Corporate L&D Archives - Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network Thu, 08 Dec 2022 11:21:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://stag2023.instancy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/favicon-instancy-fav-100x100.png Corporate L&D Archives - Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network 32 32 213300597 How eLearning Benefits Employee Training and Development https://stag2023.instancy.com/how-elearning-benefits-employee-training-and-development/ Thu, 14 Apr 2022 16:21:41 +0000 https://stag2023.instancy.com/2022/04/14/how-elearning-benefits-employee-training-and-development/ Employee training is becoming more vital and constant in today’s dynamic business environment. According to Axonify, 93% of employees said that well-planned employee training programs …

How eLearning Benefits Employee Training and Development Read More »

The post How eLearning Benefits Employee Training and Development appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>

Employee training is becoming more vital and constant in today’s dynamic business environment. According to Axonify, 93% of employees said that well-planned employee training programs positively affect their level of engagement.

There is no doubt that the amount of training pushed into the workplace is increasing, from new workplace software, tools, and technology to compliance training and unique requirements. Let us first dive into the basics to understand what employee training entails.

eLearning can be used for various technical and non-technical skills and knowledge areas. Technical skills may include software systems training and hardware operations. Soft skills may include communication, creativity, leadership, sales, etc. eLearning is applicable for both conceptual understanding and practical job-task performance.

Furthermore, eLearning has demonstrated value at levels in an organization, ranging from top executives and managers to front or field-level workers.

What is Employee Training?

Employee training is a program that equips employees with specialized knowledge and skills to help them perform better in their existing positions. While most businesses recognize the value of initial job training and onboarding new employees, many fail to invest in ongoing training and development, paying a hefty price for lost talent, productivity, and revenues. The key is to maintain consistency so that your personnel is well trained to keep up with the ongoing cutting-edge competition in the market.

Employee training and development that is of high-quality assists businesses to retain top talent while increasing earnings. Competition for elite talent is fiercer than ever in this tight labor market. It takes effort and money to find good staff. Retention and growth are strongly influenced by how you train, develop, and engage that talent. It’s not just about retention, though. Effective personnel development and training also leads to a healthier overall bottom line.

The Ever-Widening Skills Gap

The Ever-Widening Skills Gap

The term “skills gap” refers to the disparity between the abilities that firms require from their employees and workers’ skills. It’s spurred by several variables, including advancements in automation, artificial intelligence, and other technologies and individuals lacking the skills needed to interact with these new technological improvements.

These developments have altered day-to-day operations, and many firms’ upskilling programs have yet to catch up. As a result, the skills gap is increasing, which can negatively impact company performance and employee confidence and productivity. According to McKinsey & Company, 87 percent of organizations fully recognize the need to bridge their organizations’ skills gaps.

Employers must find creative methods and new technology innovations to implement workforce education programs. This is where Employee Training and Development assume center stage.

Benefits of eLearning for Employee Training

In comparison to instructor-led training, eLearning saves your firm money and accomplishes a lot more. These are the key benefits of eLearning for your employees and firm:

  • Convenient and Adaptable

One of the most significant features of eLearning in the corporate training setting is the flexibility it renders to the learners. They can access classes anytime, from any location, and on any device, including laptops, tablets, desktops, and even mobiles.

This implies that employees can learn on their way to work, during lunch break, or relaxing on a comfortable couch. It also implies that not everyone must be taught at the same time. As everyone has a hectic schedule, employees can access the training modules when they have spare time. This will also enable them to retain the material for a longer duration.

  • Personalized Skill Development

There are times when you want the entire workplace to acquire a particular skill set. However, each employee has a specific job role and has to grow in their respective niche. eLearning is appropriate as it allows the instructor to customize the learning experience and discover lessons that meet each user’s specific needs. Employees can work upon acquiring a range of skills or work on their weak areas.

Executives can reap the same benefits as their employees from eLearning. Taking classes might benefit in understanding how to engage staff and develop leadership skills.

