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Introduction
Product Training can be integral to the success of your product in the market. This success can manifest in a variety of ways. Customers who know how to use your product effectively will do so more often, leading to a better product usage rate. Product Training can also help with the adoption of new features and newer functionalities. Product training can keep users up to date with the release cycle. A company that offers effective product training will witness lesser customer dependence on the support channels. Ultimately, product training will increase the value of your product, improve customer satisfaction, and can even positively impact customer retention.
In this blog post, we explore the various challenges of going to market that can be resolved using a sound product training program.
Achieving Adoption
Adoption is perhaps the most important challenge that can be addressed using product training. The Pandemic Work Model for Renewing Recurring Revenue indicates that:
- 17% of revenue is derived from recurring revenue, for hardware companies
- 38% of revenue is derived from recurring revenue, for software companies
- Over 90% of revenue is derived from recurring revenue, for SaaS companies
Product training throughout the entire customer lifecycle ensures that they get consistent value from your product at every stage. Product Training begins with pre-sales. It is important to note that knowledgeable sales personnel make better sales. Your sales teams should be able to answer any questions that the customer may have about your product, effectively.
Post-sales, customer onboarding helps users train for using your product better. A novice, intermediate, or an advanced user may have different training requirements and gain unique value from your product. Providing personalized product training for each kind of user will ensure that customers gain value at any level of competency. This brings us to our next point, features, and functionality.
Features and Functionality
Product training helps your users discover features and functions within your product that may be most relevant and beneficial to them. Loyalty is earned when customers feel your product caters to their needs effectively. This is especially important for software and hardware products where user churn can be detrimental. Setting up a user training portal is an effective way to retain customers. Use training modules to showcase the key features of your product.
The training portal can be used to educate your customers about the intricacies of your product, increasing the opportunity for success with your product. Training modules that address common questions can considerably reduce the burden placed on your support staff.
Through the use of interactivity and gamification, users can be engaged better with product training. It can also serve to easily update customers on the latest features and functionalities of your product.
Personalize the Buyer Experience: Relevance Is Everything
In today’s world, personalization is a primary driver of product success. Today’s customers expect a personalized experience. This Gartner survey indicates that brands can lose 38% of their customers on account of poor personalization practices. Customers enjoy receiving product and user recommendations that are relevant to them. If your product caters to the needs of more than one type of customer, they will expect to receive recommendations that fit their needs.
Hyper-individualized training has been made possible by the availability of data. Train both salespeople and customers by understanding the type of use they have for your product. The expectation of features and functionality can vary vastly between two users that have very different needs.
Boosts Customer and Employee Confidence
Product knowledge is power. Without adequate product training, your sales personnel cannot convey the value of your product effectively to your customers. Similarly, your customers may not be able to make the most use of your product without sufficient knowledge.
Let us explore how product knowledge training can aid customer and employee confidence:
- Better engagement: Customers and staff with adequate knowledge of a product can engage with it effectively. When the scope of use and the intricacies of your product becomes clear to them, using it becomes easier and more fulfilling.
- Practicing hypothetical scenarios: Training through hypothetical scenarios can instill confidence in users. It is also an effective way to learn about a product and its applications in a simulated environment.
- Continuous Training: One-and-done training is detrimental to long-term knowledge retention. A continuous training program for both staff and customers can ensure that users can retain knowledge. For staff, training modules can cover sections that customers may have difficulty with while engaging with a product. A modified version of this program can be made available to customers to ensure that they have the means to solve any difficulty without needing to reach support, every time.
Product Training is Part of the Ideal Buying Experience
A Salesforce study indicates that 57% of customers have moved away from a company because a competitor provided a better buying experience.
If your goal is to create lasting customer relationships, it is critical to invest in a product training program. An effective training program will improve the reputation of your brand and increase the likelihood of staying ahead of your competition.
- Training creates a lasting relationship with customers: Building trust with your customers begins in pre-sales. When your staff or sales personnel can provide accurate and clear information to prospective customers, both parties feel more confident and comfortable in the dialogue. Customers are more likely to trust staff who possess the expertise of the product that they are selling. This can make or break a sales pitch.
- Improve sales: Sales personnel with a thorough understanding of your product can virtually be a superpower. This is because when your staff knows the product in-and-out, they will know exactly how it serves the needs of a specific customer. They can aid a customer’s decision-making process using their expert knowledge to make suggestions. Product knowledge also increases the opportunities for upselling.
- Improves customer experience: Training can help customers learn the product at their own pace. A training program can be deployed with attention to interactivity and user engagement. This can aid customer retention and improve knowledge retention. Data from customer support can be used to reliably create training modules that address customer pain points. This can aid both the backend technology teams as well as reduce the reliance on customer support.
If you are curious to learn more about product training and how Origin Learning can make a difference for your business, write to us at info@originlearning.com. If you found this blog post helpful, leave a comment below!