Customer Training: Boost Retention And Product Adoption
Customers these days don’t need a user manual; let’s be real, they won’t read one anyway. They want quick wins, easy solutions, and zero guesswork when using your product.
B2B and B2C products aren’t plug-and-play, making customer training front and center. It doesn’t just help users navigate the platform; it enhances product value, improves retention, and directly impacts the bottom line. 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a deciding factor in their purchase decisions.
A good customer training program is all it takes to turn the tables. Want to turn your customer experience into a win? Read on.
What is a Customer Training?
Customer training focuses on providing clients with the necessary tools and knowledge to maximize the value of a product or service. It aims to develop the user’s proficiency in using the product, resolve issues, and utilize features to improve the overall experience.
What customer training is not: Many mistake customer training for self-service guides, documentation, or FAQs. While these resources offer answers, they don’t actively teach.
Customer training is a structured approach designed to equip users with the skills and knowledge needed to get the most from a product. Effective training reduces friction, increases adoption, and boosts retention.
Customer training programs involve different learning styles, from product setup tutorials to interactive workshops, hands-on demonstrations, webinars, and self-paced online courses.
For example:
- SaaS companies can provide training on setting up integrations and using advanced features for deeper data analysis.
- Manufacturing & logistics can provide customer training on machinery operation, inventory tracking, and supply chain management.
- E-commerce platforms can offer tutorials on store setup, product listings, and checkout process optimization.
Customer training sometimes extends to your partners or suppliers to communicate your product's benefits to others.
5 Steps to Create a Successful Customer Training Program
Improved customer experience through educational content increases consumer purchase chances by 131%. The more the customer education, the higher the product adoption. Here’s how you can build a compelling customer training program:
1. Understand your program’s goals
Start with the end in mind to get your training program on track. Picture exactly what you want your customers to walk away with. The key here is clarity.
For example, saying, "We want customers to use our product better," sounds nice, but it’s too broad to measure. Try something more specific: “We want 75% of new users to create and customize their first dashboard within 30 days of signing up.”
Here’s why this matters:
- It forces you to think deeply about what your customers actually need, not just a vague “use it better” idea.
- It helps create relevant customer training materials that target your business objective.
- It makes measuring the success of your customer onboarding program much easier.
2. Invest in the right technology for integration
Choosing the right tools for your customer training program isn’t just about picking the newest software on the shelf. It’s about finding tech that makes delivering the training easier.
Consider choosing customer training software or a platform that integrates with your CRM systems and meeting tools, such as Zoom. Integration makes everything seamless, from customer progress to data management.
3. Develop engaging content
If your training isn’t useful or engaging, your customers won’t stick around, no matter how flashy your product looks. To really hit the mark, your content needs to solve real problems, feel professional, and reflect your brand’s personality.
Here’s how to make customer learning experience more valuable:
- Micro-learning: Mini-courses are a great learning strategy for testing the waters. Offer bite-sized lessons (1-15 minutes) focusing on specific features or tasks.
- Scenario-based learning: Skip the dull info dumps. Create hands-on, real-world scenarios in your training content where customers can apply your product to solve practical problems. For example, if you're selling project management software, build a scenario where users manage a fictional project from start to finish.
- Mobile Learning: Your customers are on the move, and your training should be, too. Design content that looks great and functions smoothly on mobile devices. For instance, Utility Warehouse trained 46,000 distributors, with 30% relying solely on mobile and tablets.
4. Test, evaluate, and gather feedback
You’ve built your training content. Now, it’s time to see how it holds up in the real world. Testing and gathering feedback isn’t just about finding flaws but discovering opportunities to improve your content.
Start small with a pilot group of customers. Let them go through your training and then ask them what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d like to see improved. Use quick surveys, in-app feedback tools, or even direct interviews. Dropbox regularly tests its onboarding tutorials with new users, tweaking content based on real-time feedback.
Pay attention to how customers interact with your training. Are they dropping off halfway through? Struggling with certain modules? These insights help you refine and improve your content continuously.
5. Track performance and analyze results
How do you know if your training is truly making an impact? Simple: follow the numbers.
Use analytics tools to track learner progress, like completion rates, quiz scores, and user engagement. Are certain sections being skipped, or are users flying through the quizzes? Identifying these patterns can give you valuable insights into how your content is landing.