  • Increased Employee Retention

According to Harvard Business Review research, a lack of professional advancement options is a primary cause of work dissatisfaction and early retirement. Employees are more willing to invest back in the firm with improved loyalty, engagement, and productivity if they believe that organizations invest in their futures rather than just their current work positions. Furthermore, people enjoy feeling important and capable. Employees who feel important to an organization and are well trained to accomplish their duties have higher work satisfaction, which leads to lower absence and turnover rates. According to the LinkedIn Learning Report, 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development.

  • Cost-Effective

For a more extensive corporate base, eLearning is inherently more cost-effective. Fees for trainers and employee time are minimized, and so are costs for training facilities, travel, catering, and materials as eLearning courses can be reused with ease. On the other hand, employees who use eLearning will only need a desktop or a mobile phone and some time to accomplish their training. It’s a long-term investment that will save you money.

Since eLearning courses can be reused and updated with little cost or time, a single online training program can reach significantly more people in a shorter amount of time than a traditional session.

Cost-Effective

Engaging Learning

Sending your employees large handbooks or manuals is unlikely to result in meaningful and desirable knowledge and skill transfer. Some of the resources that can aid in employee training are :

  1. Microlearning
  2. Gamification
  3. Simulation
  4. Podcasts
  5. Video-Based Learning
  6. Interactive and video-based tutorials

These techniques can be combined with one another to increase interaction and retention. Your employees will be better prepared for a fast-changing work environment by acquiring the most appropriate training for a dynamic environment.

Helps in Simulation

eLearning can be helpful for technical and soft-skill training.

Simulation is a very effective form of eLearning.

For example, you can use simulations to make the learning much more interactive than a page-turning manual or handbook:

  1. Role-play simulations to train employees in customer service or interviewing skills
  2. Software application simulations to train employees on new software applications
  3. Hardware simulations to train employees on how to repair equipment

Ease of Tracking Learner Progress Data and Measuring Results

Every organization wants a training program that is effective and aids in the growth of its employees. However, in traditional training, one needs to maintain a huge amount of data that can often get misplaced and become a hassle to update.

When you conduct training online, it’s simpler to collect the data you need to assess its efficiency. Course completion rates, forum involvement, assessment grades, and the time it takes to complete a course can all be acquired directly from the Learning Management System in reports (LMS). Employees register directly on the LMS with online training, and the rest is a breeze. There are no pens, papers, or ring-back folders. Admin personnel can run reports to see which employees have begun or completed training and who still need a little nudge.

Creating Opportunities for Employee Development

So, how do you go about providing your staff with eLearning opportunities? Consider your requirements first. Is it necessary for your employees to improve their communication skills? Is there anything that the entire office needs to upskill?

Then consider what each employee would require or desire. It’s usually preferable to portray development sponsorship as a benefit rather than a requirement—you don’t want disgruntled people to learn. Experiment a little—you could attempt some self-directed classes or check what learning methods your employees like. It’s critical to invest in employee development regularly—it just might take some time to figure out which eLearning options are the most effective.

Conclusion

With eLearning, provide your employees with high-quality, world-class, standardized training. They have the freedom to learn when and where they want, at their own pace. Deliver new content instantaneously, and they will have more opportunities to interact with it, all while lowering the cost, time, and overall stress of training.

With Instancy, you can equip your teams with the information and skill-building tools they need and the individualized training they need to boost their productivity and contribution to your company.

So, what are you waiting for?

Blog-bnner-image

Grow and retain more members with a learning management system that supports courses, instructor lead training, and social learning.

