Retaining existing customers is far more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. For context, bringing in new customers typically costs five to 25 times more. Even small increases in retention can substantially impact profitability. Research shows a mere 5% improvement can boost profits between 25% and 95%.
Companies that focus on keeping customers often see up to 60% higher profits compared to those emphasizing customer acquisition. And approximately 65% of revenue typically originates from just 8% of its most loyal, repeat customers.
Customer training keeps retention strong. When customers know how to fully use your products or services, they stick around. In this article, we’ll break down the importance of customer training, highlight its benefits, share best practices and examples, and show how Absorb LMS can boost successful customer education.
What is customer training?
Customer training is a structured program that teaches customers how to use your product well. This teaching can happen through online courses customers complete at their own speed, live online meetings, in-person workshops and centers, how-to videos, or interactive simulations.
These programs often cover getting started, feature updates, troubleshooting guides, and certification paths. Companies and industries like software sellers and hardware manufacturers use customer training programs to make customers happier and increase spending over time.
Customer training is key because it builds customer confidence. Customers who receive training feel more confident about using a product or service. They’re also more likely to try different features and resolve their own issues, which leads to a stronger connection with your brand. Plus, customer training means fewer support requests from customer service, making their work easier and more efficient.
Studies show that companies with developed customer education programs see support expenses drop by 6.1% on average. Also, when customers get training when they first start, they reach important product milestones quicker, improving satisfaction and leading to faster time-to-value.
The difference between customer training and customer support
It’s easy to sometimes confuse customer training and customer support. Customer support acts after an issue arises, providing answers when something malfunctions or confuses the customer. Customer training, however, takes a forward-looking approach.
Customer training equips customers with the knowledge and skills needed for success from the outset, showing them how to navigate the product or service effectively. In doing so, this proactive education reduces the likelihood of encountering problems.
For instance, customer support is like having a repair service available when your car breaks down. They address the immediate problem. Customer training, on the other hand, is like providing driving lessons and regular maintenance guides. The goal is for you to know how to operate the vehicle properly and understand how to care for it, minimizing the chances of a breakdown in the first place.
A strong customer training program can significantly decrease the demand on customer support teams. When customers understand the product's features and functionalities well, they can often resolve minor issues independently.
Self-sufficiency benefits customers by providing quicker solutions while also allowing support agents to focus on complex challenges that require their expertise. Customer training fosters an informed, self-reliant customer base, enhancing experiences and improving company efficiency resources.
Components of customer training
A well-structured customer education program plays a key role in boosting how much customers use a product and how loyal they become. By examining its main elements, companies can create learning experiences that have a real impact and lead to positive outcomes.
Most effective customer training programs share several traits:
1. Structured learning paths
Organize training content into logical steps that match what your customers need at different stages. This staged approach, moving from initial guidance for new users to more advanced instruction on product capabilities, allows users to quickly become proficient with your product.
2. Multi-format training content
Another vital element is providing various content formats. Recognizing that individuals learn in different ways, the most successful programs offer a rich mix of resources. This includes videos, documentation, knowledge checks, knowledge base articles, online presentations, and quick learning segments designed to maintain learner interest and cater to diverse learning styles.
3. On-demand and self-paced access
Effective programs prioritize learning when and how customers want it. Flexibility is necessitated by the fact that customers often have busy schedules or live in different parts of the world.
It’s paramount that customers be able to learn at a time and pace that suits their individual needs. A simple-to-use LMS that functions well on mobile devices can make this accessibility a reality and effectively serve a wide range of customers.
4. Real-time tracking and reporting
To ensure that training efforts are impactful, tracking and reporting in real time are essential. Built-in data analysis tools allow you to see who is finishing lessons, identify the most effective parts of the training, and pinpoint areas where customers disengage.
The information then informs how you can improve your training content and ultimately reduce customer turnover. The data reveals insights into engagement with interactive scenarios, showing where hands-on learning is beneficial, and test performance, indicating areas of lacking understanding.
Integration with your tech stack
Your training shouldn’t be a stand-alone. The best LMS platforms connect with your CRM, support tools, and product analytics to create a 360-degree view of the customer learning journey.
Companies that implement customer education programs, which often include self-paced learning components, see an average increase in product adoption by 38% and customer retention by 22%. To deliver round-the-clock customer training at scale, learn how Absorb LMS supports self-paced learning.
Benefits of customer training
Customer training offers a lot of advantages for organizations. It improves product understanding, drives engagement, loyalty, and revenue growth. It’s a wise investment that pays off across every stage of the customer journey.
