14 Top Features to Look For in a Customer Education Platform
Guest Post by Androniki KoumadorakiAre you searching for a customer education platform? Whether this is your first time buying one or looking to switch to a better solution, this post has you covered!
We know the impact a successful customer training program can have on your business (besides, we are a business ourselves!), and we also know the role of the right platform in this success.
For this reason, we have gathered the top must-have features you should look for before investing in a customer training LMS. Some you may already know and use, but others might surprise you!
User-friendly interface
You should think of your online customer education academy as part of the overall user experience. With this in mind, you can understand how important it is for customers to have a seamless experience within the “four walls” of your online academy!.
Intuitive navigation with buttons and pointers and an uncluttered and modern user interface will ensure that customers can easily browse available online courses and resume their learning path without confusion.
High accessibility
Accessibility can refer to many things, starting from the ability to access your online course or training materials from any device and anytime a customer needs assistance. This can be accomplished not simply through a responsive design but, even better, a mobile app for a truly engaging mobile learning experience.
Other aspects of accessibility include support for multiple languages/localization and also compliance with accessibility standards to ensure learners with disabilities will also enjoy a smooth learning experience.
Website builder
An LMS with a website builder gives you more options for branding and monetization. It allows you to launch your academy separately or link it to your existing website. Website building sounds daunting? Don’t worry! Intuitive learning platforms don’t require one line of code – you just work with customizable, built-in templates.
This is a feature you must be careful with – often a “website builder” allows for nothing more than a landing page. If building your own website is important to you, ask for a demo to see the true capabilities of the tool.
Content management
Customer onboarding material varies greatly depending on your audience's knowledge level and preferred learning methods.
Nevertheless, you should be able to create a rich knowledge base with on-demand training materials like video tutorials, PDF guides, support articles, eBooks, and quizzes. A quiz builder, in particular, is a must-have functionality to reinforce learning and also to verify knowledge and award learners with a certificate.
Make sure your platform not only supports several types of training content and interactive elements but actually also has a built-in authoring tool that allows you to create or edit content. This will save you big in terms of cost and hassle.
AI assistant
Customer education programs have mostly proprietary educational content you need to create from scratch but AI can still be of great help. An AI assistant will help you repurpose and repackage existing content, optimize, and translate it.
Not only that; AI can create a course outline for you (which essentially means it will plan your entire course down to the last detail, complete with elearning activities and knowledge checkpoints), generate assessments and automated feedback, and write marketing emails for you.
LearnWorlds, one of the top customer education platforms in the market, features an impressive AI assistant. Apart from the capabilities mentioned above, with its 200+ built-in prompts, LearnWorlds’ AI assistant expertly guides you through course creation and beyond.
White labeling
White labeling means you will be able to not simply customize the leaning environment and your academy but completely remove the vendor’s logo and have your branding all over, making your customer training academy entirely yours.
This a great feature to enhance your brand, so make sure your platform of choice is indeed white labeled, since many vendors claim so but their their logo magically appears in email communications and other places on your academy.
eCommerce
Even if you’re not currently selling your courses, you might want to do so in the future, so make sure your platform can support this option.
eCommerce readiness involves several features, like integrations with marketing tools to promote your academy and popular payment gateways for secure and fast payments, support for multiple currencies and payment methods, options to sell separate courses, bundles, or subscriptions, tax management, sales reports and marketing insights.
Even white labeling and a website builder play an important role when it comes to course monetization.
Certificate builder
Customers often expect to be awarded a certification at the end of the program. This is usually the case with SaaS products, especially when the training offers in-depth knowledge of your product.
It’s common practice to award a certificate after a course or bundle of courses on a topic relevant to your industry – this type of training also falls under the umbrella of customer education. Popular CRM tools like HubSpot, for example, offer courses on marketing and sales as a way to generate leads and increase brand awareness – and add some extra dollars to their bottom line.
Therefore, a certificate builder that enables you to build customizable and sharable certificates is another feature worth requesting.
Rich integrations
The more integrations your Learning Management System offers, the better you’ll be able to align customer training with business operations. Look for integrations with CRM and customer service tools you’re already using because integrating with your existing tech stack will make your life a lot easier.
The integrations available should also cater to the learning experience. For instance, you will need video conferencing tools to support live webinars and training sessions. Other integrations to consider are with eCommerce and marketing tools.
Reporting system
Customer training is part of your business initiatives and, as such, you should monitor it closely. Your LMS platform should provide you with metrics and customizable reports that dive deep into learner behavior (not just course completion rates!) and measure the overall performance of your online academy in terms of engagement and sales.
Built-in community
If you want to truly engage your customers and have more focused discussions with them, then you should consider building your online learning community outside the noise of social media. A built-in community will elevate your customers’ sense of belonging and engagement with your brand, promote social learning, and facilitate honest and spontaneous feedback.
Gamification
Sometimes it’s hard to keep learners motivated during online training. Apart from adding interactivity via communities and live sessions, another effective way to engage learners is gamification. Even simple game mechanics, like badges and levels, can evoke learners’ competitive spirit and give them the boost they need to keep trying their best.
Security & compliance features
Security is multifaceted in online learning. For starters, your LMS provider should hold advanced security certifications to protect data privacy. GDPR compliance is also important if you have customers in Europe. Copyrights protection (e.g., with watermarks) will ensure your content is identifiable and can’t be appropriated by third parties.
You can also ensure security within your academy with features like user groups, user roles, and access controls. These features will enable you to categorize users within your academy based on their role and control which parts of your academy they have access to.
Scalability
Not a “feature” per se – plus it encompasses many functionalities we have already mentioned – but it is super important that you choose your customer training LMS with scalability in mind.
A basic feature that signifies high scalability is that the platform is cloud-based, so you don’t have to worry about maintenance, updates, and security patches. Support for unlimited users and content, as well as robust servers that enable your platform to perform at top speed, are also important.
Scalability is also about being able to support your business growth as your needs evolve and as you expand: that means the ability to build branded training environments (where some might be for employee training, others for partners, etc.), multiple options to monetize your courses, support for multiple languages, and high customization capabilities though integrations, custom code, Webhooks, and APIs.
So, did you takes notes?
These were some of the most important features to look for in your customer education platform. It’s quite a long list, and surely the requirements might vary depending on your unique business needs and target audience.
Before you start searching for a customer training LMS, ensure you have clear priorities by identifying your customer training needs and understanding how they align with your business goals. This will help you choose the right platform and prioritize your training topics effectively.
About the Author:
Androniki is a Content Writer at LearnWorlds sharing instructional design and marketing tips. With solid experience in B2B writing and technical translation, she is passionate about learning and spreading knowledge. She is also an aspiring yogi, a book nerd, and a talented transponster.