The post How eLearning Benefits Employee Training and Development appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>
19873
How to Calculate the ROI on an LMS for Corporate Learning and Development https://stag2023.instancy.com/how-to-calculate-the-roi-on-an-lms-for-corporate-learning-and-development/ Fri, 08 Apr 2022 15:38:39 +0000 https://stag2023.instancy.com/2022/04/08/how-to-calculate-the-roi-on-an-lms-for-corporate-learning-and-development/ The Importance of Corporate Learning and Development Why is corporate learning and development so important? The answer is simple: Corporate learning and development (L&D) is …

How to Calculate the ROI on an LMS for Corporate Learning and Development Read More »

The post How to Calculate the ROI on an LMS for Corporate Learning and Development appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>

The Importance of Corporate Learning and Development

Why is corporate learning and development so important? The answer is simple: Corporate learning and development (L&D) is a strategic and essential part of increasing the productivity of your people and preparing your company’s workforce for the future. It’s more than just learning and development programs—it reflects the organization’s ability to innovate, adapt, and grow. 

The-Importance-of-Corporate-Learning-and-Development

The best corporate learning and development programs offer employees the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge, produce new ideas and strategies, and find new areas of interest. Corporate learning and development programs also have the potential to improve employee engagement, reduce turnover, and enhance employee productivity. As a result, corporate L&D programs can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. 

The most effective corporate learning and development programs focus on your organization’s unique talent needs, culture, and goals. That’s why so many experts in the corporate learning and development field agree that an LMS is the best tool for delivering corporate learning to employees. 

Learning Management System in Corporate Learning Development

Learning management systems (LMS) are designed to make it easier to manage your training programs’ costs and measure their effectiveness. A learning management system is a software platform that automates a lot of the manual tasks you do when it comes to running training programs. It can manage the creation, delivery, and tracking of training programs, from online courses and tutorials to video courses, assessments, and more. It helps you easily create, edit and update content and manage the user experience throughout the process. It offers a curated learning pathway that helps close knowledge gaps that lead to measurable outcomes. 

Learning-Management-System-in-Corporate-Learning-Development

By automating the tasks associated with delivering training, an LMS allows you to focus on your business goals and training needs instead of worrying about logistics. Features designed to streamline the training process can also save you money. 

Training and talent development teams use an LMS to store, organize, and distribute courses to their employees. The LMS interface allows for submitting feedback, monitoring employee progress, viewing analytics, and recalibrating the learning programs for maximum impact. LMSs are specifically designed to support the full range of corporate learning and development needs and integrate with other critical corporate systems, such as HR and payroll. A corporate LMS helps onboard new employees; it offers them the requisite knowledge and skills required to perform their job roles and advance faster in their careers. Employees can take the training at their own pace, whenever, and wherever convenient A learning platform allows for training the staff from different locations at no additional cost. 

Besides this, companies with LMSs have seen a tangible return on investment (ROI) on every dollar invested. A curated and customized LMS allows you to maximize the ROI for your specific company culture and objectives, ensuring that it aligns with your business model and will improve program results and ROI overall. 

Increased productivity and worker engagement are established by providing employees with a digital space to share knowledge, thereby keeping the process collaborative and aligned with the company objectives. It ensures compliance with government regulations and industry best practices while staying on top of compliance reporting. It targets Information Technology job candidates with relevant technical training and certification programs 

You can’t just decide to implement an LMS and hope it will pay for itself. Before implementing an LMS, you need to determine how much it will cost and how it will be funded. If a complete package of LMS functionality is purchased, the cost can be substantial, but it’s essential to recognize that the cost of not implementing an LMS comes at a much higher price. If you are wondering how much it will cost to invest in an LMS for corporate learning and development, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.  

Ways a Learning Management System Boosts ROI

Ways-a-Learning-Management-System-Boosts-ROI-

Once you have implemented an LMS, there are many ways by which an LMS can prove its worth and provide a positive Return on Investment (ROI): 

