eLearning has proven to be a powerful, versatile tool for training in almost any setting. Many businesses have already harnessed online training as part of their employee education efforts. What some don’t realize is just how effective eLearning can be when it comes to educating your customer base.
Why should a business care about what its customers know? A knowledgeable customer will get more out of a product or service. They will understand all the features and benefits and know how to use them optimally. When your customers are getting more out of your product or service, they will be more likely to recommend you to others.
Customers who know what they are doing are also less likely to need support. That means a business can reduce their customer support costs by educating the people who buy their product or service.
eLearning will help businesses:
- Increase revenue through repeat buyers and recommendations
- Improve customer engagement for stronger relationships and brand loyalty
- Decrease the time it takes for customers to get value out of a product or service
- Ensure that marketing efforts align with the needs of the customer base
- Build a competitive advantage by offering customer training
- Lower the overall cost of customer support
Identify the Needs of Your Customer Base
Every business should know its demographic. Your customer training content should be based on the needs and preferences of your demographic. Content can be developed that targets specific groups within your customer base. Providing a personalized experience will improve customer satisfaction.
A few things to consider include:
- Who will use your training content and what are their goals or objectives?
- What does your customer base already know and what do they need to know?
- What should your customers gain from training?
The answers to these questions will help you determine what topics should be covered and how the information should be presented. It will also allow a business to develop content that is helpful without being too advanced or too simplistic for the intended audience.
Also, consider creating content for different stages of customer relationships. Basic courses should be supplied to new customers who have little or no experience with your product or service. Intermediate and advanced courses should be offered to customers with some knowledge.
The value of customer training with eLearning starts with developing quality content that furthers your customer’s goals and your business objectives.
Create Engaging Content That Addresses Customer Needs
Now that you know what your customers need, it’s time to develop training content that gives it to them. Keep courses concise and on topic. Packing too much into a single course can overwhelm learners and lead to poor knowledge retention and burnout.
Also consider the various types of learning used by schools and training programs. It’s important to provide information in different formats to address all learning styles. The common types of learning styles include:
- Visual Learning
Visual learning includes photographs, charts, graphs, maps, and video content. Anything that relies primarily on the eyes to digest. A clip of a product demonstration or a graph that shows how to complete a task will assist visual learners.
- Auditory Learning
Auditory learning encompasses sound content. This can include an audio clip, voiceover, lecture, or spoken discussion. Having a live trainer can help support auditory learners through speaking. Recordings can also be used for self-paced courses.
- Kinesthetic Learning
Kinesthetic learning describes content that is hands-on. This includes activities, experiments, and practice tasks. There are ways to use this in an online setting. Create a virtual experience that walks customers through a space or situation. You can also add gamification and tasks that encourage movement. This is a great opportunity to introduce virtual reality to your customer training.
- Written Word Learning
Some people learn better through the written word. They prefer to read or write information to improve knowledge retention. This type of content can include books, articles, blog posts, notes, and instruction manuals.
Businesses can make their training program more efficient by creating content that utilizes multiple learning styles. For example, a training video can provide images for visual learners, voiceovers for auditory learners, and captions for written word learners.
It can also help to provide content in separate files that customers can revisit later. For example, an audio file or images can be made available in a knowledgebase for quick reference. Customers can access these materials to view them on their own when they need a refresher.
Also, explore other formats for learning like social media. Find out how social media empowers learners in online employee training then use the same method for customer-focused courses.
Continue to Update and Expand Customer Training
A good customer training program should continue to evolve and expand over time. Regular updates and assessments will prevent stagnation and keep content relevant.
Anytime a new product or service is introduced, launch it with a new customer training course. Staying on top of training will empower your customers to get the most out of everything you add to your service or product offerings.
It also encourages customers to check back and look for new training. This increases engagement and improves satisfaction. It also tells your customer base that you are invested in their experience and will continue to provide the support they need.
Ongoing monitoring will help you look for areas in your employee training program that are lacking. See what’s successful and use that information to develop strong content moving forward.
Anything that isn’t performing well may need to be revisited or removed. The sooner you identify what content is doing well and which isn’t, the quicker you can react to changes in customer needs, performance, or the market.
Finding a good LMS should be the first step in building a solid customer training program. The right platform will make content development, management, and distribution much easier. Find LMS reviews online to learn more about what’s out there.
