Great companies invest time and energy into creating outstanding products that meet the needs of their customers. But are those customers always getting the full benefits of your efforts? Without an effective customer education program, the answer might be no.
Building a high-impact customer education program lets your customers make the most of your products, reducing churn and building lasting, profitable relationships. Let’s look at the best ways to get started.
What is customer training, and why is it important?
You can think of customer training as another service you provide that benefits both you and your customers. In your customer training program, you’ll teach customers the best way to use your product and how to make the most out of the features you offer.
Customer training benefits your customers by reducing pain points, streamlining processes, and highlighting features they may have missed. It also helps them onboard new staff and keep their teams updated on your product.
The benefits to your company are even more impressive. Educated customers make fewer support requests, have fewer complaints, and have higher satisfaction levels. Most importantly, customers who feel confident using your product are less likely to look elsewhere.
Customer education is essential for providing a great customer experience, improving your customer experience increases adoption and customer retention.
6 steps to create an effective customer education program
A great customer education program brings many benefits, but it’s essential to get it right. With your training, you’re asking customers to devote time and attention to learning about your product. You need to respect the investment they’re making.
Here are some key steps to creating high-impact customer training programs.
1. Set goals
Your first step should be clarifying what you want your training to achieve. This ensures that your training materials are tightly focused and feel relevant to your customers.
You’ll likely have several goals you’d like to achieve through your customer education program and might find that each of these goals requires separate training materials.
For example, you might have several training modules aimed at getting users to try new features. These could be separate from an onboarding course that helps your customers get started with your product.
Be open with your customers about the goals of your training materials to help keep them motivated.
2. Get to know your customers
All companies need to understand their customers. Use what you know to guide the development of your customer education program — and do research to fill in any gaps.
One of the most important areas to research is how your customers use your products and where their pain points and frustrations are. You might find that your customers use your products in ways that you didn’t anticipate. These discoveries need to be incorporated into your training.
Spend some time thinking about who your users are and what constraints they may have on their learning opportunities. If your product is designed for use on the go, users might not have time to watch long videos or read big blocks of text.
Communication is key here and your customers are essential allies. Everyone benefits from a great customer training program so don’t be shy about asking for suggestions and feedback.
Showing customers your efforts to address their struggles offers another boost to loyalty. Thank them for their feedback, and highlight any content you’ve added based off of their comments.
3. Identify any gaps in existing customer training materials
Usually, you’re not starting your customer education program from scratch. You might have some materials already prepared or an existing customer training program you want to build on. Compare what you have available for the pain points you’ve identified.
Even if you don’t have designated training materials, you might still have resources that can form the foundation of your customer training program. If you offer a helpline or customer support services, their materials will include solutions to common problems.
You can also adapt design and development documents to showcase how different parts of your product are intended to work together. Be sure to compare these with how your customers use your products to keep your training realistic and relevant.
4. Design your customer training materials
The best customer education programs don’t just include great content — they consider how your users want to learn and keep information accessible and easy to digest. Consider your goals for each training resource and decide which strategy will best deliver those results.
Time is an important resource for your customers and users, and setting aside large blocks of time for training is often a luxury. Microlearning uses ultra-short videos or learning segments, allowing users to learn useful skills in blocks of five minutes or less.
Mobile learning can also be useful for time-strapped users or those who work in the field. Learning can be delivered on- or offline through smartphones and tablets. This is especially important if your product is also designed for mobile devices.
And don’t forget to look for ways to make learning fun! Gamification uses aspects of game design to increase engagement with learning through assigning points, league tables, and more.
Some products can also benefit from scenario-based learning, where learners are guided through real-world examples of how they can use your product and the obstacles it helps them overcome.
5. Launch your customer education program
Once you’ve created your customer education program, it’s time to make it available to your customers. It can be helpful to roll it out to selected customers first to solicit feedback. Be sure to ask for impressions and suggestions and show appreciation for those who participate.
Where possible, monitor analytics for key metrics and generate statistics to demonstrate the improvements users can expect after completing training. You can use these to attract future customers and highlight the benefits of participating.
6. Keep content updated
Your customer education program isn’t a one-time project. Continue to respond to feedback and update your materials regularly. Schedule regular reviews and monitor analytics to highlight problem areas quickly.
Your customer education program is a key part of your product, so why not incorporate producing training materials into the development of new features? This helps streamline updates and integrates customer education into your wider offering.
Choose the right LMS to support your customer education goals
Creating a best-in-class customer training program has its share of challenges, but the right LMS can help you shoulder the burden. Now that you know what you want to achieve with your training, it’s easier to know what to look for in an LMS.
Moodle Workplace supports personalized learning paths, allowing you to customize the training you offer to different types of users. This allows you to provide more relevant training and improve customer satisfaction.
Moodle can also help you prioritize accessibility with our WCAG 2.1 Level AA accreditation. Plus, we organize annual third-party audits to guarantee great accessibility for all users.