  1. Training is accessible to all employees: An LMS can boost your ROI by making training accessible to all employees. This means that your employees will be able to access the training they need to perform their jobs without spending a lot of time looking out for devices with internet access. LMS makes learning available anywhere, anytime- and you don’t need to incur the cost of facilities, instructor, time, etc. With this seamless access to the course and material, they will be able to complete their training more efficiently, giving them more time to focus on their work tasks. 
  2. An LMS reduces your training costs:  On-site, training may require businesses to invest in travel, accommodation, instructors, food, venue, etc. Online training eliminates these expenses and saves training managers the time and effort of planning and managing all of the logistics associated with the event, thereby saving the organization both time and money. Reviewing your L&D expense sheets will throw light on how much was paid on these expenses, which can then be eliminated while calculating your ROI. 
  3. Increase employee retention rates:   Employee turnover is very costly; therefore, retaining staff by providing them access to professional development opportunities can escalate the employee retention rate saving the organization a lot of money. 
  4. Assess costs of running an LMS: Cloud-based LMSs offer a cost-effective solution wherein everything is done on the cloud, and installation, maintenance, and in-house data storage costs are eliminated. The only cost that needs to be factored in is the ongoing monthly subscription costs, that is consistent.  
  5. Course and curricula may need to be reused over time across multiple user segments or job functions: a learning platform can help organize materials and eliminate the cost of repeatedly reproducing the content. 
  6.  Time and cost-saving administration of training: An LMS can eliminate the cumbersome and time-consuming task of maintaining the list of courses (internal or external for the organization), training records, enrolments, learning progress, and job role-based training. The entire administration can be automated irrespective of the size of the organization. 
  7. The LMS learning curve: Training tutorials or in-person sessions can be costly and time-consuming. However, if a solution is intuitive and user-friendly, no comprehensive training is required to use the tool. You can expect your team to get up to speed very quickly with minimal training, saving the organization both time and money. 

Summary

A learning management system (LMS) is a software program that can help an organization effectively manage and deliver education and training. LMS functionality includemulti-site management, user & group management, enrollment management, classroom event management, competency management, course management, communication, reporting, and analytics. Using an LMS to manage corporate learning and development programs includes increased opportunities to learn and grow, reduced costs, greater access to learning contentbetter tracking of learning outcomes, more efficient performance managementand increased learner engagement and retention. An LMS is a powerful tool for improving employee engagement and retention, positively affecting an organization’s bottom line.  

The post How to Calculate the ROI on an LMS for Corporate Learning and Development appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>
19775
Why is Instructional Design Needed for Good eLearning? https://stag2023.instancy.com/why-is-instructional-design-needed-for-good-elearning/ Wed, 14 Apr 2021 13:45:00 +0000 https://stag2023.instancy.com/2021/04/14/why-is-instructional-design-needed-for-good-elearning/ Introduction How do you ensure that the designed course is effective?  How do you ensure that the course will meet the learning goals?  How do you …

Why is Instructional Design Needed for Good eLearning? Read More »

The post Why is Instructional Design Needed for Good eLearning? appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>

Introduction

  • How do you ensure that the designed course is effective? 
  • How do you ensure that the course will meet the learning goals? 
  • How do you ensure that the course includes all the components for a successful learningexperience 
  • How do you ensure that the course is engaging enough to keep the interest of the learners alive? 

These, and many such questions can be answered by including instructional design into youreLearning development process. 

eLearning is a combination of technology and education or trainingInstructional design bridges the two, keeping learning at the centre while designing and developing an eLearning course.  

Very large number of people around the world are now taking eLearning courses in both, formal and informal ways. This further stresses on the need for instructional design to make eLearning more effective.  

Let us understand how instructional design helps to make a good or more effective eLearningprogram. 

Instructional Design Helps in Planning

Instructional design ensures that the learning material is planned in a systematic manner. 

During the entire design process, the learning material must be able to answer four basic questions: 

  • Who and what are the characteristics of the target audience?  
  • What knowledge or skills must the target audience achieve at the end of the course? 
  • Which method should be applied to present the information to achieve maximum knowledge? 
  • How best can the course be evaluated to know if it is meeting the learning goals? 

Once these questions are answered and applied in the design process, the course is bound toachieve maximum effectiveness.  

Instructional Design Helps to Understand Learners

All learners cannot be grouped together with common background or needs. Each learner has specific characteristics and prior knowledge. 

