How engaged are your customers at work?
As a UC service provider, your customer base is made up of employees from all walks of life trying to do their jobs well. In order for them to do their jobs well, they need to understand the tools and resources available to them and feel confident and engaged in the work they’re doing.
It’s been proven that employees who are more engaged with their work perform better. A Dale Carnegie study even found that these workers outperform their disengaged counterparts by a whopping 202%
However, you have to take into consideration that learning and engagement won’t come about in the same way for all employees. For training and support to be effective, it needs to be diversified to meet the varied needs of your customers.
Learners prefer to receive information in different ways, which requires training and support content in various forms to improve end-user engagement and knowledge retention.
To help your customers improve their work performance, speed up product adoption, and boost overall engagement, here’s why it’s crucial to create a broad training program that meets learners where they are:
A one-size-fits-all training and support model doesn’t work
No two learners are alike. In fact, even learners in the same field have varying preferences for how they want to receive information.
A 2018 survey from Developer Learning found that within one development department alone, the learning preferences of employees were vastly different. While 36% preferred learning via reading, 22% felt more confident with instructor-led training and another 22% chose video as their training preference.
It’s clear that a one-size-fits-all approach would leave many learners in the dust struggling to engage and retain new information. Instead, UC providers need to provide robust training and support formats that include all learning types.
Some examples of various training and support types to consider include:
- Instructor-led training – A more traditional learning style, instructor-led training mimics the learning that typically takes place in a classroom. This style of training can be extremely helpful when it comes to explaining complex topics or processes and gives learners the opportunity to ask questions in real-time. It also allows for a more custom teaching approach that matches the training level of the users.
- eLearning – eLearning is one of the easiest training methods to implement and provides enough flexibility for learners to go through the content at their own pace from the most convenient device. Many users appreciate the interactivity of this method and benefit from the gamification of certain components.
- Required reading – While some learners want to get involved with their learning, others like to digest the information from a distance, while reading. Reading material offers the opportunity for rich descriptions, step-by-step instructions, and other detailed information that can improve engagement.
- Hands-on training – Certain learners get the most out of their training when it’s immediately applicable to what they’re doing. Specific hands-on training works well here.
While this is far from an exhaustive list of training styles, it exemplifies just how diverse one set of learners can be.
How to provide a variety of options while maintaining consistency
The challenge posed by the need for various training options is consistency. How do you provide the same high-quality learning material in contrasting formats? It’s all about repurposing content and staying true to the goal of the training.
Create a robust, accessible knowledge base
If the goal of your training and support content is to speed up product adoption and increase customer confidence and engagement, then you need to provide robust information within one easy-to-find resource. Within your knowledge base, customers should ideally be able to locate anything they’d ever need to know about your products, tools, and features. It should be a great resource for learners who prefer reading and self-service as opposed to anything hands-on or instructor-led.
Repurpose instructor-led training
Instructor-led training provides a great opportunity to repurpose the content in various formats. What was once a live event can become a recorded webinar, electronically available for anyone to revisit later at their convenience. It could also be turned into a step-by-step article or become gamified with an e-learning quiz attached to it.
Create an LMS
Finally, one of the most inclusive training options is a learning management system like Smart-Lynk. Within one digital system, users can access a full suite of learning options ranging from the recorded lectures mentioned above to tutorials, FAQs, and more. Smart-Lynk can deliver a variety of learning content and support in one place that is managed by experts and updated with all of the latest information.
All-in-one learning with Smart-Lynk
While one-size-fits-all learning is a thing of the past, all-in-one learning is the here and now of effective training solutions. B-Lynk’s Smart-Lynk embraces different training styles by providing formats that span the learning spectrum all within one central portal.
Each custom-branded Smart-Lynk portal comes packed with all of the necessary features that will educate and empower your customers to solve their own problems, adopt the tools and features you’re offering, and become more engaged with the systems they use every day for work.
Want a training solution for your customers that’s as effective as it is flexible? Contact B-Lynk today to learn more about Smart-Lynk.