Training Consultants: Take Advantage of Blurring Lines Between Customer Training and Marketing

Consumer education is becoming a frequent topic of discussion inside and outside of training and development groups. The necessity for customer training to enhance the customer experience, brand loyalty and adoption rates has never been so great. Business leaders in the L&D departments and marketing departments alike know that customers in need of information for a product or a service will be able to find content pertaining to what they need online. This can be found through company-sponsored forums and teaching tools or from uncontrollable resources. It is the decision, and quite frankly the obligation, of a company to provide that information. This is beneficial because an organization will have the ability to control the content and brand along with the training experience.

Let’s talk about a couple of companies that have successful customer training programs:

Apple Genius Bar. Genius!
Apple has created evangelists from their own customers by offering a high level of education of their products. Apple makes great use their retail spaces to build both awareness and excitement in their customers with their renowned genius bar. A customer can reserve a time to meet with an Apple employee (genius) or simply walk-in to receive specialized training on Apple products or to discuss repair and upgrade options.

eBay Online Seller Training. Sold!
eBay has partnered with Allen Communication, to develop a customer education web series. eBay offers short, on demand and relevant online training videos that help make selling on eBay much easier. By providing training to a disparate audience through video, eBay offers a helpful service to their customers and can also provide best practices. These customers may easily be able to find online help elsewhere, but non-company online forums and such are not branded and best practices are seldom mentioned. These best practices are created in the best interest of the sellers and the eBay community as a whole. Increasing the quality of customer training for eBay directly increases the customer experience for sellers and buyers.

The blurred line between training and marketing communications is becoming unavoidable for those in both training and marketing. In consumer education, these lines absolutely cannot be ignored. Creating training that is reflective of company branding and culture is essential to building customer loyalty and high adoption rates of services. The value and effectiveness of the customer training that you offer will expand your marketing reach.

Are you looking for a training company for your customer training initiative? Make sure they are capable and experienced with:

1. Rich Media ( training vendors with in-house art teams are preferable)
2. Custom Training with Strong Branded Elements
3. Partnering with client’s marketing department or ad agency

See our printable customer training tip sheet.