How To Cut Costs Without Compromising Customer Engagement
Most of us have bought things and ended up never using them. We might have lost interest and abandoned them soon after opening. Or we may have given up because we couldn't figure out how to work the new gadget. Customer training solves this problem by guiding fresh buyers. It can discreetly help them out of their "stuck zone" without affecting their esteem. But when you want to offer this on a budget, how do you avoid dimming its quality? Here are some cost-cutting tips for implementing customer training solutions without sacrificing consumer engagement.
Customer Training Solutions: 6 Secrets To Reduce Spending
1. Focus On Self-service
A lot of customer problems can be solved by the customer, but only if they know how. Yes, there are people in the world who prefer having stuff done for them. But most of us would repair our own breakages if we could. Go over your product/service and identify every flaw that's repairable at a customer level. Add them all to your customer training retinue. Categorize them intuitively, using task-based how-to's. Include the basics, such as "How to turn off my camera flash." Throw in some complex topics, too, such as "What to do if my gadget gets rained on." The more customers can do themselves, the fewer tech support staff you have to hire.
2. Automate As Much As Possible
Plough through recorded customer complaints and draft an interactive FAQ. Some chatbots have auto-fill functionality, which you can apply to your customer training solutions too. The moment trainees start to type in a question or topic, offer them a list of possibilities. Chances are they'll find the answer on their own. And by making the search-and-train process interactive, customers feel engaged even though they haven't dealt with a real, live person. It can satisfy the type of customer that "wants to deal with a human, not a robot", especially with active-learning AI that gets better with every encounter.
3. Use Existing Resources
During software development, the biggest cost is time. Coders and content experts have targeted skills, so their per-hour rate might be high. The sooner they can get the course completed, the lower your production cost. Even if you have a dedicated in-house development team, there are still payroll hours to consider. Try putting together your customer training course from materials that are already in your library. You could take the product manual and convert it into a visual demo. The safety instruction can be turned into a catchy 30-second jingle that will earworm them forever. The product features on the packaging can be reformatted as a product knowledge infographic. Take stock of your existing resources and use a rapid authoring tool to breathe new life into them.
4. Gather And Apply LMS Data
Software developers and sales teams may have top-notch tracking tools. However, these big data collections are rarely put to use. Don't just monitor usage and print reports. Read those documents. Analyze that data. Use it to tweak your customer training. You can edit, or cull pages nobody is using or merge modules into tighter units. Use collected information to remove areas of unnecessary expenditure. This makes training sessions shorter, faster, cheaper, and more effective. The key is to find out what works, what doesn't and then use the information to create more targeted customer training solutions. And the most valuable diagnostic tool at your disposal is analytics.
5. Lower Your Click Volume
You must have called a care number and heard, "For this, press 1. For that, press 2." The idea is to minimize human involvement, which cuts down employee numbers and reduces payroll pressure. It's also intended to solve problems faster because it saves you the time of explaining your problem to a person...in theory. In reality, it frustrates customers, gets them off the phone, and drives them to your physical location where there are "real people." You can resolve the issue – not by putting more people on the phone. Instead, eliminate unnecessary steps so they only have to click twice before they find a solution. It will take smart conglomeration and deep auditing, but it's worth the time and makes customers happier.
6. Get Customer Feedback To Narrow Your Focus
Conduct surveys and focus groups to find out where the pain points lie and how you can address them through your customer training software. Cutting costs and boosting engagement all boils down to necessity. Covering the essentials quickly so that your customers can solve common problems just in time. They may not need to know about all your product specs, but they do expect tutorials and demos that help them maintain it over time to extend its life (and overall value). You should also continue to gather their feedback periodically to ensure that your resources are still relevant and on point.
Conclusion
Any money manager will tell you spending less doesn't necessarily entail misery. You learn to work around things and get just as much enjoyment. In the case of customer training software, how can you trim expenses without lowering your customers' experience? Design it for maximal self-service and automate wherever you can so that consumers can tackle issues DIY-style. This all cuts down your personnel costs. But it also helps you stretch your customer training solutions budget. Generate training material by re-purposing in-house content. Finally, audit unnecessary clicks for quicker assistance. It makes life better for everyone, from your customers to your switchboard.
Choose the best customer training LMS for your organization with our online directory. It features the top platforms on the market, which you can sort by overall satisfaction rating. You can also read reviews to see which customer training software aligns with your needs and budget.
