How to Build Your Customer Education Strategy

The importance of customer education for a business cannot be overstated. As products and services become more complex, customers need support and guidance to explore their full capabilities and maximize their benefits. A well-structured customer education strategy not only empowers customers but also fosters business growth, customer loyalty, and brand reputation.

In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of customer training, strategies for rolling out successful customer education initiatives, and the best tools for the job!

The Importance & Benefits of Customer Education

Customer education is pivotal in bridging the gap between a product’s potential and its actual use. It involves creating resources and programs that help customers understand and use products effectively.

An effective customer education program boosts customer success by reducing the learning curve and ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes.

Companies that prioritize their customers’ success see improved customer retention, increased satisfaction, and a stronger market position. This is all the more true in the SaaS industry where products are more complex and require a level of tech-savviness.

Skip to your 8-step guide for a successful customer education strategy, or keep reading to explore the advantages of customer education:

Shorter Time to Value

Customer onboarding is quintessential for a smooth user experience from the get go of the customer journey.

The onboarding process refers to the early stage of a training program that focuses on offering educational resources and personalized support to help the customer set up a product and become familiar with key functions.

Enhanced Customer Retention

Customer education can also reduce customer churn, since educated customers who can fully utilize the product’s features and benefits and have a positive customer experience, are more likely to remain loyal.

Higher Customer Satisfaction

Your customers choose your product for a reason, be it to overcome a challenge or make a daily routine somehow more efficient. Helping them reach their goals with your product will make them feel confident they made their right choice and drive customer satisfaction higher.

Reduced Support Costs

Offering self-service resources, like a knowledge base with support articles, FAQs, and tutorials, lowers the volume of support tickets while enabling your team to serve clients who come to them with more intricate issues better.

Improved Customer Engagement

Engaging educational content fosters a sense of community and connection with your brand, encouraging ongoing interaction and loyalty.

Customers learn about new features and updates before they’re released, they engage through customer communities, and interact with you during live product events.

Higher Customer Lifetime Value

Customer education is a great way to not only expand the customer lifecycle and therefore secure repeat sales and renewals but also to drive upsells and cross sells.

Stronger Brand Reputation

Companies known for their customer education efforts gain a reputation for caring about their customers’ success, which enhances overall brand perception outside the limits of your exciting customer base.

Shorter Sales Cycle

Positive word-of-mouth, reviews and testimonials, and the mere existence of a customer training program are great benefits to showcase potential customers. This makes it easier for your salespeople to close sales deals.

Your 8-Step Guide to Building a Customer Education Program

Creating a successful customer education program requires careful planning and execution. Make sure your customer education team follows these steps to build an effective strategy:

Step 1 – Identify Customer Needs

Start by understanding your customers’ specific needs and pain points. Conduct surveys, interviews, and feedback sessions to gather insights into the challenges they face and the information they seek.

Customer feedback forms, product analytics tools, and support tickets can help pinpoint common issues and knowledge gaps.

Step 2 – Define Clear Objectives

Set clear learning objectives for your education program tied to your business goals. Determine what you want to achieve, such as reducing support costs, increasing customer retention, or accelerating product adoption.

Having defined goals will guide the development and implementation of your strategy. Use the SMART methodology to set specific and measurable goals.

Step 3 – Develop Educational Content

Create a variety of educational content and content formats to address different learning styles and preferences. This can include tutorials, guides, videos, webinars, quizzes, case studies, and interactive courses.

Create microlearning modules and use game mechanics and community for enhanced engagement in online learning.

Ensure the content is relevant, engaging, and easy to understand. Consider creating customer education programs tailored to different user levels, use cases, job roles, or even locations. Offer a certification to add more value for your learners.

Step 4 – Choose the Right Delivery Channels

Select the appropriate channels to deliver your educational content. Consider using a mix of platforms, such as a Learning Management System (LMS), customer portals, and social media, to reach a wider audience. Webinars can serve as a dynamic way to engage with customers and provide real-time learning opportunities.