They come from different backgrounds, varied knowledge, experiences, interests, and goals. Despite these differencesit is necessary to identify a common aspect that connects all of them. 

This can be achieved by conducting a survey to know the characteristics of the learners that could affect learning. This is known as needs assessment. Needs assessment is an integral part of instructional design process that is conducted before planning the course. 

Needs assessment also helps to know what needs to be accomplished by the learners to reach the goals. It guides the overall design process and approach of the course. 

Adult learners already have strong understanding of the basics and come with vast practical experiences. 

They may be reluctant to take the course and have several questions, such as: 

  • Will the course provide me new information? 
  • Is it worth investing my time and effort? 
  • Will the course help me solve the challenges I’m facing? 

Ideas from adult learning theories when applied help to answer these questions.  

Not only this, but adult learning theories also help to understand the characteristics of the adult learners and design the course accordingly.  

Instructional Design Helps to Improve Learner Engagement

Effective instructional design includes a thorough analysis of the learners before creating an online course. 

Using this information, the course developers create learning designs that meet the learners’ needs. Relevant, engaging, and appealing learning activities are developed accordingly to keep the learners engaged.  

Instructional Design Helps Distinguish “Need to Know” From “Nice to Know”

An important step in the instructional design process is identifying the need-to-know information and nice-to-know information. A few questions that help to distinguish between these are: 

  • Is the information critical? 
  • Do the learners need this information to perform their tasks
  • How often will this information be used by the learners?
  • What will be the impact if this piece of information is left out? 
  • Does the information relate to the overall learning objectives of the course? 

Once these questions are answered, the ‘nice to know information’ is excluded, retaining only the information that is necessary for the learners. The focus thus remains only on task-based information that helps to improve the learner’s performance.  

Instructional Design Helps to Choose Goal-Based Learning Methods

In instructional design, the course is designed by focussing on the outcome, that is, what the learner must accomplish after taking the course. A logical structure is built by identifying the concepts to be learnt and the sequence in which they must be presented. The learning material is created in alignment to these concepts for meeting the desired goals. To keep the learners engaged and promote learning, the course may then be developed using various media like animations, images, graphics, or simulations.  

Instructional Design Helps to Evaluate Learners

Evaluation is necessary as it is the most reliable tool to know whether the learning goals have been met or not. In other words, instructional design acts as a tool to measure the effectiveness of a training program or course.  

Various instructional design strategies are available to evaluate the learners. Self-evaluation, formative evaluation, summative evaluation, confirmative evaluation – all provide immediate feedback and tell if the learners have attained the desired knowledge.  

Instructional Design Helps Boosts Learner Retention

Studies show that the human brain tends to recall 80% of what is seen and only 20% of what is read. Instructional design allows learners to not only acquire new knowledge but also retain it by integrating various visual elements into the course. 

Instructional design helps to align the content with the learners needs. Chunking information and including only the ‘need to know’ content prevents cognitive overload. Enabling learners explore, discover and practice facilitates transfer of learning It boosts retention of the learnt knowledge and skills through the course.  

Ensuring learners retain the gained knowledge till the time they actually apply it is one of the benchmarks of a successful course.  

Other Benefits of Instruction Design

Some additional benefits of instruction design can be listed as follows: 

  • Instruction design focuses on the learner’s experience. 
  • Instruction design maintains a consistency between several courses that may be developed by different teams working on eLearning. 
  • Instruction design covers all the stages of good development, thereby ensuring the quality of the course is maintained throughout.  
  • Instruction design helps to speed up development time, thus saving time.  
  • Instruction design can make the best use of available learning technologies. 

These are some of the aspects of instructional design that show how instructional designing is crucial to eLearning development.  

This blog is originally published at Google Site on 14th Apr 2021
Blog-bnner-image

Grow and retain more members with a learning management system that supports courses, instructor lead training, and social learning.

