Why Customer Training is Key to Successful Customer Enablement?

Before going deep into this blog "Why Customer Training is Key to Successful Customer Enablement?", let's have a brief knowledge about Customer Training.

If your organization is a fast-growing SaaS, PaaS, or ISV product company or an established global enterprise and planning to achieve more than 2X growth in coming years, then understanding the essentials of customer training is one of the key considerations for you. If you’re in charge of customer training, customer success, or customer enablement training within your organization you’ve come to the right place.

We have summed up the key essentials for you which you should consider before you begin to strategize your Customer Training program.

What is Customer Training?

Customer Training, also known as Customer Education, is a carefully organized training program tailored for both new and existing customers. An effective customer training program combines different types of content (such as videos, eLearning, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, HTML, and webinars) and delivers them in a practical manner, either through self-paced learning, in-person sessions, or virtual formats. For many forward-thinking companies, this is a crucial step in elevating their status from customer satisfaction to customer delight.

Who Must Think of Customer Training as a Priority?

Any company which is customer-focused and believes in the “Customer Delight” philosophy must think of customer training as one of their key arsenals to be top in the lot. It is a well-rooted myth amongst the young start-ups’ or even with some of the established enterprises that customer training can be thought only once a specific growth is achieved.

Contrary to that if you pick up any good start-up which has grown exponentially, you will find “Customer Education” was one of the key differentiators for them distinguishing them from the competition.

So, if you are a fast-growing SaaS, PaaS, ISV product company, or an established enterprise you must be considering customer training as the essential enabler to increase your product adoption and increase customer retention.

Some of the regular use cases which should act as a trigger for you to think of investing in customer education are:

• SaaS companies with complex modules or features.

• PaaS companies with multiple workflows.

• Products with complex workflows and customized processes.

• Complex value SaaS companies.

• High value or costly products where the user needs to train before start using the product.

• Products that are highly agile and frequently release new features.

• Companies focused on customer centricity and want to reduce support ticket volume.

  
  

Why Customer Training?

Trained customers are more likely to become advocates for your product compared to those who are not trained. Therefore, implementing an effective customer training process is crucial. Proper customer training enhances customer retention, resulting in favorable business outcomes.

Given a diverse user base for your product, it is essential to swiftly and efficiently address any customer issues related to product usage. A well-defined customer education strategy is vital for success and for reinforcing brand loyalty.

Key Benefits of Customer Training

Customer Training if done correctly and with the right approach can do wonders for your company.

Benefits of Customer Enablement Training

Key benefits of customer training are:

1. Onboard Customer with Excitement.

Effective initial customer onboarding paves the way for future customer success. Eliminate obstacles from the customer journey right from the start.

2. Enhance Product Adoption.

Creating a tailored training program that meets your customer's specific needs minimizes initial challenges in understanding your product and enhances user confidence, resulting in improved adoption.

3. Increase Revenue & Reduce Customer Success Cost.

When customer training is executed effectively, it can reduce overall training costs by nearly 80% and significantly boost customer retention rates.

4. Gain Business Insights with Specific Analytics & Data.

Customer training offers valuable business analytics that help identify which features your customers appreciate and which ones they find challenging to understand. This data can then be utilized by the product team, customer success team, and support team for further action.

5. Reduce Dependency on Your Support Team Or Customer Success Team.

With access to training at any time, customers can repeatedly review each section, decreasing their reliance on your team.

6. Reduction in Customer Support Queries.

Statistics show that an effectively implemented customer education program can decrease customer support queries by over 35%, enabling you to assist more customers with the same resources.

Customer Training Best Practices

By now you must have understood the how and why of the customer training program. Here are some best practices you can consider while implementing your customer training program:

1. Find Your “Why”?

Try to answer your “Why”. Why do you need to do customer training? The best way to initiate this process is to speak cross-department, try and understand what challenges your customer is sharing with your CS team, sales team, support team. What can make your customer's life easy?

2. Set Smart Goals.

After establishing your Why, aim to create SMART goals. This approach will help set the correct expectations with all stakeholders and keep your training program consistently on track.

3. Define Your Content Strategy.

To ensure the success of any program, it is crucial to have an effective content strategy. Determine the type of content your customer needs. Once identified, decide on the formats in which this content should be delivered.

Common formats include videos, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, HTML, SCORM, recorded webinars, and more. You can also consider a virtual training strategy using VILT methods.

4. Choose the Right Technology.

Select the appropriate technology to collaborate with in delivering these training programs. Developing SaaS-based customer training software serves many purposes and can help you maintain low costs during the initial phase.

5. Run A Pilot (MVP).

After everything is prepared, conduct a small pilot with selected customers, gather feedback from key stakeholders, and make any necessary adjustments if needed. Plan a large-scale rollout. Collaborate with your marketing team to develop an effective communication plan to announce this to your customers. Delight your customers with an outstanding training program.

6. Track & Measure the Effectiveness.

After implementation, customer education should be an ongoing process. Continuously monitor and assess the effectiveness of each program for every customer, making daily improvements. An agile approach will lead to exceptional customer satisfaction over time.

Examples of Customer Training

Some of the great examples of customer training are

• Salesforce Academy.

• Pega.

• HubSpot.

• UI Path.

• ServiceNow.

• Automation Anywhere.

• Blue prism.

• Freshdesk.

• Antworks.

• Zoho.

  
  

Conclusion:

Creating an enjoyable customer training experience is crucial for delivering an exceptional customer experience. This straightforward yet impactful effort can greatly benefit your customers and help you cultivate lifelong advocates for your product.

A satisfied customer can generate ten new leads, paving the way for upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Your commitment to customer-centricity will be appreciated, and customers will enjoy the journey with you.

At CXchery, we live and breathe this philosophy daily with our numerous customers, and we are eager to assist aspiring organizations in establishing this initiative collaboratively. Feel free to reach out if you need additional information or template guides to set up this initiative. Happy Customer Training!