Some customers aren’t just users but great advocates of your product.
It’s not just about having a great product. It’s about ensuring your customers know how to use it effectively. This is where customer enablement works.
It’s your customers’ toolkit that helps them use your product and ensures they get the most out of it.
When your customers feel confident using your product, they’re more likely to buy more, stick with your brand, and even recommend it to others. Let’s take a deep dive into what’s customer enablement and see how it impacts a business’ bottom line.
What is customer enablement?
Customer enablement is an approach to supplying customers with everything they need to use a product or service. It involves giving them the tools, training, and resources to succeed.
Customers and your company work together. The company gives users what they need, and customers give feedback. If this works well, customers are happier and stay longer.
Think of customer enablement as the other side of sales enablement. While sales focus on closing deals, customer enablement focuses on helping present customers make the most of what they've purchased.
Why do businesses need customer enablement?
To let customers use products and services effectively. Customer enablement focuses on getting customers ready to get the most value from your products and services. Happy customers are likely to buy more. In fact, 93% of consumers are likelier to make repeat purchases if they enjoy a good customer experience. These satisfied customers also tend to promote your brand to their friends and family.
Customer enablement supports customer success teams while helping them drive their metrics related to product adoption and retention. It lets customers self-serve, helping support professionals focus on more critical tasks.
Enabling customers with the right training material, videos, and other content types educates them. They can fully enjoy and use your product and service, while customer support can provide assistance to other customers’ cases where self-serve is tricky.
Customer enablement best practices
There’s no universal approach to customer enablement. What works for one company might not work for another. However, you can follow a few best practices to create a customer enablement plan that fits your product and customers.
Let customers access support easily
Poor customer service is a significant reason customers leave a brand. To avoid this, make sure help is readily available. This can include maintaining a video playlist, a detailed knowledge base, and an FAQ section on your website. Also, ensure that customers can easily contact a customer success representative through live chat or callbacks when they need more direct help.
It makes sense to open support on channels like WhatsApp in countries where your customers use it heavily. Cooby helps you manage these WhatsApp communications and sync them with your CRM or other support tools, keeping all customer communications in one place.
Cooby comes with features like Inbox Zero and various other functionality that make WhatsApp productive for business use.
Create a collaborative learning experience
Customer enablement thrives on collaboration. Client-facing teams can save ample time by encouraging interactions between clients and experts through forums, groups, and news feeds. Collaborative environments help create communities where customers can exchange feedback, support each other, and deepen their product knowledge. Look for a learning management system (LMS) that promotes interaction with features like leaderboards, awards, and discussion forums.
Engage customers with microlearning
Microlearning involves short, focused chunks of learning content like videos, podcasts, or quick quizzes. This method works well because it helps form long-lasting memories by focusing on a tiny lesson at a time.
You can incorporate microlearning into your enablement plan by creating playlists of short videos or offering quick webinars on specific topics. Aim to keep these lessons under 10 minutes to fit easily into your customers' busy schedules.
Seek feedback
Understanding and using your product is more manageable for customers when your learning materials are engaging and relevant. That's why collecting feedback throughout the customer journey is crucial. Instead of just using Net Promoter Scores (NPS), allow customers to leave feedback directly on lessons or use tools that let them rate their content’s relevance.
This feedback helps you continuously improve your materials and meet your customers' needs better. Additionally, hosting discussion forums provides a space for customers to discuss issues and share their insights, which can help your enablement team address common problems more effectively.
Customer enablement vs. customer success enablement
Customer enablement is about helping customers succeed with the product after they have made the purchase. It supports customers throughout their experience with the product, helping them learn, grow, and maximize their use.
Customer enablement involves creating short explainer videos or other content. Sales teams can also use these materials to address potential customers' complex queries.
Customer education is a major component of customer enablement. You need to analyze data to predict where customers might face difficulties and offer help to address these issues. However, simply creating resources is not enough. You must equip customer success managers with the skills and knowledge to help customers use these resources effectively.
This is where customer success enablement comes into play. It involves training the customer success team on properly using customer enablement tools. This training ensures they understand the product well and can better support customers.
Benefits of a strong customer enablement strategy
A customer enablement strategy can benefit your organization in several impactful ways:
- Increasing product adoption. When customers fully understand and appreciate the value of your product, they're more likely to use it extensively. This increased usage boosts your sales and business growth. To facilitate this, providing thorough training and resources is crucial.
- Improves customer engagement. Engaged customers connect more deeply with your brand and are likely to become repeat buyers and advocates.
- Builds lasting relationships. Customers who feel supported and valued are less likely to switch to competitors. If your product is extensive or complex, you can start offering certifications. Well-certified customers are more loyal and likely to renew their engagements.
- Decrease the volume of support tickets. Well-informed customers solve many issues on their own through self-serve material, reducing the demand on your support team. This self-sufficiency means fewer support tickets and more efficient resolution of those that arise.
- Increase bottom-line revenue. Empowered customers are more likely to expand their purchases and recommend your brand. A solid enablement strategy ensures they have the tools and knowledge to make the most of your product, leading to higher revenue.
Empower customers
Customers who know how to use your products effectively are happier, more likely to stick around, and even spread the word. Implementing a strong customer enablement strategy isn’t just about dumping information on your customers; it’s about creating meaningful, easy-to-digest learning experiences that resonate with them.
Remember, the feedback loop is your best friend. Always listen to what your customers say about their learning experiences. This feedback is invaluable for refining your approach and ensuring that your enablement resources are hitting the mark.
Learn more about how to manage clients to maximize retention and bottom-line revenue.
