what you might think, an omnichannel approach is not just about using different channels like email and social media to communicate with your customer. It is learning how every channel can contribute to enhancing your interactions with customers, therefore use them in a strategic way. With the development of 2022, all of these channels will continue to innovate, offering features that differentiate them from other channels.

For example, email newsletters usually come with a straightforward option to unsubscribe, and some social media platforms or Google ads also have some simple opt-out steps. This may not be the same for SMS, calls and WhatsApp.

Another example is the Facebook Messenger bots and automated flows that can be used to administer loyalty programs and also assist in retargeting. In that respect, omnichannel communication will have new approaches that consider the unique capabilities available with each channel and how best to utilize a variety of them when assisting a customer.

For example, awareness efforts might flow better with the live video and spaces features of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, while sales efforts will work better with functions like Pinterest product pins and Instagram shoppable posts.

Remember, up to 63% of customers expect businesses to be able to offer support on social media, but you can do so much more than just offering support, especially if you want to stand out. Also, don’t forget, omnichannel communication doesn’t mean much if there’s no cohesion with other day-to-day business processes.

This is where Conversational Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will shine. Conversation RPA can be simply defined as Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) stacked on top of RPA. Basically, customers will be able to have an actual conversation with a virtual assistant that uses Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to receive support easily, at any time. 

These bots will then take commands in text, speech, and other forms and send them to the back-end architecture, triggering automated workflows to perform various actions such as package-tracking, checking account permissions and eligibility status, and more.

### Heightened personalization
Personalization is not necessarily new, especially in eCommerce. But for a long time, it has been quite simplistic, focusing on purchase history, product searches, pages viewed, and a few other attributes such as location and type of device.

In 2022, we are going to see a stronger evolution in the use of personalization to offer more relevant product recommendations, and applying personalization in much more facets of the customer experience:

·Tailoring the messages to the customer’s sentiment towards the product/service based on survey participation and reviews/ratings given by the customer.

·Sending reminders to customers to take actions such as maintenance based on the way they’ve been using a product.

·Taking note of log-in locations to deduce behavior such as frequent traveling, recommend weather-appropriate products, suggest new payment methods, adjust pricing to include region-specific taxes and tariffs, show nearest repair centers, and much more.

 ![in-article (1)](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/2WGEchyfamKcZ8ZDVzAkNH/ce0e5e6d0854fb974a53d96b64ce679f/in-article__1_.jpg)

### Self-service powered by smart technologies
Self-service not only shortens the support process but also helps save money spent on human agents. Additionally, self-service can be used for branding purposes and also to build the internal team spirit, particularly when it comes to helping customers find information.

However, businesses need to improve their self-service centers in terms of multimedia delivery, intelligent output, and accessibility. Businesses will be working on:

·Conducting searches that go beyond article titles, authors, and content matches to detect intent in long-tail phrases and questions, and present the most relevant and up-to-date results.

·Communicating their requests using text, speech, screenshots, and scans.

·Transcending basic analytics and usage reports, offering instant notifications to content creators when customer requests are fulfilled.

With Layerise, you can rely on a robust editor to incorporate GIFs, videos, and other media into your help-related content. You will also be able to deliver assembling guides, dynamic user manuals, and other educational/informative documents in a smarter manner, continuously reducing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and making content more searchable.

Businesses using this solution will also have an easier time importing content, localizing it to reach also customers speaking different languages, and collaborating as a team to keep the content comprehensible and up-to-date.

### Comprehensive mobile-first approaches
Almost all your customers possess a smartphone nowadays and carry it with them everywhere they go. For this reason, the possibility to solve problems through their devices represents a real added value for your customers. It's convenient and accessible every time, everywhere. 

In 2022, we are going to see more businesses enrich the feature sets on their mobile apps. Previously, many were simply focused on making lightweight apps that can work on devices with low memory and poor connectivity.

As companies design their products, they have to facilitate the use of mobile functionalities. This could include offering QR codes on packaging to make it easier to direct customers to your website, along with Near-Field communication.

Therefore, a mobile-first approach will no longer be just about making a mobile app that is more comprehensive than your desktop app. It will also be about your ability to leverage mobile device functionalities to better connect customers with your ecosystem. 

