How do you educate a consumer?
What is the future of customer education: in academy or in product? To gain insight into the future of customer education, we asked CEOs and customer support professionals this question for their best insights. From the future being in branded academies to a mix of both due to demonstrations, there are several considerations into how companies should aim to educate their customers and consumers.
Here are six insights on how to educate a consumer:
- Branded Academies Are The Future
- Integration Towards Product
- Customer Education Will Move to the Product
- Put Yourself in The Customers’ Shoes
- Try Both and Learn from Customer Surveys
- Both Via Demos
Branded Academies Are The Future
I believe the future of customer education lies in branded academies. For instance, Hootsuite has online academies and offers free product training. You don’t need to pay for more intensive knowledge until you boost your experience level. At the Mostly Blogging Academy, the customer knowledge base includes all levels of marketing including monetization. This enables the customers to make more money than the cost of the training. More branded academies are starting that offer free trials and people don’t need to pay until they know they’ll be pleased. This is the future of customer education.
Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging
Integration Towards Product
It’s hard to say definitively what the future of customer education will be, but it seems likely that it will move more and more towards being integrated into products themselves. As technology advances, it will become easier and easier for companies to provide customer education directly through their products, and there may be less need for dedicated academies or other educational institutions. However, this is just one potential scenario – only time will tell for sure what the future of customer education holds.
Natalia Brzezinska, PhotoAiD
Customer Education Will Move to the Product
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the future of customer education will likely vary depending on the specific industry and product. However, some experts believe that customer education will increasingly move away from traditional academy models and towards more innovative approaches that focus on delivering educational content directly through the product itself. This would allow customers to learn about a product or service while they are actually using it, which could potentially lead to better understanding and engagement.
Claire Westbrook, LSAT Prep Hero
Put Yourself in The Customers’ Shoes
It depends on the company and what they provide. For example, customers of a SaaS company would probably benefit from learning from a customer academy so that they can fully understand how to utilize all aspects of the software. On the other hand, it would not be necessary for customers of a clothing company to engage in any extensive learning about the clothes they’ve purchased. At the end of the day, you can put yourself in your customers’ shoes to see what kind of customer education they would either appreciate or see as unnecessary.
Jared Hines, Acre Gold
Try Both and Learn from Customer Surveys
Why not both? It does not have to be one or the other. You can educate your customers through your digital marketing and through an additional education tool if they prefer. In fact, you can try both and take customer surveys to find out what your customers prefer in terms of customer education.
Drew Sherman, RPM
A Mix of Both Via Demonstartions
I think the future of customer education is a mix of academy and product. Virtual meeting software has made it easier than ever for potential clients to attend demonstrations. Virtual demos allow companies to show clients the product in action and give instruction in real-time, while also highlighting the product’s best features. These events offer no-commitment, low-pressure sales environments and give customers the opportunities to ask questions. This format also provides valuable feedback in terms of the customer experience, which gives companies the opportunity to fine-tune products.
Carly Hill, Virtual Holiday Party
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