What is customer training?
Customer training is a type of e-learning that helps companies train external stakeholders, like partners, resellers, and customers. It consists of courses that help consumers learn how to use a company’s product or service. This type of training is highly useful in the software industry, as some applications have a steep learning curve.
Companies typically turn to corporate learning management systems (LMS) to organize, track, and manage training for employees, customers, and other external partners.
Customer training methods
Customer training methods vary in cost, time commitment, and scalability. Depending on their customers’ needs, companies can choose one or more of the following methods:
- Help center: Companies provide a help center with articles, videos, white papers, and user forums. These materials are usually free and passive, meaning they require no customer or company feedback.
- On-demand training: This self-paced method provides short training videos to answer a certain question. It usually follows a learning path that allows consumers to view their training progress.
- Virtual live training: This webinar-style training enables consumers to provide feedback on a company’s products or services. It usually requires registration. The downside is that customers can’t get answers right away, but live training material is easy to create with webinar software.
- In-person training: Also called on-site training, in-person training includes personalized classes specific to a customer’s needs. Hands-on, in-person exercises reinforce what is being taught.
Benefits of customer training
Companies can gain major benefits from training customers, from better onboarding and retention to surprisingly lower support costs. Here are some of the main benefits of customer training:
- Better customer onboarding: With proper training, consumers are more likely to fully comprehend the product’s value and be satisfied with their purchase.
- Increased product engagement: Offering training is a way for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This improves customer experience, creating more engaged consumers who truly understand your product’s value.
- Higher customer retention: If consumers address their pain points through training, they can overcome steep learning curves and stick around.
- Lower support costs: Customer training helps companies reduce support tickets and the resulting burden on customer support teams. It helps resolve common queries upfront.
Customer training best practices
Companies need to put themselves in their customers’ shoes to create simple training materials. Here are the key customer training best practices:
- Keep it simple. The training process should be designed for beginners and outline how to use the products as concisely as possible. It should also be structured as a simple, easy-to-follow course.
- Use custom branding. It should feature employer branding consistent with the rest of the company’s materials. This creates a uniform user experience while improving brand awareness.
- Test the customers. The training material should include assessments so that customers can track their progress.
Customer training vs. customer service training
Both customer training and customer service training improve buyer satisfaction, but they accomplish it in different ways.
Customer training helps train a customer to use a company’s product effectively. On the other hand, customer service training involves educating employees about the company’s product and services and then delivering that training to the customers.