Luckily, Layerise solution allows your company to direct customers to a product assistant using QR and NFC tags. This is just one of a number of features that contribute to helping customers when facing challenges with the product they purchased. 

### Increased focus on Social Responsibility
Many consumers are showing a greater affinity for businesses that are committed to creating a good impact on society. These include businesses that dedicate a portion of their profits to charity, those that use sustainably-sourced raw materials and production methods that are environment-friendly.

63% of customers want to buy from socially-responsible companies, while 54% want to buy from those with diverse and inclusive workforces. In the future, businesses will need to communicate and inform customers how they are involved in social good. This partly means remodeling the user experience to show:

·What charitable projects you’re involved in;

·Your carbon footprint and how much you’re reducing it by adopting cleaner methods;

·Certifications proving that your products don’t contain unhealthy/banned substances;

·A bit about your employees’ working conditions;

Keep in mind that it is not just about showing. There is a lot of green-washing going on and customers now have different sources of information to realize it. That’s why it will be important to involve customers in the whole process. Such efforts can take the simple form of soliciting suggestions on how to be cleaner, or they could extend to finding volunteers and partners from your customer base.

There are plenty of solid ideas and initiatives that some customers would love to be a part of but can’t pull them off on their own without institutional support in areas such as funding, compliance and more. From sign-up pop-ups to banners, stickers and points systems, there are numerous techniques you can use to harmonize your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts into the customer journey.

Always make sure that you cover these three areas:

·__Ideation__ (surveys, polls, and other information-gathering methods);

·__Awareness__ (links leading to pages detailing your CSR programs, the research and motivation behind them, targets, and how people can participate);

·__Accountability__ (showing progress so far in form of statistics, photos, videos, and quotes from benefactors and beneficiaries too);

### Predictive analytics and other data-driven techniques
Data-driven decision-making isn’t really a new phenomenon, especially for online businesses. But in recent years, there’s been an influx in the number of data points that businesses need to pay attention to. More importantly, businesses need to be able to act on this data in a much shorter time.

In some cases, they have to act as they receive it (in real-time). Firstly, this creates new challenges on the customer-facing/external end. Leaders will have to be more abreast with in-depth statistics on the marketing and sales end such as:

·The variation in drop-offs for each demographic at different stages of the funnel (does every customer group behave the same way once they meet an obstacle?)

·Sales fluctuation relative to ongoing discounts and promotions by competitors (what percentage of your customers buy less or delay their subscriptions when the competitor has a better offer?)

·The actual correlation between our advertising intensity and our revenue

Subsequently, if you’re heading into the festive season or some other major holiday, you might have a multitude of data to keep tabs on. From the workload that your support staff has and the rate at which they are getting it done to the changes in supply chains and product availability, there’s a lot to compare.

What this means is you’re going to need tools that not only gather and process lots of data quickly but also integrate smoothly with other tools handling different data sets. You’ll need to be able to log into a single dashboard, and easily take a peek at what’s going on with inventory, social media, email newsletter subscriptions, customer complaints, and a lot more.

So in 2022, there will definitely be a higher demand for tools that blend well into a larger ecosystem and empower businesses to draw actionable insights from a mountain of data at breakneck speeds.

### Customer-oriented remote and hybrid work techniques
Since the start of the pandemic, remote work has been steadily gaining traction all over the world and has even undergone some modifications to produce hybrid work. And contrary to what you might think, remote and hybrid work aren’t just about the internal workforces serving customers.

Starting from 2022, this form of working is going to have far-reaching implications that concern customers too. For example, bank account opening will be easily done on the phone.

Additionally, both banks and fin-tech companies with card products will be emphasizing cashless and contactless payments and deliveries, and so will other ecommerce entities. Consequently, businesses have to remodel their infrastructure to accommodate further actions along the digital customer journey:

·For example, agents will need to access dashboards, phone lines and other support-related portals and touch-points from anywhere. This means that some solutions that were strictly on-premises may be rendered obsolete as mobile and cloud-based solutions take over.

·For many eCommerce marketplaces, physical signing when delivery agents drop off packages has been replaced by OTP codes. This means that businesses will need systems that enable support staff, logistics teams, inventory, and all other concerned parties to be notified once such codes are entered, or if the product has to be returned.

