There’s a lot of talk about customer experience these days, and rightfully so. Consumers expect more from brands than ever before, including personalized experiences, interactive and engaging content and access to information on demand — all of which requires brands to invest in their customer education strategy.
Customer education isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s a way to empower your customers, build trust and set them up for success from day one. When customers feel confident using your product, they’re more likely to stick around, engage with key features and see the real value of what you offer.
The good news is that many brands are already investing in their customers’ education. But for those who have yet to take the leap into this strategy, we’re covering 5 reasons why you should. First up, though, let’s define customer education.
What Is Customer Education?
While education and support are similar, they’re not the same.
Think about the timing of each approach. Customer support is reactive. When a customer reaches out, the support team is ready to answer and resolve pain points.
Customer education, on the other hand, is proactive. Your customer success team takes the initiative to teach new customers about your company and products before questions arise. These educational resources can come in a variety of formats, including:
- A video explaining your customers’ future billing statements and the reasons behind your pricing.
- An up-to-date knowledge base that covers complex processes.
- A webinar that new users can attend to learn more about the company.
- A training program that awards learners with a certification once they’ve finished.
Whatever customer learning content you choose to distribute, the end result is the same: better results for your business. We share the top 5 benefits of customer education below.
1. Streamline Customer Onboarding
A key part of the onboarding process is educating customers on everything they need to know. A smooth, insightful introduction to your product sets the tone for the kind of care your customers can expect throughout the customer journey. Plus, it boosts customer satisfaction, customer retention and other key metrics.
Of course, people have different learning styles. Some are perfectly happy figuring it out themselves, while others would struggle without clear guidance. Ideally, you’d want to give every customer an in-depth explanation of your product. But reaching out with a 1:1 demo on your product is often time-consuming, inefficient and nearly impossible.
Instead, invest in your customer education program. Create online learning content that your customer education team can send out to customers the second they join. The upshot? You not only educate customer base.
For example, Spectrum (owned by Charter Communications) sent new customers a step-by-step self-installation video tutorial. The Interactive Video above allowed users to skip ahead, revisit specific steps and learn at their own pace. It’s a good balance between DIY solutions and guided instructions.
Curious what kind of results they got from the campaign? Check out the case study.
2. Increase Customer Engagement and Product Adoption
A customer who understands your product and services is more likely to adopt and engage with them.
This is especially apparent in industries with more complex processes and services, like pensions and retirement. Saving for the future can be confusing, and members often fail to understand how to make the most of their plan.
Because of this, the industry is seeing drastically low member engagement rates. But providers are realizing the value of effective customer education in alleviating this issue.
Explainer videos, for instance, are a great piece of training content that many members now receive, teaching them about their plan and the value it brings. Just take a look at this video from Standard Life below.
You can apply this same strategy to any complex topic your customers may struggle with. Boost their understanding of your product’s functions with educational content and watch your customer engagement grow.
3. Boost Customer Loyalty
Think about any product or service you’ve recently started using. It probably took a few tries before you were able to appreciate its full value. Take an investment app, for instance. You won’t immediately see your investments grow. First, you have to open an account, choose your stocks and more.
If you’re not sure how to use the app, pick an investment or navigate other nuances, it may take a while for you to get set up. The longer it takes to begin to properly use the app, the longer it will take for you to see your investments grow.
This is exactly why customer education is needed. A knowledge base, quizzes and other learning content can help customers get up to speed with your product quicker. And the faster they learn how to properly use their product, the faster it is for them to reach their goals — and see the value of your product.
The result? Once a customer starts to see the benefits of your brand, they’re likely to continue doing business with you.
And you don’t have to stop there. Customer education can occur throughout the customer lifecycle, whether a customer has recently joined or has been a member for years. For instance, sending out an infographic on new features or a short video highlighting creative uses for your product can inspire loyalty and reinforce that you’re always thinking about customer needs.
4. Reduce Support Tickets
By giving customers the information they need even before they ask, you save your customers’ time spent asking questions — and your support team’s time spent answering them. As opposed to waiting for customers to call in with questions, you can proactively provide the information they need in a way that’s easy for them to access and understand.
This is a welcome approach for both your brand and your customers. A decrease in calls means your brand will be able to cut down on support costs while giving your support team the bandwidth to answer questions that require their full attention.
Post on
Offering the right resources is essential. According to Gartner, while nearly 75% of consumers attempt self-service, only 14% successfully resolve complex problems on their own. The most common reason for failure? In 43% of cases, customers couldn’t find content relevant to their issue.
This highlights the importance of providing clear learning paths that lead them directly to the information they need. Personalized and interactive customer service resources can make a big difference here.
Take this Next Gen Video by Newrez as an example. Mortgages can be confusing, and customers naturally have questions about their next steps after forbearance. Knowing this, Newreze sent video messages that let viewers choose which option they want to learn more about, while also including details specific to their mortgage.
This kind of personalized, interactive content not only clarifies confusing topics but also actively reduces support tickets by giving customers the answers they need on their terms. Not to mention, it’s much more engaging than a dense FAQs page.
5. Increase Customer Lifetime Value
Your best customers — those with a high lifetime value — don’t just use your product. They take advantage of it. They sign up for loyalty programs, use discounts and make the most of what your brand has to offer.
A successful customer education program plays a key role in encouraging this kind of behavior. Loyal customers want to engage. They want to learn about your rewards program and know which services work best for them. So give them what they’re looking for: helpful webinars, data-driven videos and easy interactions with your customer success teams.
Take Navy Federal Credit Union, for instance. To remind customers of the value of their loyalty program, they sent out a video explaining available points and rewards.
Telling customers to use your loyalty program can be easily ignored. But an easy-to-understand, in-depth piece of educational content encourages customers to optimize their rewards and see the value that Navy Federal Credit Union offers.
The good news? Creating engaging videos like this is no longer difficult. Our very own Lucas AI Video Creator can automate the process, creating videos by drawing from your approved content using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) rather than external data sources. Simply upload a document or link to a webpage and he’ll turn it into an accurate, on-brand video.
Built for enterprises, Lucas prioritizes security, scalability and visual frameworks that reflect your unique brand. Plus, since he’s powered by our Next Generation Video Platform, every video can be rendered and edited in real time and even made interactive and personalized.
Set Your Customers Up For Success With Customer Education
From preventing churn to increasing engagement, it’s clear that customer training can bring you closer to your business goals.
There are tons of ways to scale your customer education efforts. Create a knowledge base. Invest in a learning management system (LMS). And don’t forget to communicate with customers the way they want: with video.
Video offers a human touch, just as an in-person training session does. It enhances the user experience. It’s easy to follow. And with the latest technology, video can even be interactive. Whether it’s an interactive demo, a quiz or whatever else you have in mind, the use cases are virtually limitless.
By investing in customer education, you’re doing more than reacting to support requests — you’re proactively building long-term relationships, encouraging renewals and creating advocates for your brand.
Want to learn more? We can teach you all about the possibilities of video. Just schedule a 15-minute call with one of our video experts.
