Defining Customer Education : A Strategy for Retention, Adoption, and Success

A Strategy for Retention, Adoption, and Success

How can effective Customer Education increase the overall success of your business, beyond just the “user experience” of your product?

In this article, we'll:

1. Redefine Customer Education from our work building out customer academy programs and product certifications for global SaaS and technology organizations.
   
   
2. Highlight use cases for implementing Customer Education to achieve your unique goals. 

This article is the first in a series on effective Customer Education strategies. Subscribe to the Customer Education Blueprint to have this delivered to your inbox.

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The Rise of Customer Education

If you’ve been on LinkedIn at all, you’ve likely seen the rise of Customer Education professionals, communities, groups, and others publishing content on everything from “supporting your learner through personalization” to “AI and Learning.” 

Other posts focus on technologies that deliver and track learning content.

Some teams focus on “product training.”Other teams say “product training isn’t enough.” 

Then there are discussions on certifications, communities, and learning journeys. And of course, debates on whether your training programs should “be paid or free.”
But, Customer Education is one part of a Customer-Led model that can make a difference in your customer relationships - and your revenue.

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Customer Retention vs. Acquisition

The premise of this guide is that often “Retained ARR > Leads.” 

Meaning - it’s often more valuable for SaaS and B2B organizations to excel at customer retention. Rather than expending all resources on acquisition alone. This doesn’t discount the work of marketing and sales but rather highlights why Customer Education teams and programs need to be integrated into the other departments.
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To better understand this strategy and perspective, we should define “Customer Education.”

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Defining Customer Education

Customer education is a framework for many customer interactions. And it's part of an overall customer success ideology.

But, it’s not just a “customer success” function. As teams work together more closely, much of what was “education” should become “marketing,” “sales,” and “success.”

As a result, having a clear definition of “Education” and the individuals served through the education team’s output is critical for scoping the initiatives and success of your customer education work.

A quick Google search will bring up all sorts of variations of what “customer education” is:

1. The learning platform, WeSchool, provided this definition of the Customer Education process -
   “Customer Education is a dynamic process that empowers users with the knowledge and skills not only to navigate the features of a product but also to explore complex topics related to the industry and solve day-by-day challenges – which is, in the end, what learning is all about in the end.”
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2. Thinkific, a learning platform for monetizing education, defined customer education as -
   “the process of enhancing your customers’ knowledge about your product or service to help them achieve value faster and better scale user growth.”
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3. The Customer Education Playbook written by Daniel Quick and Barry Kelly, defines it as - a discipline where “companies train their clients and customers on how to extract value from the services they provide…”

I’m a huge fan of these two authors, and the other referenced companies, but through our work at ThinkThru we have slightly adapted these definitions through the lens of the entire customer journey. 

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So for this guide, we’ll define Customer Education as follows - 
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Any educational activity that guides someone toward success in achieving their own personal, professional, or organizational goals as a result of a relationship with your product or service.

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Notice the key points in this definition - 

1. "Any educational activity."
   This opens up the world of content and training to any number of unique experiences. From content experiences like videos, audio, or written content, to interpersonal experiences that occur in community groups, chats, and messages that advance someone's success.
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2. "Guides someone toward success."
   Guidance is one of the best ways we can think about education. Often customer education isn’t there to be “prescriptive” for every individual, but rather it’s a framework for supporting current customers, future customers, potential customers, or fans toward success with the tools or unique mechanisms your product or service delivers.
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3. "Personal, professional or organizational goals."
   Depending on the types of products and services being provided, there are multiple motivations for someone “wanting training” or “upskilling.” Generally, enrolling in “customer education” has little to do with your specific platform/ product/ service, and is more about a person’s interest in being more successful, getting their job done more easily, getting a promotion, having more time to focus on their family, etc. Stacking these motivations and perspectives into your course offerings will make them even more successful. (go beyond “admins and users” and think about the actual humans in your programs.)
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4. "Relationship with your product or service."
   A relationship doesn’t have to be a “customer” necessarily for the “Customer Education” department to include them in scope. Education is one of the best ways to create a market for your products and services and as a result may overlap with “prospects or leads” who are engaged in content, conversations, or community but haven’t yet become customers.

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Implementing Customer Education: A Tailored Approach

With such a diverse range of applications, implementing Customer Education in your organization demands a customized strategy.

Let's consider a few scenarios:
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1. Market Education & Category Definition

If your goal is to establish market leadership and build long-term trust, your approach might focus on comprehensive educational content that positions your brand as a thought leader.

For example, a previous client, Reveal Data, uses Reveal Academy (their customer education platform) to launch new platforms and features to the market - as well as certify individuals in their respective skills. The academy went from 0 students to thousands in the first year, our collaboration helped them create one of the most recognized and in-demand training academies in eDiscovery.

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2. Revenue Generation & Resource Optimization

For those aiming to boost revenue or streamline resources, shorter, targeted training modules designed to quickly upskill users or free up your team's time can be more effective.

Another one of our previous clients, Cellebrite, created an industry-leading training and certification program that drove an entire business line complementary to their software and hardware product lines. These certifications are some of the most recognized in their industry, and they provided significant revenue before taking their company public.

Or People3, a consulting firm that needed a way to scale their consulting cooperation and provide flexible solutions to clients. Implementing online versions of their consulting programs and services unlocked a scale that they hadn’t previously experienced, and it gave them a platform with which to engage and retain customers.

Each of these organizations and objectives requires a unique combination of content, community involvement, and structural design.

Summary

The possibilities of “what Customer Education is for you and your organization” are limited only by your imagination and resources. 

To recap: 

• Customer education is “any educational activity that helps guide someone toward success in achieving their own personal, professional, or organizational goals as a result of a relationship with your product or service.”
  
  
• This perspective is tailored by our thinking that it is more valuable for SaaS and B2B organizations to excel at customer retention than acquisition alone (Retained Revenue is greater than Leads.)
  
  
• It enables organizations to use content, community, and experiences as a way to build knowledge, impart skills, and build trust with customers at every stage of their customer journey with your product or service. 

In our next guide, Identifying the Role of Customer Education in Your Organization, we’ll expand on the process of using our definition to scope implementation, its impact on the customer journey, and more.

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Sources

1. WeSchool: There is a reason why it’s called Customer “Education,” https://www.weschool.com/resources/reason-why-customer-education/
2. The Customer Education Playbook, by Daniel Quick and Barry Kelly. Wiley Publishing, 2022.
3. Thinkific: Customer Education 101: How To Kickstart Your Program, https://www.thinkific.com/blog/customer-education/