6 Customer Education Best Practices to Delight Your Customers 

Want to keep your customers coming back? Teach them well. 

Customer education is a must-have for SaaS businesses. It empowers users to get the most out of your product, which can lead to happier customers and more sales. 

Simple, clear, and useful learning materials like quick guides and interactive tutorials can make a big difference. 

In this article, we'll dive into the six customer education best practices to make your users feel confident and connected every step of the way.

What is customer education?

Customer education is the process of providing information, training, and resources to customers to help them understand and effectively use your product. The goal is to:

• Enhance the user experience
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Maximize customer loyalty 

You want to empower customers with the knowledge they need to maximize the value of their purchase. This can include tutorials, webinars, user guides, FAQs, and other educational content. 

Let’s break down six customer education tactics for SaaS businesses. 

6 customer education tactics to delight your users

Let’s look at the six tried-and-tested tactics to educate and engage users across their journey with your product.

1. Integrate learning within the product itself

In-app guidance ensures your users receive guidance exactly when and where they need it. This can reduce frustration and make the user experience more seamless. 

Embedding educational content directly within your product means users can learn in context. This is one of the most effective customer education best practices because in-app guidance can also make it easier for people to understand and remember how to use specific features. 

As users become proficient more quickly, you can achieve higher satisfaction and reduce the need for external support. 

How to integrate learning within the product itself

• Tooltips and walkthroughs: Small pop-up messages that explain features as users navigate the product. These are especially useful for first-time users.
• Interactive tutorials: Step-by-step guides that lead users through common tasks, allowing them to learn by doing.
• Help centers and FAQs: Easily accessible sections within the product where users can find answers to common questions or detailed guides on using specific features.
• In-app notifications and updates: Messages that inform users about new features, tips, or changes in the product, helping them stay up-to-date and make the most out of the software.

This customer education approach aligns the learning process with the user's natural workflow. It provides immediate answers and lets users get the best out of your product.

For example, Airtable uses an in-app modal screen to inform users about its new capabilities. You can click the Learn more button to understand the feature in more detail or get started immediately. 

2. Leverage customer data for personalized learning paths

Personalized learning paths create a more engaging and tailored learning experience for each user. 

By leveraging user data for customer education, companies can tailor the content to match individual user needs and usage patterns to make the learning process more efficient and effective. This addresses the unique challenges and requirements of different users and helps them achieve their goals faster. 

How to leverage customer data for personalized learning paths

• Usage analytics: Tracking how different users interact with the product and identifying areas where they might need more guidance.
• Segmentation: Grouping users based on their behavior, industry, or role, and providing customized content for each segment.
• Personalized recommendations: Suggesting relevant tutorials, articles, or training modules based on the user’s activity and preferences.
• Progress tracking: Allowing users to see their progress in learning the product and recommending next steps or advanced topics once they have mastered the basics.

Personalized content feels more relevant and useful. It can increase user motivation and retention rates, ultimately leading to better product adoption and user success.

3. Facilitate community-driven learning

Community-driven learning taps into the collective knowledge and experience of your user base to create a rich resource for learning and problem-solving. 

You can build a community to deliver customer education through forums, social media groups, and user-generated content. This can foster a sense of support among users and offer diverse perspectives and solutions, often leading to quicker and more innovative problem-solving. 

How to facilitate community-driven learning

• User forums and discussion boards: Platforms where users can ask questions, share tips, and discuss best practices.
• Social media groups: Communities on platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook where users can engage in discussions and share experiences.
• Customer-led webinars and meetups: Events where experienced users share their knowledge and answer questions from newer users.
• User-generated content: Encouraging users to create and share their own tutorials, guides, and tips.

People often learn best from their peers. A user community for customer education can enhance engagement, loyalty, and the overall user experience of your product.

For example, Mutiny has a community of approved members called M2. This community gives you access to:

• Slack channels & DMs 
• In-person dinners and events
• Virtual roundtables to share learnings
• Playbooks from community members

4. Develop role-specific onboarding paths

Tailoring the onboarding process to specific user roles ensures that each user receives relevant and targeted training, making the learning experience more effective. 

Role-specific onboarding flows address the distinct needs and responsibilities of different user groups for your customer education strategy. This approach enables new users to quickly become proficient in their specific tasks.

Tailored onboarding can also reduce the learning curve and help users become productive faster. In the long run, this can improve customer satisfaction and reduce the burden on support teams. 

How to develop role-specific onboarding paths

• Role-based training modules: Creating separate onboarding paths for different user roles, such as administrators, end-users, or managers.
• Customized tutorials and resources: Providing content that addresses the unique needs and tasks of each role.
• Role-specific help centers: Offering specialized help sections that cater to the common queries and challenges faced by different roles.
• Feedback and improvement: Continuously gathering feedback from users in different roles to refine and enhance the onboarding process.

Focused training aligns with the user's job requirements, making your customer education content more applicable and easier to understand.

For example, Coda asks new users about their role and creates a tailored onboarding path based on their choice. The tool also customizes your welcome screen depending on your role. 

5. Build product academies for structured learning

You can also create a dedicated learning platform or academy to give users a comprehensive platform to learn more about your product. 

Structured learning paths, online courses, and certification programs offer a clear customer education approach to mastering your software. It offers a systematic progression path and gamifies the learning experience with various achievements. 

The result? These learning channels enhance users’ motivation and sense of accomplishment. 

How to build product academies for structured learning

• Online courses: Structured courses that cover different aspects of the product, from basic to advanced levels.
• Certification programs: Offering certifications that users can earn by completing courses and passing assessments, adding value to their professional skills.
• Learning paths: Pre-defined sequences of courses and modules that guide users through the learning process step-by-step.
• Resource libraries: Collections of videos, articles, and guides that users can access at any time to support their learning journey.

Structured learning ensures that users cover all necessary topics in a logical order, leading to a deeper and more thorough understanding of the product.

For example, ClickUp has its own ClickUp University with dozens of courses around the tool. You also get certifications when completing a course to recognize you as a specialized ClickUp user. 

6. Host webinars for real-time learning and interaction

Webinars offer a dynamic and interactive way for users to learn about the product. They offer real-time product demos, Q&A sessions, and workshops. 

This customer education channel enables users to engage directly with experts, ask questions, and receive immediate feedback, which can greatly enhance their understanding and confidence. 

Live interaction creates a more engaging and responsive customer education environment, helping users to stay motivated and connected to the product. Additionally, recorded webinars provide valuable on-demand resources that users can refer to at any time.

How to host webinars for real-time learning and interaction

• Live demonstrations: Showing users how to use specific features or perform tasks in real-time.
• Q&A sessions: Allowing users to ask questions and get immediate answers from experts.
• Workshops: Interactive sessions where users can follow along and practice new skills during the webinar.
• Recordings and on-demand access: Making webinar recordings available for users to watch at their convenience, ensuring they can benefit even if they can’t attend live.

For example, Clearscope has a library of webinars hosted with industry experts. While these webinars cover different topics relevant to the brand’s audience, the team also conducts live webinars to educate users about new capabilities in the product.  

Empower your users through effective customer education

A strong customer education program is crucial for fostering loyalty and maximizing the value your users derive from your product. 

You can use several of the customer education best practices we discussed in this article to significantly enhance user experience. Each of these tactics is designed to make learning intuitive, relevant, and engaging, ultimately leading to satisfied customers who feel confident in using your product to its fullest potential. 

Equip your customers with the knowledge they need, and watch their satisfaction and your success soar.