Did you know that 80% of companies believe they are delivering a superior customer experience, but only 8% of customers feel the same? With 76% of leaders rating customer experience as their highest priority, this juxtaposition shows that though many companies prioritize customer experience, most fail to meet customer expectations. But why?
To enhance customer experience, SaaS companies often invest heavily in customer support. And while this can deliver results, it leaves out a key ingredient for success: customer education.
A solid customer education strategy can help meet customer expectations by providing the skills and knowledge to use the product effectively. But setting this up is easier said than done.
In this blog, we’ll review ways to improve the customer experience and increase adoption, engagement and retention rates. We’ll also cover how to reduce the need for customer support in the first place by partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) for your customer education needs.
To get started, let’s review the top challenges when setting up an in-house customer education program.
Developing and maintaining customer education programs requires substantial resources, including subject matter experts, instructional designers and technical infrastructure. In-house teams often struggle to allocate necessary expertise and time while balancing other operational priorities.
In addition, customer education is an ongoing process that requires continuous updates and improvements to the material you develop to keep up with evolving products and customer needs. This makes it a long-term commitment that could further tax your existing team.
An MSP can ensure access to a dedicated team of experts specializing in instructional design, training delivery and program guidance, resulting in more efficient and effective programs.
According to the 2022 Training Industry Report, organizations that partnered with an external vendor saw:
These numbers are primarily due to reduced overhead costs, elimination of training infrastructure expenses and the ability to leverage the expertise of a specialized external provider.
Managing customer education materials in-house means maintaining consistent quality and messaging. It requires a dedicated team with the necessary skills and expertise to ensure that all materials are up-to-date and accurate. Additionally, it's essential to clearly understand your brand and messaging to ensure that all materials align with your company's values and goals. Altogether, this can be a heavy lift for in-house teams.
By partnering with a managed service provider, you benefit from their ability to bring standardized processes and best practices to the table. When customer education is designed to be engaging and informative, customers consume the content and reach time-to-value with your product more quickly. This reduces support needs and creates happier customers.
A survey by the Content Marketing Institute found that:
As you experience rapid growth or launch new products, it can become increasingly difficult for in-house teams to scale customer education efforts effectively. This can pose a significant challenge, as providing customers with clear and helpful information in a timely manner is critical for building trust and driving adoption.
A managed service provider offers the flexibility to scale resources up (or down) as needed, providing the agility to meet fluctuating demands. You can overcome these challenges by outsourcing or partnering with an MSP to ensure a robust and scalable educational experience for their customer education needs.
By working with an MSP, you pay for services when you need them, not when you don't.
For example, a survey by Deloitte highlights how managed services help companies scale their efforts depending on demand or business growth without the need to invest in additional resources or infrastructure:
Given the challenges and solutions previously outlined, there is one more question that those who chose not to handle customer education in-house need to answer: do you work with a traditional outsourcing company or engage a managed services provider?
To dive deeper, we’ll explain the difference and, more importantly, how it can impact your customer education results.
Though you might think outsourcing and managed services are the same, the reality is that MSPs perform an entirely different function.
MSPs offer a more sophisticated and comprehensive service where shared responsibility, a deeper understanding of the business and transparency are the key value propositions. Unlike outsourcing partners who are more task-based, MSPs like ServiceRocket act as an extension of your team and are more duration based. This means they can manage changes consistently and quickly across different channels and touchpoints, giving you the time to focus on your vision. MSPs also offer scalability and flexibility, allowing you to quickly onboard new customers and educate an expanding user base.
To give you a quick summary, here are the key differences between the two:
Depending on your needs, there can be benefits to both outsourcing and managed services. However, if you want a more comprehensive, proactive and tailored approach to customer education, managed services are the way to go.
When choosing an MSP, here are a few questions to consider:
If an MSP answers yes to all of the above questions, you are at a good place to further explore a partnership with them. That said, it's important to tailor your criteria to your business’s unique needs, so these questions should not represent a complete list of requirements.
Better customer education leads to a better customer experience, which positively impacts retention and revenue. And with 42% of companies increasing their customer education spending, it might be time you do the same.
Using an MSP for customer education can be key to achieving success for your company. MSPs bring specialized expertise in designing, developing and delivering compelling customer education programs. They understand the best practices, methodologies and tools to create educational content that resonates with customers and drives better learning outcomes.
By leveraging the expertise of an MSP, companies can ensure their educational materials are well-designed, engaging and aligned with the needs and preferences of their customers. Partnering with an MSP for customer education allows companies to focus on their core competency while benefiting from the MSP's proficiency in delivering impactful educational experiences, ultimately leading to better customer success, satisfaction and overall business growth.
At ServiceRocket, we understand that customer education is the core of customer success; we strive to be the most reliable partner in your customer education journey. We designed our “success built-in approach” to customer education management so that our solutions benefit you and your customers. Take a look below for a quick overview:
ServiceRocket offers education programs that are customizable, repeatable and data-led. Through these programs, your customers can fully maximize the potential of your products, and as a result, you can reduce churn and increase revenue.
ServiceRocket aims to empower your business and customers through educational resources to help you excel. We’ve got your back; that’s the ServiceRocket guarantee.
Trust ServiceRocket to develop flexible and personalized plans that meet your business needs and align with your customer education journey.
