January 19, 2026

Why great CX starts with customer education

POSTED BY:

Sophie Furnival

Is customer education on your customer experience radar yet?  

Let’s start with more questions: Are you even working with your customer success team on customer education? And, if so, is it driving growth?

For most organizations, customer education lives off to the side of CX, if it’s part of the strategy at all. Something you send after the sale rather than something that shapes the experience. But every learning moment (onboarding, troubleshooting, or exploring a new feature) is the experience. And despite that, it’s still one of the most overlooked levers for both customer success and business growth.

When education is done well, it improves self-service, deepens relationships, builds confidence, and turns customers into advocates.

A version of this was first published in the All things learning newsletter. Want more content like this directly to your inbox? Sign up here.

The missing layer of customer experience (CX)

Most CX issues start at the same moment: when customers are left to figure things out on their own. Education is what resets the path. Ahead, we’ll look at four points in the journey where it creates immediate lift.

1. Build education into your CX strategy

When it comes to customer experience, most friction isn’t about the product itself. It’s the getting-started part. Customers don’t fully understand what they’ve bought or lose steam before they ever see value. We’ve all been there. New app, three clicks in, already Googling “how do I…?”

That’s where customer education comes in. Bake learning right into your CX strategy, with a mix of push (onboarding, walkthroughs) and pull (on-demand help), and customers reach the “Oh, that’s how this works” moment faster, and get the ROI they paid for.

A solid education program can:

  • Help customers onboard faster and more confidently. A frustration-free start lowers early churn and improves CSAT.
  • Reduce friction across the journey. Interactive tutorials walk customers through complex features, leading to fewer support tickets.
  • Empower users to solve problems independently. A searchable knowledge base lets them find answers fast, improving self-sufficiency.

And when you align learning with customer goals through clear paths, live webinars, or even certification programs, it shows you’re invested in their success.

The result? Faster time-to-value, fewer support requests, and customers who stay because they see the value.

2. Turn learning into customer loyalty

Engagement gets a lot of airtime. But without direction, it doesn’t last. Customers might log in, click through a few lessons, and then disappear before the second module.

Engagement turns into loyalty when customers feel part of something bigger. And they engage more when the learning is relevant, on-demand, and useful in the moment.

Here’s how to make it happen:

  • Create learning communities. Give customers discussion boards or forums to trade ideas. They often want to know if someone has already solved the issue.
  • Offer exclusive training. Reward loyal customers with advanced learning that feels like an upgrade.
  • Add gamification. Badges and leaderboards go a long way in bringing people back. Friendly competition FTW.

These programs deepen relationships by turning routine product use into shared success. When customers learn with you and from each other, they stay longer and advocate louder.

3. Support digital transformation

Technology moves fast. Faster than your release notes, sometimes. And while your team may be fluent in every new feature, your customers are often still catching up.

That gap, the space between innovation and adoption, is where education makes all the difference. When you build learning into your digital rollouts, customers feel equipped.

Here’s how to keep them moving forward with you:

  • Deliver just-in-time training. Short, in-app videos or guided walk-throughs help customers adapt to new updates.
  • Use AI-driven personalization. Recommend relevant content based on each user’s needs. Show real use cases, not feature tours, so they can apply it immediately.
  • Offer multilingual, multi-format content. On-demand access across formats like videos, PDFs, or quick quizzes makes it easy for global audiences to access.

By integrating learning into your product updates, you turn every rollout into a moment of enablement.

4. Equip employees to become customer educators

Your customers aren’t the only ones learning. The people supporting them are, too. Sometimes in real time with a headset on, Slack blowing up, three tabs deep in the knowledge base.

Training internal teams to act as customer educators bridges the gap between experience and expertise. That means:

  • Equipping frontline teams with the right tools. Short LMS modules help support staff guide customers through common issues.
  • Encouraging knowledge-sharing. When internal and customer-facing content match up, everyone’s on the same page.
  • Aligning internal training with external enablement. Shared dashboards give cross-functional teams a single view of learning progress and impact.

When employees understand the customer education journey, every interaction becomes an extension of it: consistent, confident, and helpful. This reduces escalations, increases NPS, and supports CLV.

If you’re thinking, “we should be doing more of that,” we covered this in a Lunch & Learn. The sandwiches are gone, but the perks of being an Absorb customer aren’t. Learn more.

Customer Satisfaction
customer education
customer training