Why is an LMS the best possible source for product training?
The companies have to ensure that their product training is successful. Hence, the companies need to make sure that such training needs to be done with a lot of forethought. The companies must realize that product training is not a one-time event, but continuous. Hence, through e-learning, you can impart such training because the updates can be done in the modules through the eLearning vendor whenever there are any changes. It’s also necessary that the training is as per the needs of the different stakeholders. For example, the marketing team of the company does not need to have an in-depth knowledge of the product as the sales team because the latter need to explain its features. These are the reasons why a company needs an LMS for product training of its customers and employees:
- Providing social proof to customers:
Elearning also involves microlearning which is beneficial to make training enjoyable. The customers also want social proof of the advantages of using the product. Customers can be shown social proof of how users of the product benefitted from it when they faced similar situations. Hence, it’s better, that the customers are shown the testimonials of the existing users of the product, and the prospective customers of the product are likely to follow suit in those situations. Such testimonials can be uploaded on the LMS.
Moreover, the sales training team should be given better chances to practice their product training skills through e-learning-based simulations on an LMS. For example, they can answer a customer when the latter asks a specific question.
- A better investment of time by customer reps:
Product training is even more necessary for customers because otherwise, the sales reps can’t have more crucial conversations.
In the absence of such programs, their entire time is spent explaining to customers how to solve a particular problem in the product. So, with product training, the reps can focus on growth opportunities rather than explain the simple mechanisms of the product. When customer reps are free, they can canvass customers to make high investments in the product, like bulk purchases.
- Ranking of courses by customers for each other:
A product training program is also helpful when the customers have a rating system through which they can rank the various courses. This way, the new customers know how to solve their product-related queries through the answers found favorable by the other customers. This can also lead to customer retention because when new customers can find easy answers to their product-related queries, they will not stop using a product.
- Lower customer churn:
The companies face the problem of customer churn, which means many of the customers stop using their products. This means that the customers are not happy with the product’s value.
There are many reasons behind the customer churn, which are:
- Lack of a fit between the product and the customer requirements
- Poor customer support
- Inappropriate user experience :
E-Learning can’t be of much help when the product does not deliver on customers’ expectations. Those issues can be removed when the Research and development team works on the product. But problems of poor customer support and inappropriate user experience can be solved through product training programs.
These are the various benefits of using an LMS for product training programs for customers:
- Lesser Time to Value :
Time to value means the time the customers take to understand the expected value of a product. For example, they must quickly discover the advantages of a product, like improving their business outcomes if it’s a B2B product. The customers don’t have much patience and hence this time should be as least as possible. Therefore, the customers must be given product training in an onboarding program to quickly learn the benefits of using the product.
Moreover, in an onboarding program, customers know how to use a product correctly and find out its advantages. Hence, the customer reps must have access to an LMS to provide the content to the different customers as per the use cases. Since the customer reps can’t individually interact with customers, using an LMS is essential for information dispersal to every customer.
The customers should become reliant on an LMS for every piece of information, but the customer reps should be available where the learning is insufficient.
There was a time when customer onboarding was done by handing them lengthy product manuals, but gone are those days. Using these methods can ensure that the customer churn is high because it takes too long to understand how a product has some value for them. Now customers need blog posts and video-based screencast guides. With an LMS at their disposal, the customers immediately start using the product with how-to-do articles. An LMS ensures a short onboarding process so that the customers start receiving the demos on their email IDs as soon as they provide them. Hence, companies can ensure that the Time to value is less for customers.
- Lack of time with customer reps to chat:
Using an LMS for product training is also essential when the customers don’t have the time to chat with the customer reps.
Even when the customers have time in the night to talk about products, the customer reps have gone home. Hence, with an LMS, the customers have access to an academy that answers all their questions. Also, the customer reps teams are online during the daytime on the LMS and can be contacted by puzzled customers who have questions.
The companies need to keep customers in the loop when the product has been updated because it might be challenging to use it then. Therefore, new videos about product features should be uploaded on the LMS.