KPIs are the best way to track your training’s success. Metrics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Customer support tickets
- Customer churn rate
- Customer engagement
- Upsells and cross-sells
Why Should You Provide a Customer Training?
The benefits of customer training are immense, not just for your customers but for your business, too. Here's why:
1. Quick onboarding for faster results
First impressions matter. If new customers struggle to understand your product, they are more likely to disengage. With nearly 23% of churn linked to poor onboarding, you need a seamless way to introduce customers to your product’s value.
For example, if you offer CRM software, a guided tutorial that walks users through adding their first contacts and setting up automated follow-ups can immediately show how your tool simplifies client management.
Providing hands-on training through interactive guides, webinars, or online courses helps customers stay engaged.
2. Higher CSAT scores with reduced support strain
Effective customer training helps users gain knowledge and navigate products confidently. Well-trained customers require less support, reducing ticket volume and operational costs. This improves CSAT scores and drives long-term customer retention and revenue growth. Fewer support escalations mean teams can focus on high-value interactions, increasing efficiency and profitability.
3. Stronger brand positioning
A successful customer education program not only helps customers; it builds your brand’s reputation. Data says 81% of consumers won’t consider a purchase unless they trust the brand. Empowering customers through effective customer training makes them trust you more, see you as an industry expert, and rely on your guidance. This not only helps increase customer satisfaction but also sets you apart from competitors.
4. Reduced churn rates
Successful customers stay. When users fully understand how to use your product, they see its value, making them more likely to continue using it. That’s why over 60% of customer success teams rely on training to manage customer retention.
5. Increased chances of upselling
Selling to existing customer base can be up to 5–25 times more profitable than acquiring new ones. So, keeping customers engaged and satisfied is essential for growth.
It’s far easier to retain customers who are already loyal than to acquire new ones. But to upsell effectively, you first need a strong base of engaged users. If retention is low, you won’t have enough existing clients to upgrade. And if they don’t fully understand your product’s value, they won’t see the benefit of premium features or higher-tier plans.
For example, If you run a project management SaaS, a basic user might not realize how automation features in a premium plan can save them hours of manual work. With targeted customer training through webinars, tutorials, or in-app guidance, they learn how automation streamlines their tasks. Upgrading isn’t just an option; it’s an obvious next step.
Ways to Leverage Customer Training for Wins
Companies offer customer training at different phases of their customer lifecycle. Let’s see that in detail:
1. Onboarding
Leveraging customer training for onboarding is like winning clients at first impressions.
For example, when users sign up for Asana, the platform provides interactive product tours that show essential features and tools. New users receive a guided walkthrough demonstrating how to create tasks, assign deadlines, and manage projects efficiently.
This practical, step-by-step approach allows customers to quickly understand and navigate the platform's functionalities.
The customer onboarding process can be online training (think tutorials, pop-up tips) or live (like webinars or in-person training). Some are quick and simple, others more detailed, but they all aim to improve the overall customer journey.
2. Customer training academy
Develop a customer training academy to strengthen customer relationships and improve customer retention rates. The academy should offer in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience to help customers become confident, skilled users of your product or service.
For example, Microsoft Learn offers structured learning paths that guide users through Microsoft tools, helping them build their skills step by step. When customers know how to get the most out of your product, brand loyalty will naturally improve.
This customer training strategy can be delivered through online courses, webinars, in-person workshops, or training sessions — whatever suits your business goals and target audience. The key is to make the content accessible, engaging, and useful.
3. Customer training solutions
Leverage customer training LMS (Learning Management Systems) to deliver a compelling customer training program. These platforms let you create, upload, and manage your customer training courses in an organized way.
These platforms provide several features, from accommodating various course types to performance tracking and analysis.
FreshLearn: Your All-Inclusive Learning Platform
FreshLearn offers various features and functionalities to help you develop a successful customer training program.
1. Creating online learning courses
Create on-demand courses and engaging courses with FreshLearn's user-friendly platform in no time. Our intuitive interface makes creating online courses that promote product adoption and satisfaction easy.
Organize your courses into clear modules and chapters, incorporating videos, assignments, and quizzes. Upon completion, offer certificates and reward points as incentives. You can create cohorts, workshops, and structured playlists and provide a few courses as digital downloads. Update the training materials in real-time, showing customers about new products or installation standards.