The post Why is Instructional Design Needed for Good eLearning? appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>
16578
11 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Training Program for Employees https://stag2023.instancy.com/mistakes-to-avoid-when-creating-a-training-program/ Mon, 22 Feb 2021 11:28:30 +0000 https://stag2023.instancy.com/2021/02/22/mistakes-to-avoid-when-creating-a-training-program/ Training and development for employees are commonly leveraged to enhance employee skill sets. Invariably, though there are common pitfalls that can impede training practices or training …

11 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Training Program for Employees Read More »

The post 11 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Training Program for Employees appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>

Training and development for employees are commonly leveraged to enhance employee skill sets. Invariably, though there are common pitfalls that can impede training practices or training effectiveness. Safeguarding any training program against the impact of errors is of paramount importance.  While mistakes do occur and inevitable in certain cases, the task at hand for the Learning and Development team is to reduce such occurrences. There are two sides to the coin of any modern training program. While on the one hand, LMS platforms offer many tools to make deploying, managing, and editing training content a piece of cake, there are several potential traps for seasoned enterprise training developers to fall into. Let’s review the most common 11 mistakes to avoid when creating a training program. 

1.Misjudging the audience: Tailoring your training to the needs of the audience is perhaps key in ensuring the impact of the training program. Keeping the demographics and the mindset of your target audience will help create an approach that will result in achieving the learning outcome to its full potential. Both knowledge retention and employee engagement can go downhill in the absence of a program that is not designed to meet the needs of your target audience. 

2. Irrelevance: Change is believed to be the only constant. More so in current times where training programs need to stay relevant based on new advances in technology or processes, altered perceptions, and ways of doing business. The training should strive to stay ahead of the curve, to maintain appropriate relevance. 

3. Playing it safe: Being challenged by the training ensures the learner’s involvement, attention, and engagement. Keeping it easy and predictable takes away the drive to stay attentive and excel. Variety and challenges are vital strategies to consider when creating a course. 

4. Missing the point: The objectives of an effective training program are expansion of knowledge, adding to understanding, boosting performance, and improving skills. Effective training should be viewed in relation to an overarching plan for skills improvement. Transitioning between points purposefully and giving learners all that they will need to follow, steers them through the training effectively. Anything that stands out as too academic, theoretical, or not in tandem with the company’s bottom line should not be included in the curriculum. While theoretical purity is a winner in the academic world, not being pragmatic is an expensive enterprise training mistake. 

5. Overwhelming the participant: Heaping the training with an overload of information, based on the belief that every participant gets to pick their own take away from it is a common mistake. The better option would be to keep the learner coming back for more and stay involved and engaged in the program. The human mind can process only limited information at a particular time. A deluge of information can be frustrating and also knowledge retention takes a hit. Breaking information into small manageable chunks and paragraphs with infographics and short videos keeps it engaging. 

6. Misdirecting the message: Key messaging aligned with good instructional design content is the key. Broad messaging takes away from the core topic and often leads to confusion and disinterest. The following points should be considered: 

Including necessary processes and procedures 

When to include important technical data  

Resources that can be accessed, downloaded, and printed for later reference 

When citing theoretical concepts or statistics care should be taken to include sources 

7. Putting too much ”you” in your presentation: The trainer should be mindful of the participants’ knowledge and learning styles. A subjective preference in designing training modules is not necessarily well-received by all. Incorporating a media mix that spans learning styles is a safe way forward. These can include PDFs, articles, videos, and gamification. Multimedia content helps create simulated hypothetical real-world scenarios that stay with the learner. 

8. Forgetting about the buy-in: The support of the upper-level management is crucial to an eLearning program.  The financial commitment cannot be overlooked, whether it’s a part of an in-house training effort or meant for outsiders. whether mandatory or voluntary, participant commitment is a prerequisite for an effective training program. 

9. Being disorganized or unprepared: A learning experience cannot risk glitches and ill-prepared training. This can often bite into valuable time that is at a premium for all involved. Training needs to be relevant and adhere to a schedule with infrastructure in place. This helps keep the training clean, relevant, and effective. Quality assurance should be done before launching the program officially. 