·Many businesses will also seek to enable support staff to perform certain tasks on behalf of customers remotely. These could include order placement, subscription renewals, form-filling for account changes, and a lot more.

So in a bid to make remote work a concept that isn’t just about convenience for workers, businesses will have to adopt technologies that make service smoother for customers, wherever they are. 

## __Conclusion__
All-in-all, customer excellence will no longer be just about assisting customers to find what they are looking for or offering a product manual equivalent. Businesses will have to consider how these technologies can be used to improve the customer experience and adopt the ones that can best fit the customer's needs.

Companies will have to make customers feel like the business not only serves them but continuously learns and responds to the changes in how the customer would like to be served. To learn more about how the right tool can help you achieve this goal, book a demo with [Layerise](https://www.layerise.com/) for more information on how their solution addresses 2022 customer excellence trends.


2022 Customer excellence trends 

The advent of digital instruction manuals is changing the rules of the manufacturing industry. 

As a customer, imagine a world where each product has its own online user manual with instructions and suggestions on how to use the product, ideas from other customers, images and video tutorial. Whenever you need help to use the prouct, you can just open the digital user manual and find all the information you need. You could stop looking for that paper manual that you had stored somewhere, you could stop searching for amatorial videos on youtube, you could stop wasting hours of your precious time. 

As a company, it is in your interest to offer your customers the best experience ever. This will increase your customer retention rate as customers will be more incentivated to repurchase form your company. But also your acquisition rate  will increase because when customers are happy about a product they are using, they will share their satisfaction with friends, collegues, family etc. 

I bet you are already thinking about how to introduce an online manual for your products. I am sure that in this article you will find answers to a lot of your questions. For example, can user manuals be published entirely online? Is there a legal backing for publishing entirely online, and does this apply to every product in the market today? 

This is not just a matter of customer convenience and efficiency – for some products it’s a legal requirement, too. What about product groups that fall under CE marking, like machines, medical devices, or toys? Unfortunately, the legislation is still incomplete. The possibilities for creating an online manual for any product depend on several factors.

To solve some of the question points about online manuals, this guide examines the legal basis that allows manufacturers to post instructions digitally.

### Legal Considerations for Creating Online Manuals

Let us give you a little background. The EU has several directives and regulations concerning the publication of technical requirements. While the directives and regulations may have different objectives, they all have one thing in common: they are concerned with the safe design and operation of machinery.

Since the legislation is still evolving, it is not easy to navigate. Here you can find some legal considerations for creating online manuals.

First, you need to take into account that __there are several pieces of legislation that regulate this issue__: The EU Electronic Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC (ECD), the EU E-Commerce Directive 2002/58/EC (ECD), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and national laws.

Second, you need to consider that __there are two different legal requirements regarding the medium of your manual__: the first requirement concerns the medium itself (paper or electronic) and the second one is related to the publication format (PDF, Word, etc.).

Third, keep in mind that __there are no specific requirements on how a manual should be published online__ when it comes to online manuals. The only requirement is that it must be accessible in an accessible way for everyone, including those with disabilities. 

The EU has already taken a big step in digitalizing safety information. In 2016, the [New Legislative Framework](https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/goods/new-legislative-framework_en) was introduced, which simplified and modernized legislation. Before this, all EU countries had their own product safety laws, and now the New Legislative Framework combines into one law. As a result, only a few products still require a printed manual—the rest can be provided digitally.

The EU member states use the [Blue Guide](https://ec.europa.eu/growth/news/your-input-wanted-update-blue-guide-eu-product-rules-2019-11-28_en) to interpret and implement the requirements of the New Legislative Framework. The Blue Guide states that instructions, unless specified otherwise, may also be delivered in a different format with the product rather than in print. However, printed safety information must still be provided along with the product.

The European Commission’s draft of the eCommerce Directive’s revision aims to harmonize and standardize the laws across Europe. It addresses the EU’s circular economy objectives, clarifies some legal implications of Brexit, acknowledges the regulatory responsibilities for “end users,” and enunciates which safety information must be provided with a product.