With FreshLearn, make your customer education program more accessible by translating the content into many languages to fit a global audience.
2. Developing a community
Build a dedicated customer community in our learning platform to improve engagement and collaboration. Encourage peer-to-peer learning, shared problem-solving, and meaningful connections that enhance brand loyalty and help customer satisfaction.
The exciting part is that you create and sell membership plans at your price (one-time or recurring) with 0% commission.
3. Certifications
Provide professional certification programs to recognize customer accomplishments and highlight their product training level. Shareable certificates highlight customer success, strengthen your brand’s reputation, and foster lasting loyalty.
For example, HubSpot Academy provides free certifications for completing their courses on resources used in the HubSpot platform.
Customize your certificate with the company course name, completion date, signature, and more. Upon customer training completion, automate the certificate-sending process to send to the customers’ email with post-ready links for social media.
4. Reporting
Enable valuable insights through comprehensive analytics tracking tools highlighting course progress, user engagement, and completion rates. Evaluate how your training programs influence customer retention and overall success, enabling you to refine and enhance your approach to continuous growth.
FreshLearn Improves Beatroute’s CSAT Score by 30%
About BeatRoute
BeatRoute is a top-tier software platform designed for retailer chains and distributors. It offers a unified solution for retail sales and distribution. By simplifying sales processes, BeatRoute helps businesses meet their sales targets more efficiently while optimizing operations and enhancing customer education. Its advanced platform drives superior performance across sales and distribution networks.
The Challenge: Inefficient Customer Onboarding
BeatRoute faced significant challenges in onboarding new customers and turning them into product champions. Traditional onboarding approaches were time-consuming, lacked engagement, and failed to promote rapid product adoption. The company needed a scalable, interactive solution to educate customers on the platform’s robust features and accelerate their journey to proficiency.
Key Challenges:
- Prolonged and inefficient product training processes
- Low customer engagement and sluggish adoption rates
- Difficulty in effectively showcasing the platform's full capabilities
- Lack of a unified, structured training platform
The Solution: FreshLearn transforms customer training
BeatRoute implemented FreshLearn’s customer training platform to overcome these challenges, changing their onboarding and product training processes. FreshLearn provided a progressive and scalable solution that allowed BeatRoute to create interactive and impactful learning experiences tailored to customer needs.
How FreshLearn made a difference:
- Developed customized on-demand courses, giving customers the flexibility to learn at their own pace
- Conducted live masterclasses to create real-time interaction and engagement
- Incorporated assignments to reinforce learning and ensure knowledge retention
- Established a dedicated community forum for peer-to-peer learning and support
- Awarded course completion certificates to recognize achievements and inspire continued learning.
The Results
With drastic improvements in onboarding and engagement by integrating FreshLearn into their customer training strategy, BeatRoute achieved impressive outcomes. The onboarding process became faster and more effective, significantly improving customer loyalty and satisfaction. As customers quickly became proficient in using the platform, they became loyal advocates and product champions.
Key Results
- 50% reduction in onboarding time.
- 70% increase in customer engagement levels.
- Over 1,000 customers successfully trained.
- 30% boost in customer satisfaction scores.
Summing Up
Customer training isn't just about showing users how to use a product. It's about giving them the tools and knowledge to succeed and feel confident. When people truly understand a product, they get more value from it. When they become self-sufficient, there will be lower support costs and less pressure on your customer service team.
FreshLearn makes it easier to offer training that sticks. Options, including self-paced courses, live sessions, and community interaction, create a more interactive, engaging experience that helps users become more satisfied and improves overall training consumption.
Want to take your customer training experience to the next level? Schedule a free demo with us today!
FAQ
1. What is a customer training?
Customer training means providing the tools to maximize a service or product. Helping consumers learn to use your product or service, fix common issues, and get the most out of it is what your company calls "customer success." This includes providing classes, tips, assistance, and tools.
2. What is customer experience training?
Businesses use customer service training to teach agents about products or services, customer communication, support software, etc. This strengthens the competency of their support team and ultimately enhances the client experience.
3. What is a customer trainer?
Often working with different departments, a customer success trainer or coach synchronizes the whole customer success team, including all goals, values, and customer-centric attitudes. Since it is common in a typical organization for the sales team, product, and other departments to disconnect, a customer trainer helps align each.
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