10. Not validating the content: All content that is put out there for consumption needs to be checked for inconsistencies to eliminate any potential for incorrect interpretation or application. The advice of an acknowledged expert cannot be overruled. 

11. Assuming that material is current and correct: Relevance and applicability of the content are crucial. While there is potentially perennial and evergreen content, checking data and information for an expiry date ensures that updates are made when necessary.  

Even though mistakes are an ongoing process and there is a lot to learn from them, an understanding of the common mistakes helps eliminate the chances of keeping a training program from realizing its full potential and fast-tracking your ability to create an engaging eLearning course. 

A robust Learning Content Management system can help you keep your content up to date and relevant. With cloud-based access, subject matter experts and instructional designers can collaborate to maintain the content. To learn more about Instancy Learning Content Management System, please request a demo Learning Content Management System & Authoring Tools (instancy.com). 

Blog-bnner-image

Grow and retain more members with a learning management system that supports courses, instructor lead training, and social learning.

The post 11 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Training Program for Employees appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>
15421
Top 7 Benefits of Creating a Customer Education Portal https://stag2023.instancy.com/benefits-of-customer-education-portal/ Tue, 09 Feb 2021 18:17:38 +0000 https://stag2023.instancy.com/2021/02/09/benefits-of-customer-education-portal/ The goal of every business is to develop products and services of value to their customer base. Businesses continually strive to create the perfect and …

Top 7 Benefits of Creating a Customer Education Portal Read More »

The post Top 7 Benefits of Creating a Customer Education Portal appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>

The goal of every business is to develop products and services of value to their customer base. Businesses continually strive to create the perfect and profitable products that meet the needs of their customers, hence, solving any ‘pain points’ their customers may have. 

With today’s hyper-competitive market and advanced technology, products are inherently more complex. Therefore, customer education programs are necessary to ensure adoption by your customers, which, in turn, makes your products more successful in the market.

To add a layer of complexity, you should tailor the education, so each client or user receives the product knowledge based on their skills level, job role, location, language, or business need. 

An LMS designed to support customer education can be instrumental in delivering online customer education. Online learning may include a range of resources including structured eLearning courses, videos, webinars, document library, assessments, and also informal conversations like discussion forums, infographics, question and answer knowledgebase.

A modern learning management system can help aggregate all the product knowledge resources in one place and channel them to the right person at the right time.

In conjunction with a robust learning management system, you need to offer outstanding learning resources including eLearning courses.

Reach out to your subject matter experts (SME) for help. SMEs can be engineers, product owners, product marketing, scientists, etc.

However, it is the instructional design that becomes important. How you design the delivery of the information makes all the difference. Instancy’s learning content management and authoring system can help you manage and reuse your content for different audiences. 

What is Customer Education?

Customer education is a set of programs developed by a company that provides consumers and business customers with the information, skills, and abilities they need to be successful with a product.

In other words, it is the process of arming customers with the tools and resources they need to become a more informed buyer or consumer of your product or service. 

The primary goal of customer education is to onboard, engage, and retain new and existing customers.  Customer education used for presales assists the customer to discover the features of the product and develop an opinion regarding how your product or service can meet their needs. Conversely, after the sale, customer education focuses on educating them on the use of the product.

When you build a customer education program, you are making it easier for your existing and potential customers to recognize its full value. It provides answers to most, if not all, the questions customers may have, thus creating a positive experience.  If you also offer the course to your employees who work with the customers, your staff can provide better support.

Benefits of Creating an Online Customer Education Portal

Creating a customer education program can have a significant impact on your business in several ways. Here are the key benefits of investing in customer education. 

1. Onboarding is faster and easier

Onboarding is the knowledge transfer of information necessary to use the product. A customer education program details how the product works, the benefits it offers, and why they should choose your product over others on the market.

Rather than trying to educate large groups daily, customer education allows your customer success managers to attend to every customer at scale using largely automated tools. That way, you will be able to onboard many customers with the least effort and resources.

