The success of a business isn’t solely dependent on seeing leads through the sales funnel. Good businesses recognize the value of what comes after. Developing an extensive customer education program shouldn’t be viewed as going the extra mile. Instead, it must be considered an essential part of your brand. 

Customer education can range from onboarding manuals to a comprehensive knowledge base or, if you’re being ambitious, even one-on-one training sessions with the team. The idea is to give customers a comprehensive understanding of how to maximize the use of your product or service.

Investing in customer training isn’t only for the benefit of the customers; businesses also have much to gain from it. In this article, we will touch on some of those reasons. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Customer Education: The Basics

Customer ed is all about letting clients know how to maximize their investment in the product or service they just purchased. It helps them see the value in your product, overcome any pain points, and get acquainted with all the features in the most efficient way possible.

Organizations typically leverage materials like how-to guides, including videos, audio, and animated graphics depicting the ideal use of the product. Some guides also anticipate any questions the clients may have and address them in an FAQ section. 

More extensive customer education programs may involve walking clients through a detailed onboarding plan, coupled with access to a Learning Management System, filled with useful resources that they can peruse at their own convenience. 

Advantages of Customer Education

1. Boost Revenue and Lower Costs

The more you invest in training and educating your customers, the lower the support costs and the higher the revenue. According to a study by Forrester Consulting, a formalized customer education program leads to a 6.2% increase in revenue and a 6.1% decrease in support costs.

This can be explained by the simple fact that if clients know how to use a product properly, there is a greater rate of product adoption. At the same time, knowing the ins and outs of the product reduces the need for customer support, thereby lowering costs associated with generating and resolving tickets.

2. Increase Customer Satisfaction

A good onboarding experience goes a long way when it comes to customer satisfaction. The amount of time and effort that goes into creating quality training materials is recognized by the clients, and it gives them the reassurance that the product they’ve invested in reflects the same quality.

The subsequent decrease in complaints, product returns, and customer turnover are only some of the benefits of gaining your customers’ trust. Today’s market is flooded with competition, no matter what industry you’re in, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to retain customers. Building your client’s trust is a fail-safe way to do so.

3. Build Customer Loyalty and Lead Generation

As we mentioned earlier, customer satisfaction has long-reaching benefits. Customer education can help build your brand by generating a loyal customer base who become advocates of your product. We’ve all experienced a convincing word-of-mouth recommendation at some point in our lives. Imagine leveraging this as a marketing tool. 

It’s not just about having clients recommend your product to others. Good reviews drive the success of all businesses in today’s digital world. Having taken full advantage of your product thanks to comprehensive training, customers would be happy to leave positive reviews of your business. These reviews, in turn, help generate more leads. 

4. Create Upselling Opportunities

Having a good customer experience and being satisfied with your product, your clients are likely to be more receptive to upgrades, additional features, or other upselling opportunities. Since they trust your brand, they may consider investing in other products that pair well with their current purchase. 

Clients feel further reassurance due to the fact that if they do purchase another product from your business, it comes with comprehensive training materials leveraging the best eLearning methods.

5. Maintain Competitive Advantage

Creating high-quality customer education aids can potentially become a unique selling point that sets you apart from your competition. When prospective customers are looking to buy a product, they put a lot of consideration towards customer training options available to them. Having a comprehensive training program might just be the deciding factor that tips the scale in your favor. 

Meet Your Training Needs with Edly

Providing exceptional customer support has become necessary if you want to set your product apart from the rest. With fierce competition for almost every service or product out there, good quality customer education might just be the factor that ends up getting your leads converted to customers. 

A good customer training program starts with a great online learning platform. Edly’s team can help you perfect the art of customer training with our user-friendly and intuitive LMS. Complete with our own training and support services, you can get your customer education program up and running in no time. Get in touch with us today, or try our platform for free!