Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2008 - (Page 32) Customer satisfaction is by far the most common target for customer training. Nearly twice as many respondents chose customer satisfaction as their primary expected benefit for customer training than any other single benefit area. Combined, the three revenue-creating goals represent about one-third (36%) of respondents. Only half as many respondents expected cost reduction as a primary goal (18%) than expected revenue creation (36%). This makes cost reduction a decidedly secondary goal of customer training. Now that we know what survey respondents expect from their customer training, how is it that customer training is supposed to make an impact for all of these benefits? Creating Value Through customer training, customers are supposed to gain product knowledge and increase their use of product features, resulting in greater customer satisfaction. Value created from this customer satisfaction increases the stickiness of the customer’s relationship with the product and the company. If they still have unmet needs, this satisfaction should entice them to renew or upgrade their products and stay with the company, increasing customer retention. Creating Revenue Customer satisfaction and retention may be initial goals of customer training, but they are not necessarily the ultimate corporate goals for it. The ultimate purpose is more likely to be revenue-driven. One major way that customer training would lead to more revenue is that customers who stay may also buy other products, increasing existing customer revenue over the longterm. Many companies also use customer training to generate new customers, which in turn increases company revenue. For instance, some companies offer product certifications that often lead certified professionals to refer clients or colleagues to buy those products. Many customer training groups – particularly those that operate as profit centers and charge separate fees for training – also make profits from the customer training itself, increasing training revenue. Reducing Costs Another outcome of better customer product knowledge is that customers should become less dependent on support calls and more able to use the products properly. A reduction in support calls could save the company significant ongoing support costs such as employee wages. In some industries such as medical or healthcare where the costs of product misuse can be high, reduced litigation risks can also be a huge benefit. Given these goals, how much of an impact does customer training actually make? Table 2 reports the percentages of respon32 dents who indicated each area had a “strong” benefit. Respondents were also able to choose a “moderate” or “no or little” benefit for each of the seven benefits. Table 2 Strong realized benefits from customer training Improve customer satisfaction Increase training revenue Increase customer retention Reduce support calls Generate new customers Increase existing customer revenue Reduce litigation risks/ potential costs 0 52% 50% 30% 25% 19% 18% 17% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Percent of respondents In alignment with respondents’ expected benefits, the value creation area of customer satisfaction and retention received the highest percentage of strong benefits, followed by the areas of revenue creation and then cost reduction. Although not all benefits were realized by as many respondents as customer satisfaction and increased training revenue, at least one in six of all respondents reported strong benefits for each. Since these are strong benefits, these results are worthy of attention even if they were attained by a minority of survey respondents. Two benefits – improving customer satisfaction and increasing training revenue – stand out way above the others. These two benefits are also the most likely to be directly attributed to training; while the others may be indirectly related and may take a few months or years to realize. While all types of respondents reported customer satisfaction as a strong realized benefit, much higher percentages of those operating under a profit model (63%) realized strong benefits in increased training revenue compared with only 20% of those operating as a cost center. Budget Items The study found that slightly more than half of the respondents indicated a larger customer training budget. However, when customer training was bigger than employee training, it was typically bigger by two to eight times that of employee training. Some of Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2008 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
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