Step 5 – Implement Technology Solutions

Leverage technology to enhance your customer enablement efforts. Use tools like customer education platforms to deliver content, track progress, and assess the effectiveness of your program.

Consider using analytics to gain insights into customer engagement and learning outcomes after the deployment of your program.

Step 6 – Promote the Program

Both existing and new customers should know about the available resources for them. This can be achieved through in-product notifications and pointers, on your website and social media, and communicated by all your customer facing employees from sales to customer success and support.

Step 7 – Provide Continuous Support

Offer ongoing support to your customers as they engage with your educational content. This can include live webinars, Q&A sessions, and community forums where customers can ask questions and share experiences.

Building a community around your product encourages interaction and learning.

Step 8 – Measure and Optimize

Regularly evaluate the success of your education program by tracking key metrics such as course completion rates, customer feedback, and changes in support requests.

Use this data to refine your content and improve the program’s effectiveness continuously. Adjust your strategy based on feedback to ensure it remains relevant and valuable.

Best Tools for a Successful Customer Education Academy

Building a robust customer education program requires leveraging the right tools to create, deliver, and manage content effectively.

Here are some popular types of tools that can help you develop and enhance your customer education strategy:

1. Online Course Platform

Customer education platforms, which are designed specifically for customer training or Learning Management Systems (LMS) that serve multiple educational purposes, are excellent solutions to deliver, track, and manage educational courses and training programs.

They provide tools for creating content, managing student progress, and generating reports to enhance the learning experience.

LearnWorlds stands out as a top solution for customer education. It serves diverse use cases and is consistently ranked high by users due to its ease of use, wealth of features, and advanced customization and scalability – all this at a fair price that is not restrictive to SMBs!

2. Content Creation Tools

Content creation tools are software applications used to develop multimedia learning materials, such as videos, tutorials, presentations, and interactive courses. They enable educators and trainers to design engaging and professional-quality content for various learning purposes.

Again, this is why going with an all-in-one online course platform like LearnWorlds is the most stress-free option that saves you from the trouble of juggling between tools. See on action how LearnWorlds works:

3. Webinar and Live Training Platforms

Webinar and live training platforms are online services that facilitate real-time virtual training sessions, workshops, and presentations. They offer features like screen sharing, audience interaction, and session recording to enhance live learning experiences.

4. Community and Collaboration Platforms

Community and collaboration platforms are digital spaces that allow users to engage in discussions, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects. They foster interaction among users, enhancing learning through peer-to-peer support and knowledge sharing.

5. Course Marketplace Platforms

Course marketplace platforms, like LinkedIn Learning, are online platforms that offer a wide range of courses from various providers. They provide learners with access to diverse educational content, allowing for personal and professional development across multiple subjects.

Ready to Build a Winning Customer Education Strategy?

An effective customer education strategy is a powerful tool for driving customer success, enhancing satisfaction, and reducing churn.

By understanding your customers’ needs and delivering targeted educational content, you enable them to achieve their goals and build lasting relationships with your brand.

As customer expectations evolve, continue to innovate and improve your education efforts to ensure your customers derive maximum value from your products and services.

And if you’re looking for the best tool for the job, look no further than LearnWorlds. Our platform is equipped with all the features you need for a scalable and engaging customer education academy.

With intuitive content authoring and website builder, multiple schools and custom branding, mobile app and AI tools, there’s so much you can accomplish we can’t even begin to describe it!

Discover LearnWorlds with a 30-day free trial today!

Further reading you might find interesting:

• Top 12 Customer Training Software
• Customer Onboarding Strategies: Why Tech-Touch is the Best Option
• How Can You Improve Customer Education? 5 Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
• Customer Enablement: Why It Matters & Best Practices for Successful Implementation
• 7 Customer Onboarding Challenges and How an LMS Can Beat Them
• 11 Benefits of Customer Training That Drive Business Growth

Androniki Koumadoraki

Androniki is a Content Writer at LearnWorlds sharing Instructional Design and marketing tips. With solid experience in B2B writing and technical translation, she is passionate about learning and spreading knowledge. She is also an aspiring yogi, a book nerd, and a talented transponster.