Organizations have been educating customers on products to increase the value they derive from them for years. However, many organizations have not fully realized the value of creating a customer education program. In this guide, we will delve into the concept of customer education and its benefits for companies.

Customer education programs are carefully designed programs that provide customers with quality educational content to increase loyalty and retention. Consequently, raising revenue. A study by Forrester Research Incorporation found that 90% of companies using a customer education program report a positive return on investment.  

The importance of such programs is not only to get a competitive advantage over your market competitors. Rather, it is more about building a trusting and lasting relationship with your customers. It wins over prospective customers by enriching them regarding your product details and addressing its use. As a result, they can make better assessments of the product and use it optimally.

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What is Customer Training?

Formal instructional programs, created by businesses, meant to educate customers on how to best utilize a company's products and services, both pre- and post-purchase, in order to promote greater customer success and satisfaction with their purchase

Forrester Inc.

Customer training is the idea of educating customers by providing them value. The primary goal is to positively impact measurable business metrics such as product adoption, revenue, and customer retention.

With customer expectations increasing, it has become more challenging than ever to satisfy them and manage the competition. By onboarding customers onto these informative online programs, companies hope to show them the product's value in a short time for the long term. Moreover, a customer education program also helps to reduce support tickets, saves time, and reduces overall costs as compared to conventional marketing techniques.

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Benefits of a Customer Education Program

Customer education is known to help with building brand perception and projection. It is especially helpful for companies with complex products as they can break down the product details carefully for their target customers. Furthermore, customer training also serves marketing purposes by collecting leads, upselling customers with paid courses, and eventually converting the leads.

1. Improves customer satisfaction

The program provides a proper overview of the product's utility and in turn, addresses any queries that users may have. Consequently, resolving complaints and raising customer satisfaction.

2. Earns customer loyalty

The primary mechanism of these programs is building customer relations. By providing them support, customers feel that the company has their back and tend to trust more with the product more. The feeling goes a long way and can contribute to spreading positive word-of-mouth for your brand.

3. Results in higher revenue

Customer training programs can improve company revenues via improved employee retention and by lowering support costs. Studies have shown that with a customer education program, bottom-line revenue increased by 6.2 percent, customer retention at 7.4, and support costs decreased by 6.1 percent.

4. Converts leads into customers

With an effective customer training program, companies can convert prospects into customers at a faster rate. Since they have all the relevant information about the product at their disposal, they can make quick decisions about their purchase. Moreover, they also tend to spend more than the uninformed customers - increasing revenue and lifetime value.

5. Helps with product enhancement

By building a trusting relationship with your customers, you also open a channel of discussion with them. With it, you can learn more about their grievances and problems. With active outreach, you can resolve those problems and improve the overall product promptly.

How to Create a Customer Education Program?

Let's proceed to the essentials of a customer education program. What strategies to implement? Who to include in the team? How to manage resources? Etc.

1. Customer education team

Running a customer training program is not a one-man show. It requires collective effort and a robust team. The following are the primary members required to pull off a successful program:

• Customer education lead: Responsible for the program and leading it
• Executive sponsor: Responsible for ensuring the program aligns with the business's strategic priorities.
• Subject Matter Experts: Produce the content
• Instructional designers:  Work in collaboration with the SMEs to materialize the content
• Technical lead: To help oversee and resolve technical difficulties.

2. Customer education strategy

There is no hard and fast rule as to which strategy is the most effective one. The success and compatibility of a strategy depend on how well it suits the goals of the program and the business. However, here is one that could help you out - a little blueprint for you to work with.

1. Set goals: Communicate with the stakeholders to decide the outcomes of the program to help accurately gauge its impact.
2. Allocate resources: Set priorities and distribute accordingly.
3. Create and deliver: Decide on the content and the deliverance method (content length, language, methods, etc).
4. Ensure content accessibility: Make sure users can access it on their phones.
5. Measure: Throughout the process, carefully monitor different variables to measure the success of the program. For example, you can use learner proficiency and customer feedback to measure performance. Other variables can be revenue increase, talent attraction, and a decrease in support costs.

LMS for Customer Education Program

No train can move without tracks. Similarly, no customer education program can set off without a hosting platform - an LMS. When looking for a compatible platform, here are a few things to look out for:

• Scalability - how flexible and reliable the LMS is (ease of adding new courses and onboarding new people).
• Usability - Is the UI customer friendly and supports the addition of further integrations.
• Analytics - does it come with an in-built analytics tracking feature for assessing progress.
• Customizable design - can you make personalized changes to the program to represent your brand.
• Mobile app - is it accessible for users from anywhere and everywhere.
• Certifications - does it offer certificates of completion to users for authentication of the program.
• APIs and integrations - Can you easily integrate the platform with other apps.

Host your customer education program with Teachfloor

Teachfloor is trusted by over 300+ learning organizations for its ability to deliver upon their goals. It provides its users with complete freedom to design and customize their programs as per their requirements. Hence, making it a flexible and adjustable platform to fulfill your needs.

Teachfloor is a powerful platform that enables businesses to create and deliver effective customer education programs. Here's how you can use Teachfloor for customer education:

Content Creation: With Teachfloor, you can easily create engaging and interactive courses using a variety of content formats such as videos, presentations, documents, quizzes, and more. Customize your courses to match your branding and tailor them to meet the specific learning needs of your customers.

Learning Management: Teachfloor provides robust learning management features to organize and deliver your customer education programs. You can structure your courses into modules and lessons, track progress, and manage user enrollments. Learners can access the courses at their own pace and convenience.

Collaboration and Engagement: Foster collaboration and engagement among your customers using Teachfloor's community features. Create discussion forums, chat rooms, and social spaces where customers can interact, share insights, and learn from each other. This builds a sense of community and enhances the learning experience.

Assessment and Progress Tracking: Assess the knowledge and progress of your customers through quizzes, assessments, and assignments. Track their performance and provide personalized feedback to help them achieve their learning objectives. This allows you to identify areas for improvement and tailor future content to address specific needs.

Analytics and Insights: Leverage Teachfloor's analytics and reporting capabilities to gain valuable insights into customer engagement, course completion rates, and learning outcomes. Use this data to refine your customer education strategy, optimize content, and improve overall program effectiveness.

Here's a great resource by Teachfloor on how to curate an online program that is sure to inform you on how to structure your customer training program.

Conclusion

Customer education is a rapidly growing field. In the past two years, organizations deploying customer education programs have increased their spending on these programs by over 80%, and they plan to more than double spending in the next two years. Shopify is one such success story that was able to report an increase in its usage by 491%.

To sum up this article, here are a few key takeaways. To ensure the success of a customer education program, be mindful of these best practices: make sure to use visuals for learner engagement, personalize the contents to suit your goals better, and apply microlearning for effective training.

Moreover, connect with the learners - the customers - to respond to what they require and put them first. By being mindful of these points, you are better placed to conduct effective training.

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