2. Reduced support costs

Another benefit of customer education is the reduction of support costs. Support teams spend countless hours answering the same questions over and over again, leading to loss of job satisfaction as well as increased support costs.

A customer education program helps reduce the burden on your support team since the training content provides answers to most of the questions customers ask. As a result, you will see a reduction in support tickets and fewer employees dedicated to responding to them, freeing up resources for other critical business tasks. 

3. Brand Loyalty

The more customers know about your product, the greater the perceived value, decreasing the likelihood they will shop around for an alternative product. An added advantage to brand loyalty is word-of-mouth recommendations, which helps attract new customers to your brand. Also, when customers become loyal to a brand, the cost of goods sold decreases for repeat purchases versus the cost of acquiring a new customer. 

4. Customer satisfaction

Imagine you bought a new car that’s attracted many positive reviews. You are aware that it has plenty of exciting features to make driving enjoyable, and now you’re about to ride it for the first time.

The problem is that if you don’t know how to use its features, you cannot experience the car completely.  What was supposed to be a fun ride suddenly becomes less enjoyable because you don’t know how to use the cool features. Similarly, people not sufficiently trained in a product or service tend to be unsatisfied.

Customer education makes it possible for your customers to gain sufficient knowledge about your product, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and reducing complaints and product returns.  

5. Positions your brand as trustworthy 

Never take an ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach with your customers. Some companies believe that keeping customers in the dark enhances loyalty. That is the wrong stance to take because eventually, the customer may look for alternatives. Your competitor empowered them through education, making their product and company appear better than yours. 

A primary reason many businesses shun customer education is that they fear educating their customers can make them know so much that they shop around and choose an alternative. The idea is that by keeping customers in the dark, they will be able to force loyalty, but that approach is ineffective.

Educating your customers is a better approach because there’s a chance that they will be grateful to you for educating them. In effect, they will trust your brand more and be more willing to reward you with glowing reviews as well as recommend you to others. 

6. Encourages customers to create online communities 

Previously, customers would only approach a company when they wanted to buy a product or find a solution to their problem. The advent of social media changed that. Now customers have the opportunity to network with other areas of the company, such as the product development team.

Customer education can help kick-start online communities where educated customers can provide answers to new users who may have questions. Your business profits from these communities by reducing customer support tickets fostering user-generated content and word of mouth referrals. 

7. Positions you as a market leader 

Top brands are already focusing on customer education, and creating a program for your product helps position you as a market leader. One of the attributes of a market leader is that they share industry-specific knowledge, creating the perception that they are experts in the field. This aids in the conversion of visitors to customers while equally strengthening your brand. 

How does Instancy help you make the customer education process more effective?

With any time, anywhere access to product knowledge, your customers can access the education on any device – desktop, progressive web app (PWA), or native mobile app.

1. Instancy allows you to create one or multiple client-specific sites for different customers or product knowledge communities effortlessly with drag and drop tools. No programming is required.

2. Intelligent, personalized, and blended learning to help your customers succeed.

Instancy provides a versatile learning platform to offer multiple modalities of learning, from video, eLearning, webinars, and learning paths to podcasts. Organize your learning around client type, job role, skills, or location. Offer your training in multiple languages.

3. Easy learning analytics to gauge customer engagement. Through dashboards and reports, your client success team can track learning success. Client administrators can also get access to their learner’s progress through admin portals and scheduled reports. Automate actions based on certain conditions to push the right learning to the right person.

Conclusion

Many top brands are now deploying modern learning management systems like the Instancy Learning Platform focusing on customer education because of the many benefits it offers. If you are planning to leverage customer education for your business, Instancy is the learning management system to trust. Sign up now for a free trial and see for yourself why Instancy is the platform of choice for millions of users.

Blog-bnner-image

Your learning business is unique. We configure the right learning platform solution that fits you like a glove.

The post Top 7 Benefits of Creating a Customer Education Portal appeared first on Instancy Learning Platform and Social Learning Network.

]]>
15123