How Yell Achieved a 60% Customer Reply Rate with CrankWheel Personalized Sales Videos

Yell, one of the UK’s leading providers of digital marketing services for local businesses, needed a better way to engage busy customers who were difficult to reach by phone or email.

By using CrankWheel’s asynchronous video recording and sharing capabilities, Yell’s sales and onboarding teams could deliver personalized website walkthroughs, campaign reviews, and sales presentations that customers could watch on their own schedules.

In a pilot involving 50 hard-to-contact customers, 60% responded after receiving a video review and 50% approved their projects to go live within days. The fastest recorded turnaround from sending a video review to receiving full customer approval was just seven minutes.

The results demonstrate how personalized video communication can help sales and customer success teams reconnect with unresponsive customers, reduce scheduling friction, and accelerate customer onboarding.

Yell’s onboarding team needed to guide customers through their new websites, ads, and online solutions, but their core audience (roofers, electricians, solicitors, specialists) are hard to pin down by phone.

Yell supports a remarkably diverse customer base—everyone from independent tradespeople to established law firms to care home entertainers. Often, customers feel overwhelmed or simply lack the bandwidth to deal with digital marketing setup and campaign decisions, which are Yell’s forte. The onboarding and field sales teams face a dual challenge: connecting with clients who are difficult to reach and helping them make important, sometimes time-sensitive decisions around their digital marketing investments.

Instead of chasing live appointments, Yell onboarding agents now record CrankWheel video walkthroughs of completed websites and campaigns, then send a personalised link via email, WhatsApp, or Messenger. Customers open videos at their convenience—often on their phones in between jobs or after hours. On the sales side, account managers use CrankWheel prospecting videos to ‘wake up’ leads that have gone cold, or to initially pique their interest. These videos quickly demonstrate value and encourage prospects to respond, even after weeks of going silent. Playback notifications and engagement metrics allow sales agents to see which prospects are interested, and follow up with them at the most appropriate times. Recording a video in CrankWheel is as simple as starting a live screen share, which Yell teams had already mastered. With just one extra click, an agent can turn any walkthrough into a recording, tailor the messaging for a particular customer or prospect, and share it via their preferred communication channel, with an animated preview included when shared in supported mediums like email. The entire workflow mimics what agents already do, only now it’s asynchronous and massively scalable. Steph James recalls one early breakthrough:

• ⊳ Pilot with hard-to-contact customers: 50 customers, 60% replied after video review, 50% approved "go live" within days

• ⊳ Day-to-day: Now that video sharing has been deployed to the entire team, agents aim to send 2–3 video reviews daily; most receive replies in under 24 hours

• ⊳ Sales prospecting videos: Field reps routinely send personalised videos to new or dormant leads and see increased engagement and higher response rates

• ⊳ Engagement insight: Agents are notified when customers view the video, indicating a prime time to follow up

• ⊳ Efficiency: Operational wastage dramatically reduced compared to repeated calls/emails to book another live appointment

• ⊳ Many customer replies, like “Brilliant. Please go live!” and “Looks good, please proceed,” highlight both the speed and clarity of the video review workflow.

Beyond the hard numbers, Yell teams say the new workflow feels less pressured, more satisfying, and leads to better quality conversations. Prospects and customers appreciate seeing their properties “in action” and often respond positively even when they don’t buy—saving everyone time and leaving a better impression. As agents see instant playback notifications, they know exactly when to follow up, making it easier to prioritise hot leads first.

• ⊳ Agents keep video reviews to ~3–5 minutes, focusing on headline benefits rather than technical details, and positioning Yell as the client’s trusted marketing partner

• ⊳ Starting each recording with the client’s actual website visually boosts intrigue and playback rates

• ⊳ If an account manager sees multiple playbacks of their prospecting video in minutes, it signals strong engagement and a prime time to place a call

• ⊳ For groups of decision-makers, one video can circulate among a teamand avoid calendar headaches. When the video recording process was first rolled out at Yell, agents followed a script and checklist to ensure all features and benefits were demonstrated. Over time, the team quickly learned to adapt the format and delivery to their own styles. This not only made the videos more authentic and engaging, but let agents respond more naturally to each customer’s personality and preferences, further increasing engagement, playbacks, and replies.

The shift to video-based engagement has fundamentally improved the Yell team’s experience. Instead of repeated, sometimes frustrating call attempts or rebookings, agents feel more empowered, less stressed, and more productive. They report higher morale knowing their efforts reach real people with real impact—and that those people are more likely to reply, even just to say thank you. Sharing wins, like lightning-fast approvals or success in hard-to-reach niches, has become a new norm across teams.

• ⊳ Bring video reviews into your workflow for any client that’s hard to schedule live

• ⊳ Use the engagement notifications and analytics so you know exactly when to follow up

• ⊳ Share videos on multiple channels, especially for sales: Email, WhatsApp, Messenger, to get seen fast

• ⊳ Keep videos efficient, friendly, and focused on your customer’s “thumbs-up” decision

While CrankWheel’s live screen sharing is still at the core of Yell’s workflow for onboarding and fulfillment, video recording and sharing have unlocked a whole new layer of flexibility. These features complement the real-time experience, allowing teams to reach customers and prospects on their own schedules and making client engagement a repeatable, scalable process. Whether you’re in sales or customer success, asynchronous video opens up wider and less stressful ways to win deals and delight clients. Ready to experience CrankWheel’s no-install Video Sales Platform?