• by Aaron Baar , January 21, 2010

Samsung is taking its customer service practice interactive with a new Internet program, Samsung Product Support TV. The live-streaming "channel" will be hosted and produced by the consumer electronics company to help people better understand and get more out of its products.

"It's an extension of our contract center to support our customers," Solomon Son, manager of service market intelligence for Samsung, tells Marketing Daily. "We wanted to provide a better way for them to better understand and troubleshoot their products better."

The core of the programming will be a live, streamed video program entitled "Keep It Simple." Initial episodes, which can be found on http://www.samsung.com/spstv, have covered topics such as Samsung's digital televisions and mobile phones, as well as their booth at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show.

The program will also allow viewers to ask questions about the products through real-time chat, with the hosts taking time each week to address the viewer concerns. "The ones that don't get answered during the show will be answered via e-mail within 48 hours," Son says.

The company will determine subjects for the weekly program based, in part, on calls coming into its customer support center, Son says. Other content on the site will include how-to videos for set-up and use of Samsung products. SPSTV is currently only available online, but Samsung is looking to include widgets for connectability for its Internet-enabled products in the future. The company is in talks with retailers to carry the programming in-stores, as well.

While SPSTV is intended primarily as a customer-service and product support tool, Son acknowledges there's a subtle marketing aspect as well. "It's indirectly a marketing tool by showcasing our product and their features, but it's really about the product support," Son says.