Forrester reports that “most customer experience (CX) leaders anticipate higher budgets over the next 12 months, despite growing economic turbulence.” With the threat of a recession looming, preemptive budget cuts and expansion or hiring efforts put on hold, the fact that customer experience is poised for growth only highlights its importance as a driver of business value.

What technologies improve the customer experience? Let’s take a look at why a learning management system (LMS) built for external training is one of the smartest investments you can make to improve the customer experience at your company.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies switched their customer education from classroom training or one-on-one sessions led by customer success managers (CSMs) to virtual instructor-led training (VILT) delivered through an LMS. This is a much more scalable way of delivering training, and it also serves as the source of truth for all customer education as the company grows.

Rather than update training to include new product features or platform updates in several different places, admins only have to record changes in one place that are then available to everyone in the company who uses the training.

How an External LMS Can Improve the Customer Experience

Here are five ways an LMS can help improve the customer experience.

1. Personalized Learning

The most effective training customizes content by role, solution, level of product knowledge and more. A best-in-class LMS allows you to design customized learning paths based on learner needs, such as whether they are a new or returning customer, what role they hold within the company or if they are an admin user.

This improves the user experience because the customer can easily find the appropriate training and access it on their own time through self-service features.

2. Increased Engagement Leads to Measurable Business Outcomes

One of the key benefits of an LMS is that the data you need to measure business impact, track learner progress and evaluate which content is working is built right into the system. This way, you can tie training back to business outcomes and prove that training makes customers more engaged with the platform.

If a customer feels comfortable using the system and it helps them in their work, they are more inclined to keep using it. Eventually, this leads to increased renewals.

3. A Streamlined User Experience (UX)

A powerful UX provides users with the ability to quickly find what they need to learn and intuitively engage with this content to successfully solve their problems. It’s crucial for learners to discover content efficiently, and one of the advantages of an LMS is a thoughtful UX approach that considers the user journey at every stage of their experience. Whether that’s a brand-new user or an experienced admin, the UX is simple, easy to navigate and familiar.

Best-in-class training platforms often integrate with other commonly used apps such as Zendesk, Salesforce and Gainsight through single sign-on (SSO), so the user feels as though it’s one cohesive experience, even though they may be using multiple apps.

In addition, an LMS has design features and customized tools for a look and feel that can align your training platform to your company’s brand, adding to the sense of a unified solution.

4. Certifications and Badging

Increasingly, end users are looking to become certified and more proficient at their jobs, as well as better position themselves in a competitive market and command higher salaries. As a result, more software platforms are offering certifications to users who demonstrate mastery of their product, which also promotes brand awareness as users typically display their badges and certifications on their social profiles.

According to the 2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, certifications remain the No. 1 tactic for driving customer success and customer engagement with learning programs. Best-in-class LMSs make it easy for end users to earn badges and certificates through integrations with such platforms as Credly, Caveon, Examity and ProctorFree. Training courses offered through an LMS can assess product knowledge within a course through quizzes, and then provide certificates to users with a passing score right through the platform.

5. Administration Experience

Creating a great front-end user experience starts with having a back-end interface that’s easy for learning managers to create, customize and navigate. Building a new theme, creating course content and having the analytics to review how learners navigate content all contribute to a more engaging and thoughtful experience for your learners.

Using an LMS, admins can access various features through one centralized dashboard. These may include:

• Creating and managing training (use learning paths and course catalogs for easy site navigation).
• Viewing analytics (measuring course engagement and tying learning back to business outcomes).
• Managing live training events (offering webinars using Zoom, Webex and other videoconferencing platforms).
• Creating different training domains (employee, customer, partner or public).
• Theming (selecting colors, fonts and designs that align with your brand for a seamless experience).
• Certifications and badging (administering certificates and badges to users who complete knowledge assessments).

Conclusion

A great customer experience begins with a true understanding of how to not only use your platform, but also to get the most from it. An LMS for external training can provide a seamless, easy-to-use training experience that leads to increased customer satisfaction, which then impacts product adoption, loyalty and ultimately, renewals