Customer training made simple: benefits and best practices

What is customer training? 

What does it mean to set your customers up for success with your product? For starters, it doesn’t have to stop at hiring talented support professionals or setting up an intuitive chatbot on your website. In fact, your customers may just benefit from a separate training program, whether by walking them through your product for the first time or by offering tips to enhance their existing user experience. 

Customer training programs could be a course or some form of educational content to teach customers about your product. They’re especially common in the technology space, where products can be complex in design. A well-planned training program will take into account your users’ learning needs, whether they’re new to your product and need a step-by-step walkthrough or are existing customers looking for tips to enhance their user experience. 

Types of customer training programs 

Onboarding training 

Onboarding is the foundation of a customer’s journey. This training helps new users get started with your product quickly and efficiently. For example, a software company offering team collaboration tools could create a guided onboarding process to walk users through the initial setup, ensuring they’re ready to collaborate from day one. 

Self-paced online courses 

Self-paced courses let customers learn at their own convenience, making them ideal for global or large-scale audiences. For example, an e-learning course covering your product’s advanced features allows customers to explore the content when it suits them best. 

Live webinars and workshops 

Live webinars are great for engaging customers in real time and addressing their questions directly. For example, hosting a monthly “ask me anything” webinar with a product expert can help customers learn new tips and tricks while building stronger connections with your brand. 

Video tutorials and walkthroughs 

Short, visually engaging tutorials are perfect for explaining complex processes. For example, a SaaS company offering accounting software might create a video series on setting up automated invoices, helping users navigate a potentially confusing feature. 

Certification programs 

Certification programs encourage customers to deepen their product knowledge while adding credibility to their expertise. For example, offering a certification on advanced analytics in your platform can boost customer loyalty and position your product as an industry leader. 

Knowledge bases and FAQs 

A well-organized knowledge base is an invaluable resource for customers seeking quick answers. For example, including step-by-step guides and FAQs on common troubleshooting topics empowers customers to resolve issues independently. 

In-app guidance and tooltips 

In-app tutorials and tooltips provide real-time, context-sensitive support. For example, a graphic design platform might use pop-ups to guide users through new features as they interact with the software, reducing the need for external training. 

What are the benefits of customer training? 

People don’t become experts in your product once they’ve signed up for it. In fact, continuing to make your customers feel confident in using your product can lead to major growth for your organization. For a closer look at its impact, here are the key benefits of customer training: 

Builds customer loyalty 

Creating an amazing product isn’t going to lead to brand loyalty if your customers have no idea how to use it. A training session not only educates your customers on how to make the most of your product but also shows them that you’re invested in their success. This increases the chances of customer loyalty compared to having them figure your product out on their own. 

Increases engagement with your product 

By training your customers, you’re literally telling them how to use your product and what they can do with it. The sooner your customers know their way around your product, the sooner they’ll feel confident engaging with it on their own. 

Higher customer retention and lower churn 

This issue is particularly important for SaaS companies, where churn rates can significantly affect revenue. An effective customer training program can help. By investing time in your customers’ learning needs, you ultimately increase the likelihood of successfully upselling or retaining their accounts. 

Reduces one-time customer support issues 

However, the benefits go beyond increasing customer satisfaction. By setting your customers up for success early on, you also reduce their need to seek support with basic user issues. This can help protect your customer support team’s backlog, saving the company time and money. 

How to create a customer training program 

For an effective outcome, consider the following customer training best practices: 

Gather information about who your customers are 

Before you can create customer training content, you need to have a clear sense of your customers’ pain points and needs. You can learn more about their experience by conducting surveys with existing customers or even with those who’ve parted ways with your company.  

Among your existing customers, survey those whom you consider to be your ideal customers and learn more about why they’re so satisfied. Knowing both the good and the bad can clarify what your training content should focus on. 

Create learning objectives 

With a clear picture of your customer’s needs in mind, set aside time to identify the learning objectives of your training program. Learning objectives serve as the purpose for creating your training content.  

The importance of having a reason behind any business decision seems like a no-brainer, but when it comes to content creation, it ensures you don’t end up including any educational information that has nothing to do with your learners’ needs. It also gives learners a clear idea of what skills they can expect to gain by signing up for your training program. 

Plan the logistics 

Like with any online training program, you’ll need to identify what tools you’ll need to bring your customer training model to life. For instance, you may want a user-friendly authoring tool so that subject matter experts on your product can share their knowledge directly by creating training content themselves.  

You might even need a Learning Management System (LMS) to store and distribute your learning content. Apart from tools, however, it’s also important to think about who else needs to be involved in the process. Maybe you’ll need a co-author to collaborate on the content with. Maybe you’ll need support from your organization’s L&D team to facilitate the program. 

Create your training content 

Now that you know who you’re creating training for, why you’re doing it, and what you’ll need to get started, it’s time to create your content. Consider creating bite-sized training materials, which are more digestible for learners who may be unfamiliar with the training subject. If you’re creating an e-learning course, you might do this by adding multiple sections within your course, each with unique learning objectives. 

The difference between customer training and customer support 

What is customer training? 

Customer training refers to proactive, education-driven initiatives designed to help customers use your product effectively. These programs can include onboarding sessions, self-paced courses, or in-app tutorials that teach customers how to maximize the value of your product. 

What is customer support? 

Customer support, on the other hand, is a reactive approach to addressing customer issues. It focuses on troubleshooting specific problems, such as technical bugs or billing inquiries. Support teams work to resolve these issues and maintain customer satisfaction. 

Key differences between training and support 

Here’s a quick comparison: 

Customer training:

• Proactive: Prevents issues before they occur 
• Focuses on education and skills-building 
• Delivered through courses, videos, and guides 

Customer Support:

• Reactive: Solves problems as they arise 
• Focuses on problem resolution 
• Delivered through tickets, chat, and calls

How training reduces the need for support 

Effective training programs can significantly reduce the number of support tickets by addressing common questions before they arise. For example, a company offering CRM software created a training course on managing contacts, which reduced related support queries by 30%. This not only improved customer satisfaction but also freed up the support team to focus on more complex issues. 

Why businesses need both 

While training reduces the need for support, the two functions work best together. Training ensures customers are equipped with the knowledge to succeed, while support provides a safety net for unexpected challenges. A holistic customer experience strategy includes both to meet customers’ proactive and reactive needs. 

Why customer training is vital for SaaS companies 

Customer retention and reduced churn 

For SaaS companies, customer retention is essential for long-term success. High churn rates—where customers stop using your service—can significantly impact revenue, especially in subscription-based businesses. Customer training is a powerful way to address this issue. By helping customers understand and use your product effectively, you increase satisfaction and reduce the likelihood of them leaving. 

Driving product adoption and usage 

Customer training accelerates the time it takes for customers to see value in your SaaS product. When customers quickly learn how to use your product to meet their needs, they’re more likely to adopt it fully. This not only increases engagement but also leads to higher lifetime value. 

For instance, offering a step-by-step course on how to set up and automate workflows can help customers achieve their goals faster. As customers experience success, they’re more likely to stick with the product and use it more frequently. 

Upselling and cross-selling opportunities 

When customers are confident using your product, they’re more open to exploring additional features or higher-tier plans. Training helps them see the value of these options and how they can solve more complex challenges. 

Take the example of a SaaS company that offers analytics software. By training customers on basic features first, the sales team can later introduce advanced analytics tools in follow-up courses. Customers who understand these tools are more likely to upgrade their subscriptions. 

Building long-term customer loyalty 

Well-trained customers are more likely to trust your brand and become loyal advocates. They understand the value your product offers, which fosters a stronger relationship with your company. This loyalty can help retain customers, translating into long-term renewals and word-of-mouth referrals. 

Consider a SaaS company offering marketing automation software. Customers who complete training programs not only renew their subscriptions but also recommend the product to peers, amplifying the company’s reach and reputation. 

Why use an LMS to train your customers? 

An LMS, by nature, is designed to facilitate large-scale training programs with numerous learners to keep track of. A key feature is that it offers insights into your learners’ progress, providing data on takeaways like who has or hasn’t completed a course, or who passed or failed. You can then also generate reports from the data and share these insights with relevant colleagues. 

But what makes learner tracking features so valuable is that they can help you identify any knowledge gaps among your customers, which can help you determine how effective your content is and whether you may need to make any adjustments. 

Use a separate authoring tool 

Though some LMSs come with built-in authoring tools that allow you to create your training content directly on the platform, they still tend to lack features that a specialized authoring tool can provide. They’re also usually complex in design because they’re catered to instructional designers. 

As an alternative, we recommend using a separate authoring tool like Easygenerator, which specializes in content creation and has a zero-learning curve. This user-friendliness enables an approach known as Employee-generated Learning (EGL), where subject matter experts in your organization can create training content themselves instead of handing it off to a third-party content creator. 

Not only does this speed up the content creation process and save costs on hiring external course designers, but it also empowers product experts in your company to share their expertise directly with customers, allowing the knowledge to reach customers in need sooner. 

Easygenerator also offers extensive data on your learners, allowing you to form meaningful takeaways on customer training progress and optimize your content accordingly. And if you’re still set on using your preferred LMS to facilitate your training program, you can take heart in knowing that any content created in Easygenerator can be easily exported in LMS-friendly formats. That means you won’t have to stop storing your content in the LMS of your choice if you have one.