The Importance of Customer Education

Although today’s customers are much more empowered than before, they still lack the full scope of knowledge. It is essential to transfer customers all the relevant information they need to understand the full impact of your products and services.

Most businesses overlook the importance of customer education by thinking that an educated customer is less likely to be loyal. However, a study by Eisingerich & Simon Bel debunks this myth and proves that educating customers significantly benefits the business. In this article, you will learn how customer education can have a positive impact on your company.

It is common to confuse customer education with a marketing strategy. Marketing strategies can include customer education as one of their goals, but the two concepts should not be confused with each other. While marketing strategies generally have sales increasing as the main goal, customer education is not just about boosting sales, it is mainly about building loyalty and trust.

What do we mean by customer education?

Customer education refers to a business’s processes and activities to equip its customers with the knowledge and resources needed to make the most of the products.

The importance of customer education lies in providing the customers with information so they can be satisfied with the products they buy. Even before, customer education is important to help customers in their purchasing decisions. Customer education is more customer-focused than sales-focused, meaning that more than helping sales, it helps in fostering customer loyalty and trust.

Customer education helps customers understand their rights and also actively involve them in the buying process. For businesses, customer education ensures that brands are held accountable by governing the customers who use their products and services.

Benefits of investing in customer education

It builds customer trust and loyalty

In an era where brands use various marketing ploys to lure prospective customers into buying their products, customers are more likely to trust brands that provide them with resources and information about their products.

Several studies show that educating customers is a critical service differentiator for brands and strengthens the customer’s trust in the brand. A trusting customer is an incredible advocate for the brand.

It accelerates growth throughout the customer journey

Customer education programs do more than just creating content for customers. It also addresses how brands can drive the customer’s maturity throughout their user journey.

Before a sale, a customer education strategy educates customers and influences them to make a sale. After a sale, consumer education educates buyers about how to use the product effectively. This helps customers get the most value over time, thus increasing the retention rate. When customers can easily use the product and enjoy all the benefits, they will more likely stick to your brand for future purchases.

It reduces queries by helping customers self-serve.

One of the most significant benefits of a customer education program is that it leads to fewer queries as customers become more aware and able to solve problems related to the product on their own. This empowers customers to self-serve and eases the burden on the support staff.

It changes user behavior and reduces barriers to value

Although the importance of customer education is rooted in providing skills and knowledge, it is more focused on helping customers find value in the long run. If you want your customers to be loyal, you need to reduce their barriers to value.

If your customer education is successful, it means you are effectively able to change customer behavior. The way you can change customer behavior is, in fact, by providing your customers with the knowledge that will empower them, helping them to get high value from your product. This way you will increase customer satisfaction and, therefore, customer retention in the long run.

How to provide customer education?

Now that we have explored the benefits of investing in consumer education let’s see some of the best ways to improve customer education.

Use educational videos

Using educational videos is the best strategy for creating more informed customers. Videos are easy to distribute across social media platforms and perform well in search results. If your customers have queries about your products and services, educational videos can help them find a solution quickly and autonomously.

Remember that educational videos do not need to be too long, but short and engaging. Typically the TikTok or Instagram Reels format is preferred, hence less than 30 seconds with a very catchy first 5 seconds.

Connect through a video call

Connecting with your clients through a video call or webinar is a fool-proof way of educating them, and this can take your video content a step further. Besides, video calls feel more personal and put customers at ease. It allows them to interact with the brand, ask questions, get to know your products better, and more.

Video calls have more depth than releasing educational videos. Customers are usually excited learners who appreciate effort and detail.

Organize in-person workshops and events

Depending on the nature of your business, your customers could benefit from in-person workshops and events. These events create value, make customers feel they are cared for, and strengthen their relationship with your brand. There are many creative ways in which you can execute this. For instance, if you are a make-up brand, you can host an event and invite your customers to attend. During this event, you can organize a workshop to educate customers on the best ways to use your products and help them get to know your brand better. You can also invite influencers and celebrities to endorse your brand.

Support each customer in a personal way

Ideally, every brand should support its customers in a personal way. Remember that the importance of customer education has its foundations in one-on-one interactions. Customers love a personalized experience, it builds trust and strengthens their loyalty to the brand. This personal way of communicating with customers helps brands build strong relationships, thus improving customer retention rate.

One-on-one interactive sessions allow brands to address specific customer queries and help you get to know more about their expectations and needs. Understanding your customer opens up a valuable minefield, and you will soon notice an increase in your customer satisfaction rates.

How Layerise can help you improve your customer educational content?

As you have seen, educating customers is important and can provide both brands and customers with many benefits. Brands must create an actionable customer education strategy that prioritizes essential metrics and aligns with their business goals.

Layerise can help you support and educate your customers throughout their user experience. Thanks to Layerise, you can create brand-safe product-specific Assistants for your customers to access product onboarding information, assembly guides, or troubleshooting.

Using the different features, you can create simple, powerful, and engaging guides. This will enable you to educate your customers about the product features, and inform them about changes or maintenance activities easily and effectively.

In addition to that, with the Chat feature, you can support your customers in real-time directly from the Assistant. Engaging your customers through a chat interface increases customer satisfaction and in return results in happier customers.

Three out of four brands highly recommend using Layerise. Therefore, if you are thinking of improving your customer education, we can be of great help! If you want to learn more about how Layerise can improve the performance of your brand, book a free demo now!