Customer education has become a crucial component of organizational success. About 60% of businesses surveyed in Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Outlook 2024 Study said they would invest moderately or heavily in customer learning initiatives this year.
That’s because as products and technologies become increasingly complex, businesses must ensure their customers and partners can effectively utilize their offerings. If organizations don’t offer customer training, it’s often because they struggle with the technology requirements. They often simply need a content distribution solution from an expert, like Rustici Software, which offers guidance and tools to help you build a comprehensive strategy for sharing training content across a variety of systems and audiences.
This blog explores the importance of customer education programs and provides insights into the technical considerations necessary for successful implementation.
The Intricacies of Customer Training
Learning and development (L&D) functions are increasingly expected to create comprehensive learning experiences for a wider audience, including channel partners and customers. This shift reflects the growing need for businesses to provide value beyond the point of sale and foster long-term relationships with their stakeholders. Tight staffing in L&D and a challenging economy due to inflation can complicate distribution and implementation of customer training.
Whether explaining the intricacies of AI in a new product model, detailing vehicle maintenance requirements, or highlighting the differences in display technologies, L&D plays a crucial role in developing content that bridges the knowledge gap.
While creating and maintaining accurate product training is essential, managing this content across multiple Learning Management Systems (LMSs) can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Businesses need a well-thought-out strategy that addresses the diverse system behaviors and learner experiences they’ll encounter. This strategy should consider the following key aspects:
- Content Centralization: Utilize a centralized content management system that can distribute training materials across various LMSs and platforms.
- Versioning: Implement a version control system that allows you to manage multiple iterations of your training content and easily update all instances across your network.
- Reporting: Develop a comprehensive reporting system that provides insights into content usage, learner progress and overall program effectiveness.
- Integration: Ensure your chosen solutions can integrate seamlessly with existing systems and workflows.
Tools like Rustici Software’s Content Controller addresses all of these challenges and more, significantly streamlining the process of managing and distributing training content across an extended enterprise network.
Leveraging Technology for Efficiency and Effectiveness
The right technology solutions allow organizations to maintain content in a central location while enabling customers and partners to access it through their preferred systems. For example:
- com, a property security company offering a variety of security and automation services and hardware for the residential and commercial markets, struggled to distribute content to different LMSs; it was a very manual and time-consuming process. By using Rustici’s Content Controller, Alarm.com has streamlined the delivery of training materials to both their own LMSs and those of their partners.
- Valvoline, a global supplier of lubricants and automotive services with an extensive network of dealerships, retailers, service centers, and franchises worldwide, offers its partners access to its award-winning training content. However, for customers who preferred to use their own LMS, Valvoline had to send course files to each customer. They wanted to find ways to improve the content management process. Rustici solved Valvoline’s problem.
Benefits of a Customer Training Program
If you can optimize the technical aspects of delivering learning to the extended enterprise, the benefits are enormous:
- Improved Access: Reduce friction for customers accessing your training materials.
- Consistency: Ensure training accuracy across all platforms and user groups.
- Business Insights: Gain valuable insights into customer behavior and product adoption.
- Streamlined Onboarding: Automate onboarding workflows for new customers and partners.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Provide a better overall experience through comprehensive education.
- Reduced Support Costs: Decrease the volume of support tickets by empowering users with knowledge.
- Increased Satisfaction: Foster long-term customer satisfaction through ongoing education and support.
Steps to Achieve a Strong Customer Education Program
To implement a robust customer education program, organizations should follow these steps:
- Assess Current State: Evaluate existing training materials and distribution methods.
- Define Objectives: Clearly outline the goals of your customer education program.
- Identify Target Audience: Determine who will benefit most from your training efforts.
- Develop a Content Strategy: Create a plan for developing and maintaining relevant, up-to-date content.
- Choose Technology Solutions: Select tools and platforms that support your distribution and management needs.
- Implement Pilot Program: Start with a small-scale rollout to test your content, gather feedback on the impact of the program, and refine your approach.
- Scale Gradually: Expand your program to cover more products and reach a wider audience.
Choosing the Right Tools
Your ability to scale your customer education program will depend largely on having the right tools to optimize delivery and content management. Here is a framework to consider when selecting a provider.
- Conduct a Needs Assessment
- Identify your specific requirements for content creation, distribution, and management.
- Determine the size of your audience and their technological capabilities.
- Assess your current infrastructure and potential integration needs.
- Define your budget constraints.
- Research Available Solutions
- Explore an LMS designed for customer education.
- Investigate Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) with distribution capabilities.
- Look into specialized tools for extended enterprise learning.
- Evaluate Key Features
- Pay special attention to version control and content updates.
- Assess Integration Capabilities
- API availability and robustness
- Compatibility with existing systems (CRM, ERP, etc.)
- Single Sign-On options
- Data synchronization capabilities
- Consider Scalability and Flexibility
- Analyze User Experience
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- As the number of users grows and diversifies, understanding what different user groups want and need will become critical to engage them and deliver great value.
- Examine Analytics and Reporting Features
- Perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Compare pricing models (subscription, per-user, etc.).
- Verify Security and Compliance
- Evaluate Support and Maintenance
- Availability of customer support (24/7, multi-channel).
- Request Demos and Trial Periods
- Gather Feedback
- Collect input from all stakeholders (L&D team, IT department, end-users).
- Assess ease of use, feature satisfaction, and potential pain points.
- Plan for Implementation
- Develop a detailed rollout strategy.
- Allocate resources for setup, migration and training.
- Create a timeline for implementation phases.
By following these steps and considering the technical aspects of implementation, organizations can create a customer education program that not only enhances product understanding but also drives long-term business success through improved customer relationships and increased satisfaction.
About Rustici Software
Rustici Software is the expert in eLearning standards. By providing software to help organizations and technology providers implement and maintain eLearning standards, they help learning technology solutions play well together. Whether you need to author or deliver SCORM-compliant content, you need an LRS to store xAPI statements or anything in between, they’re your people. Since 2002, Rustici has helped thousands of organizations, LMSs, authoring tools, LRSs and content providers comply with standards like SCORM, xAPI, cmi5, LTI and AICC. Rustici Software is part of Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG). Learn more at rusticisoftware.com.