1. Boosts customer retention and reduces churn
A well-designed customer training program increases the likelihood that customers will remain with your company long-term. When customers thoroughly understand the value and capabilities of your product or service, it becomes more difficult for competitors to offer a compelling alternative.
They’re less inclined to seek other options when they feel confident and competent in using what you provide. This directly contributes to sustained revenue and improved profitability by reducing customer turnover.
2. Improves customer satisfaction and experience
Measures of customer satisfaction improve as they gain proficiency with your products. Training ensures that customers don’t feel lost, struggle to use the product, or constantly need to contact your support team for basic guidance.
When customers feel knowledgeable and self-sufficient, it results in higher net promoter scores (NPS), more positive reviews, and stronger recommendations to others. This positive feedback loop further strengthens your brand reputation and attracts new customers.
3. Increases product adoption and feature usage
Customers who haven’t received adequate training typically only use a small portion of a product's available features. However, research indicates that 68% of customers use a product more effectively after receiving training, and 56% use more features after training.
This increased feature use is particularly important for companies that rely on upselling. Customers are more likely to see the value in additional offerings if they’re already maximizing their use of the core product.
4. Enables scalable growth
Training provides benefits for both customers and internal teams. Well-created training materials reduce the demands on sales engineers, account managers, and support representatives.
Instead of repeatedly addressing the same basic questions, these teams can redirect their efforts toward more strategic activities. Think: building deeper customer relationships, pursuing new sales opportunities, and tackling complex support issues. This shift in focus allows the company to scale its operations more efficiently without increasing overhead.
Step-by-step guide to building a customer training strategy
Designing a customer training program that’s scalable and aligned with your business goals requires a structured strategy.
Here’s how to build a training program that drives long-term customer success:
Step 1: Define your goals and KPIs
Before creating any content, clarify what you want the training to achieve. Practical customer training educates users and delivers business value. Your goals include reducing time-to-value, improving customer retention, increasing upsell or cross-sell rates, lowering the volume of support tickets, and driving adoption of key features.
Then, you define your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Goal | KPI example |
Faster onboarding | Average time from signup to first action |
Reduced support volume | Number of tickets per 100 users |
Higher customer satisfaction | NPS or CSAT scores post-training |
Product adoption | Percentage of users using new features |
Tracking these metrics over time helps validate the ROI of your training program.
Step 2: Know your audience
To create training content that resonates, you need to understand who your learners are, what they need to know, and how they prefer to learn. For instance, enterprise clients might value certifications, while smaller teams may prefer quick-start videos and searchable how-to guides. Build learner personas just like marketing personas, and tailor content and formats to each customer segment.
Step 3: Choose your training formats
A multi-modal approach to customer training keeps learning engaging and effective by meeting diverse learner needs. Mixing self-paced eLearning, live webinars, workshops, microlearning modules, knowledge bases, and certification programs ensures broad reach. FYI: Microlearning can improve focus and retention by up to 80% compared to traditional training methods.
Step 4: Develop practical and engaging content
Good content is the focal point of any successful customer education program. To make it effective, keep it clear and avoid unnecessary jargon. Use visuals like screenshots and video demos to explain complex ideas.
You can also make it interactive through simulations, guiding users to complete fundamental tasks in your product. Don’t just explain what a feature does, show how it solves real problems. Analyze support ticket data to identify high-friction areas, as these present perfect opportunities for targeted training content.
Step 5: Deliver through the right platform
You need a platform that can support both self-paced and instructor-led training, mobile access, custom branding, automated workflows, multiple languages, and advanced reporting. Phew. The good news? Absorb LMS can do just that for you. No matter the number of customers you're training, 100 or 100,000 users, Absorb LMS offers the scalability and flexibility to grow with your needs.
Step 6: Measure and optimize
The most effective customer training programs are agile and data-driven. Use analytics to identify where learners drop off and spot underperforming content. Track how training impacts key business KPIs with insight that allows you to refine your content, test different delivery formats, and continuously enhance the learner experience.
Real-world example of customer training success
Real organizations are using customer training to solve problems and drive business results. Here’s a real-world example of a successful customer education program and the results they’ve achieved.
Global eTraining: Growing global learning through Absorb LMS
Challenge: Global eTraining (GeT), a provider of on-demand corporate training solutions for architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing sectors, needed a learning management system (LMS). One that could expand to serve both its direct customers and a network of international clients.
Their goal was to provide adaptable and multilingual training experiences across different regions and company structures.
