With the increasing number of apps used in a workplace setting, work effectiveness takes a hit. Here, Jerod Venema, CEO and co-founder, LiveSwitch, takes an example of Google and discusses why companies should consider using video collaboration in their SaaS products.
In an attention-starved world, focus is everything. Today’s businesses rely on an average of 88 apps to get work done, with tech companies deploying an average of 155. Every time your employees switch from one application to another, they pay a cognitive price that leads to depleted decision making, increased distraction, and greater fatigue. The more we can create a work experience that doesn’t require multiple software products, the more effective our workforce will be — a lesson Alphabet just put into practice in Google Workspace.
In April, Alphabet began rolling out built-in video meeting integration for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for some users. This new feature weaves Google Meet’s live video directly into the work app experience, so teammates no longer have to switch tabs or apps as they collaborate. I’m not saying Alphabet read my article arguing for weaving live video collaboration into SaaS solutions and immediately put it into practice, but I’m also not not saying that.Â
Jokes aside, this is one of the heavyweights of big tech using live video to empower better collaboration inside some of the most popular work apps in the world. If you’re still wondering whether it’s worth the effort to embed live video in your company’s applications, the answer just got more obvious.Â
With the surge of remote workers, email notifications whenever a document changes don’t cut it anymore — everyone adds a filter to their inbox and shoves that noise to an archive. It’s tempting to shrug off these concerns and leave real-time collaboration to your customers to figure out. This is the status quo. Shove the problem to the customer. If they have to break their train of thought, change workflows, open two other methods of communication (email a link around?) and enter yet another Zoom meeting, why do you care, as long as your product works?
You should care and, fortunately, it’s not as difficult as it seems. Let’s look at three common myths about integrating video chat into your SaaS product and debunk them.
Myth 1: Integrating video chat into a SaaS app is time-consuming and expensive
Software development is never a simple process. Given the amount of work and time it takes to build a great product, it’s understandable to hesitate about adding an entirely new feature to the code. Sure, Alphabet just added it to Google Workspace, but they have billions of dollars to fund new features. Is live video integration really affordable and feasible for smaller SaaS companies?
Thanks to WebRTC, the answer is “Yes.†Given its flexibility, WebRTC makes it easy to integrate real-time video communication into all kinds of software, browsers, and web applications. This means WebRTC offers a cost-effective and secure way to help remote users of your SaaS product collaborate without switching to a separate video chat app. That said, there is a learning curve with WebRTC, so it might be helpful to have someone on your development team with WebRTC experience.
See More: Video Calling Is Here to Stay But Needs a Tech Upgrade
Myth 2: Our customers are fine using third-party video conferencing apps
Today, you know your customers use your software while working from home. In a recent Citrix survey of global IT leaders, 100% said they were planning to adopt a hybrid working model for the foreseeable future. To have a distributed workforce today is to rely on subscriptions to video conferencing products like Zoom and MS Teams. The cost of these remote collaboration apps has become as normal an expense as paying your office’s electric bill. Your customers have gotten used to these 3rd-party applications, so why should you alter your SaaS product to disrupt their existing remote work experience?
Because while customers may accept the status quo of video conferencing, that doesn’t mean they’re happy with it. Forty-five percent of employees say context switching between apps makes them less productive. By weaving real-time video inside your SaaS app, you can both increase your customers’ focus during collaboration and allow them to do without the “essential†subscriptions to video meeting apps. After all, if fully-remote companies can make the office electric bill obsolete, why not do the same for Zoom?
Consider this example. I recently ran a whiteboard session with a dozen sales and marketing people. I needed to be able to draw pictures, add text and show slides while I handled their questions in real-time. To accomplish this, I had to frankenstein an experience together between a whiteboard app on my iPad (so I could use the Pen — very handy if you haven’t tried it), our company calendar system and a desktop conferencing application for screen sharing. The only way for this to work was to schedule with one app, screen share with the video call app, and draw with the whiteboard app. This “worked,†but the uneven experience required me to constantly shift context and ask that regular and cursed question: “Can you see my screen?â€
Myth 3: In-app video chat offers no real benefit. It’s purely a nice-to-have
If you’re building a SaaS app that you truly want to be the future of work, you have to think beyond simple utility and focus on an exceptional user experience. This means your customers aren’t simply using your app but are delighted and engaged while doing so. You want your users to feel like they’re doing their best work inside your platform — to the point that they’re disappointed when they switch to other products and the experience doesn’t measure up.
With this in mind, integrating live video collaboration inside your SaaS application increases the stickiness of the user experience and, with it, the strength of your brand. By keeping customers inside your product with video chat, you help them associate your app with great teamwork and shared focus. If you surrender this opportunity and force customers to rely on a 3rd-party video meeting app, you’re giving that app a free brand promotion every time your users collaborate.
The future of work is a distributed workforce. For your SaaS application to become instrumental in enabling a great work experience for remote teammates, take a note from Alphabet and weave live video collaboration into your platform. The result will be happier and more engaged customers who know you value their focus and understand how they work together.
Have you added video collaboration to your SaaS products? What benefits have you seen? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .