Creating Effective Customer Training Programs with Software

Developing effective customer training programs can be a complex undertaking. First, there’s the challenge of tailoring content for diverse audiences. Customers have different learning preferences, making it difficult to develop training that resonates across the board, from beginners to advanced users.

Then, there’s the battle to keep engagement high. Keeping users motivated and actively participating throughout the training is not always easy.

Each challenge requires a thoughtful approach to ensure that customer training programs hit the mark. Robust customer training software can help your organization personalize learning paths based on users’ proficiency levels, add interactive elements and gamification to maintain user interest, and use analytics to track learner progress.

What is a customer training program?

A customer training program is a structured initiative or learning platform designed to educate customers about how to use a product effectively. The goal is to enhance the customer’s understanding of the product, its features, and functionalities, eventually leading to improved customer onboarding, product adoption, and customer retention.

Usually under the responsibility of the customer success team, these training courses are commonly conducted online via webinars, e-learning courses, and various learning programs.

What is the purpose of customer training software?

Customer training software is key in enhancing user proficiency and optimizing the customer experience with a particular product. Customer training software empowers users by providing detailed training materials. This includes tutorials on different use cases, interactive guides, templates, and documentation that allows users to navigate the product seamlessly.

Plus, a well-trained customer is more likely to use the product to its full potential. It sounds logical, right? Customer training software ensures that users understand the ins and outs of the product, which helps them discover features they might not have explored otherwise. This maximizes the value customers get from the product and your customer satisfaction will improve.

Companies that don’t meet customer expectations are in for a rough time. 72% of customers require quick service when they contact customer support. Fail to achieve this, and you might find your customers heading to your competition.

That’s exactly where customer training software comes in, reducing support burden and helping you keep your customers active and invested. Customer training software helps decrease the number of basic queries and support requests. When users are well-versed in the product features, they’re less likely to have common product issues and more likely to find solutions independently. This contributes to a more efficient support system.

Discover how Clever cut down on the number of tickets by 25% and improved their support efficiency, using Skilljar.

Key features of effective customer training software

Effective customer training software should offer you the features that contribute to an impactful learning experience for users. Below are some features to look for.

1. Intuitive user interface

At the core of an intuitive interface is user-friendly navigation. Learners should easily move between modules, quizzes, and learning resources. This saves time and ensures a frustration-free exploration of the training platform.

Then, efficiency is maximized through search and advanced filtering capabilities. Learners can quickly locate specific content or revisit previous modules, optimizing the learning experience. From a program manager’s perspective (admins), using filter groups provides a powerful organizational tool. It allows the categorization of courses and learning paths into cohesive groups.

Remember: Customer training is a two-way street. An intuitive interface contributes to a more enjoyable training experience and enhances overall customer engagement.

Read this case study to learn how IPRO was able to scale its onboarding experience and increase user engagement by 78% using Skilljar.

2. Customizable content

Customization is another key aspect of customer education platforms. It allows organizations to tailor the learning experience to their unique needs and brand identity.

Training portals should offer intuitive tools for users to customize the look and feel of their online learning environment. This includes options for choosing color schemes, fonts, and layouts to match the brand’s visual identity.

For organizations with specific design requirements, the platform should provide advanced customization capabilities. This may include the ability to incorporate custom HTML, CSS, and Javascript code to get a high degree of flexibility in matching the design to their own brand’s look and feel.

3. Progress tracking and reporting

Another important feature of customer training software is progress tracking and reporting. These functionalities are essential for both learners and administrators, as they offer insights via dashboards into individual and collective learning journeys.

Progress tracking extends beyond individual achievements to provide a holistic view of learning paths. Program managers can get insights into how users navigate the educational content, identifying common bottlenecks so they can nudge users to complete their activity thereby increasing engagement and completion rates.

Verified user review | G2

4. Mobile compatibility

For customer engagement and retention, meeting users where they are is important. A mobile-compatible training platform allows customers to access training materials on the go.

Plus, optimizing training content via mobile apps ensures the training experience isn’t compromised. Whether it’s employee training or external training initiatives, users can seamlessly navigate through modules, quizzes, and assessments, maintaining the integrity of their learning experience.

5. Interactive assessments

A robust training platform should include built-in quiz functionality. This feature allows organizations to create and deploy quiz lessons to ensure users are absorbing the knowledge and can show  their expertise when needed.

The beauty lies in encouraging users to demonstrate their skills. Verifiable badges and certificates are more than accolades—they become a testament to their commitment. Such digital credentials, easily shareable on social platforms, turn your learners into ambassadors of their own success – and yours.

But the process doesn’t end there. Look for training software that has a built-in quiz feature, as it adds an interactive layer to the learning content. This isn’t your typical passive information consumption; rather it’s a journey of active engagement, which ensures that learners aren’t just absorbing knowledge, but are actively participating in their own learning.

6. Integrations

You want your customer training program to connect with external apps. For example, you need integrations with Content Management Systems (CMS) to create dynamic courses enriched with multimedia elements.

Customer relationship management (CRM) integrations provide immediate access to the latest training data. This ensures that sales, marketing, and support teams have updated information about a customer’s training status and performance. In that respect, you should prioritize integration with a CRM like Salesforce when choosing customer training software. This is what gives program managers key insights into user behavior, allowing them to optimize content in real-time.

Similarly, to monetize your training programs, you need eCommerce and payment gateway integrations. That way, collecting payments for courses, bundles, or subscriptions can be done through the payment gateway of your choice.

Improve your customer training with Skilljar

Skilljar is a cloud-based customer training LMS platform that companies can use to create and manage online training courses for their customers, partners, and employees. It includes all the core capabilities of a traditional learning management system, then takes Customer Education to the next level. SaaS businesses and large enterprises use Skilljar to improve their customer training initiatives and manage online courses to educate and onboard customers.

Get a Skilljar demo to see how it helps you build an enriching learning experience for your customers.