Solution: Global eTraining worked with Absorb LMS to implement a flexible and easy-to-use platform that supported teamwork. Plus, it allowed resellers to offer clients learning experiences that they could change.
This included bringing in their own materials and providing consistent tracking and reporting. They also used Absorb's adaptable multi-language features and GDPR compliance to connect with their worldwide audience.
Results: The implementation of Absorb LMS resulted in significant outcomes for Global eTraining.
- It increased GeT's reach to customers in 154 countries, including small businesses and large international corporations.
- Over a million courses were sold to thousands of users through Absorb LMS.
- Resellers were able to offer clients a customized learning experience, enhancing the value proposition for partners.
Customer training applies to end-users, partners, resellers, and anyone representing your brand externally. The example shows how the right training strategy and platform increase customer experience growth.
To see more on the success of Global eTraining’s customer training results, read the case study here.
Next, let’s show you how you can use Absorb LMS for customer training.
How to use Absorb LMS for customer training
Absorb LMS has many features to simplify the development of customer training programs. Here’s how you can make the most of its abilities:
1. Creating and arranging content
- Upload different content types: Absorb LMS works with various content types, letting you upload your videos, PDFs, presentations, SCORM/xAPI packages, and more. This lets you create the multi-format training content we talked about earlier.
- Build courses and learning paths: Arrange your content into logical courses and structured learning paths. Guide customers through a step-by-step learning process, from getting started to advanced topics.
- Work with the course builder: Absorb LMS provides an easy-to-use course builder interface. You can drag and drop content, add assignments, and set completion rules without needing advanced tech skills.
2. Delivering interesting learning activities
- Offer self-paced study: By setting courses as self-paced, you let customers learn at their own speed and convenience, suiting different schedules and time zones – a key benefit customers mentioned.
- Give access when needed: Make sure that training materials are ready for customers whenever they need them, reinforcing learning and providing help right when it’s required.
- Incorporate multimedia: Include videos, interactive simulations, and other interesting content directly into your courses to suit different learning styles and enhance retention.
- Use assessments and quizzes: Use the assessment features to check customer understanding and reinforce key ideas. This can range from simple checks to more complete evaluations.
- Try short lessons: Break down complex subjects into shorter, focused parts that are easier for customers to take in and remember.
3. Increasing involvement and motivation
- Use gamification features: Absorb LMS comes with game-like features such as badges, points, and leaderboards to motivate learners and keep training fun.
- Support communication: Depending on your Absorb LMS setup, you might be able to add forums or discussion areas to let customers connect and ask questions.
- Personalize the learning activity: Absorb LMS offers features to make the learning path more individual based on customer roles, product use, or other factors. This makes the training more relevant.
4. Following progress and measuring success
- Pull reports and analytics: Reporting tools let you follow learner progress, completion rates, assessment scores, and more. This aligns with the real-time tracking and reporting we previously discussed for customer training, allowing you to measure its effectiveness.
- Spot where people stop: Look at learner activity to find areas where customers struggle or lose interest, so you can improve your content accordingly.
- Measure training effect: Connect training completion data with customer satisfaction scores, product use numbers, and retention rates to show the clear positives of your customer training program.
5. Connection with your system
- Connect with CRM and support tools: Absorb LMS syncs with CRM and support platforms, giving you a complete view of the customer path, training participation, and overall customer health.
- Automate enrollment and notifications: Set up automated enrollment rules and notifications to make sure new customers are automatically signed up for relevant training and receive timely reminders.
Use these features in Absorb LMS to build a customer training strategy that boosts product adoption, improves satisfaction, and strengthens loyalty. Keep an eye on your training content and learner data to refine your program for better results.
Customer training pays off (big time)
Customer training is a powerful business driver. It delivers measurable benefits across the entire customer lifecycle, speeding up onboarding by helping users reach value faster. It’s clear that early education pays off, 86% of customers say they're more likely to stay loyal to brands that invest in onboarding. And ongoing training improves retention and loyalty, with trained customers being 92% more likely to stay engaged long-term.
It also lightens the load on your support team. Educated customers ask fewer basic questions, freeing your team for more complex issues and lowering costs.
We hope this message is loud and clear: Organizations investing in structured customer education programs outperform competitors in customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth.
If you’re looking to deliver exceptional customer experiences through training, Absorb LMS has the tools, features, and support to make it happen. Top brands use Absorb to train smarter, scale faster, and grow stronger relationships, and so should you. Explore Absorb’s customer education platform.
