I wonder, over the years, how many times you’ve had supposedly defective products returned when really you knew that the problem was user error. Perhaps it was something that hadn’t been installed correctly, or the proper maintenance regime hadn’t been observed, or an essential recalibration hadn’t been performed. I’m sure it was all there in the product manual, but engineers are visual people. Showing them how to do something is likely to be far more effective.

Take a look at this short video produced by gas detection specialist Ion Science. All it’s looking at is replacing the filter on a detector, but even something as simple as that could compromise the product if not carried out properly.

This would have been a really easy video to make – simple to film and with a carefully scripted voiceover that’s probably come straight from the product operation manual. But it does the job brilliantly, and I’d wager I could film three of four of these in a single morning.

What could you do with these videos? Well, it goes without saying that it makes sense to add them to your YouTube channel. But they could also form a key part of the product support pages on your website. Also, on complex machinery as part of a maintenance or trouble-shooting aid, many HMIs can now store and play video sequences. The possibilities are endless.

So a little bit of time and effort invested in video today could be a real boon to your customers, as well as saving you a lot of time and effort defending your reputation as a result of a premature product failure tomorrow.