To figure out what you can do legally, you need to map out all the legal requirements for each product. For starters, make sure that your products are compliant with all applicable international and national laws and regulations. This will inform your decision on what should go into the printed documentation.

### What are the advantages of an online manual?

Manufacturers know that the end-user needs information in a convenient manner. When customers face a problem a, they typically don’t think about channels or journeys. They simply want to find the information they need as fast as possible. An online manual makes for the perfect resource because it can be accessed from anywhere and at any time.

For companies, an obvious benefit of an online manual is that it doesn’t come with the same logistical challenges as a printed version, so many manufacturers are moving their manuals online. In addition to that, by introducting an online user manual, your company can also reduce the environmental impact and enhance cost efficiency thanks to a decrease in paper and ink consumption. 

But, when considering how to provide your end-users with access to the information they want and need, you’ll need to consider all potential benefits and drawbacks before deciding.

![In text image - The Death of Print](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/1YUHx1PG13seG8wUZnzlXQ/86f98e5067cbaabad9741f80f7f3116c/in-article.jpg)

__Other benefits of digital manuals include:__

#### The online manual can be easily accessed.

First, the online manual can be read from any device with an Internet connection. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a cell phone or a tablet, or even a desktop computer at home or work—the online manual is easy to find.

#### The online user manual has the advantage of being updated in real-time.

The second advantage of online user manuals is that they can be updated in real-time. When a company has an update to the instructions, they can change the web-based document immediately. This helps ensure that all users have access to the most up-to-date information. 

It’s also easy for multiple authors in different places worldwide to collaborate on updating the manual at once. They do not have to gather together in one place or take turns making edits and uploading them. Anyone who has access can make updates anytime from anywhere with internet access, which makes things much simpler for teams that are not located together physically but are working together on a project digitally.

#### A user manual that lives on the web will probably have images.

Digital user manuals are full of multimedia accompanying the writtent text, from diagrams, to screenshots, images, videos, etc. That’s why a web-based user manual can be so much better than an offline version. 

Multimedia content can be used in different ways:
- Video, audio, and interactive components can be used to engage users more than traditional print-based guides do.
- Images and screenshots show how your product works, making it easy for people to understand how to use it effectively.
- Interactive images that allow users to click around make the user experience even more fun and interactive!

#### Web-based user manuals are often more complete than their print counterparts.

In addition to all the above benefits, a web page is not constrained by the amount of information that can be printed on a single sheet of paper. As a result, many online manuals include audio or video clips in addition to text and images. Animations can be used to demonstrate how to carry out certain steps of an instructional process. It is easier for new customers to understand it better and use it to its full extent when the manual contains all the relevant information and demonstrative multimedia contents.

#### Digital manuals are environmentally friendly.

When using printed user manuals, companies consume a lot of paper, which translates to more felling of trees, increased carbon dioxide production, and global warming. Digital manuals can be a step towards ecological conservation thanks to reduced paper and ink consumption.

#### An online manual requires less effort to read and navigate.

This is a huge plus for customers who need to quickly get up to speed on using a product or service. Online manuals are easily navigable with quick links and shortcuts. In addition, online manuals can sometimes contain content you won’t find in printed versions, such as links to other resources that expand on some of the topics mentioned within the manual.

### Conclusion

Online solutions are the future of user manuals. Next generations might not even be aware that printed manuals existed.

Introducing online user manuals can be extremely beneficial for companies offering phisical products. Also, you should consider that as you implement and keep improving your online manual, customers' satisfaction will increase together with the benefits you will experience as a company. 

Now that you have learnt that online user manuals are the right choice for your products, keep in mind that there are some regulations to check to make sure that you can implement your digital manuals without incurring in legal sanctions. Ultimately, instruction manuals are meant for information that relates to safe usage of the product, and any misrepresentation can lead to bitter consumer experiences, accidents, and lawsuits. 

If have already started thinking about how your digital user manual will look like, Layerise solution could be a good idea for you!

Layerise is a virtual product assistant that helps to solve the conundrum between going digital or using paper manuals for a product or not. By using our platform, companies can enhance their post-sales experience and provide relevant information about product usage, warranty, and maintenance conveniently. We would be happy to help you improve your post-sales experience. If you are interested to learn more, [contact us today](https://www.layerise.com/)!


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