The Importance of Training Content vs. Support Content and the COVID-19 Impact on Both

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When a customer reaches out to customer service or their sales representative regarding an issue they’re having with their Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) product that can’t be resolved with technical troubleshooting, it’s a sign of lacking training and support.

However, it’s not always easy to determine whether the customer experience gap is in your training sessions or your help and support content.

To solve this recurring problem once and for all, you must first address the difference between training and support content, and then you’ll be able to identify where exactly you went wrong.

As we ease into a post-pandemic world, there are also additional considerations that may impact what content should be included and how.

B-Lynk offers both training and support solutions to help you empower your customers to make the most of your UCaaS product. But first, you must understand how these two categories of customer education differ and how you can equip your end users with the knowledge they need to improve their use of your software in today’s world.

Training

Training content focuses on the experiences an end-user will have with your product that either do not evolve or will never be revisited. This is fully encompassed by your user’s “Day 1 Experience.”

The “Day 1 Experience” covers everything a user would need to know to get up and running with your UCaaS program. It should include all topics and critical features that will create the best introductory experience offered from the different user perspectives (administrator, end-user, etc.)

For those that are available when first getting started, you should offer a training program that walks them through the entire “Day 1 Experience.” This is always strongest when interaction is involved. While in-person training may not be the best choice today, there are still plenty of engaging options such as live webinars that can connect an expert trainer with users.

The content that makes up your “Day 1 Experience” should also be replicated and accessible from your website, as not all users will be present on the true “Day 1.” As easy as it would be to knock out the entirety of your training once and for all, it’s not realistic. New people will continue to join the company, and they deserve the same resources to set them up for success.

Help and Support

Everything outside of your curated “Day 1 Experience” can then be considered help and support content. Beyond the basics, what would your customers benefit from learning more about? What applications and features might cause them trouble in the future that you can mitigate now? What additional information would help them take advantage of your full suite of capabilities?

Create a list of content topics based on these answers and be prepared to wind up with a long list. This is good – it means you’re being exhaustive and thinking of everything possible that may be useful, saving you time and energy down the road and equipping your users with the skills they need.

Once you’ve developed all of your help and support content, you need to ensure it’s searchable since it won’t be moved through all at once like your training content is. Pick out the keywords that a user would use to identify a help topic, and include these tags to make it easy to find what they’re looking for.

Even if you think a comprehensive user guide is the best method to deliver this information, we can assure you it’s not. Keep it searchable, keep it digestible, and keep it curated to whatever your user may need at their moment of confusion or misunderstanding.

COVID-19 Considerations for Training and Support Content

Now that you have a better understanding of the differences between training and support content, it’s time to consider how the changes of the COVID-19 pandemic may impact your training and support strategy.

Impact on Hands-On Training

As we mentioned earlier, training is most effective when there’s a level of interaction and engagement rather than using a self-service model. Before 2020, we’d recommend in-person, on-site training whenever possible to maximize what your users take from the training session and open up the opportunity to ask questions and solve initial problems in real-time.

However, that may not be available or the best option for many businesses today. That doesn’t mean you should default to offering a training guide for individual use on their own time. According to a HubSpot survey, 75% of professionals prefer to learn using online training videos, so don’t rob them of that in replacing your usual in-person training with a written PDF or something similar.

When possible, live virtual training offers the benefits of real-time trainers and guidance without the need for physical proximity. If that’s not available, you could utilize webinars, how-to videos, and tutorials to still bring a multi-media, engaging element to the training session.

Rising Demand for Self-Service

Another trend we’ve seen with the onset of the pandemic is the rising demand for self-service options, which impacts help and support the most. Users don’t always want to wait in a call queue to speak to a customer support specialist, sometimes they want to be able to find the answers for themselves and solve their problems. In fact, 70% of customers now expect to find a self-service application on a company’s website.

This makes the need for a highly searchable help and support information center even more critical. If your customers can’t find what they’re looking for easily, they’ll still end up in your call queues, but they’ll likely be more frustrated than they were to begin with.

Offer the Best in User Support and Training with B-Lynk

Your customers need your help to take advantage of all the features and capabilities offered through your UCaaS product, both initially and throughout their experience using it. By setting them up with the basics through your “Day 1 Experience” training session and providing enough supporting information to help them navigate the possible challenges they may face later on, you can reduce your customer service burden and improve their overall experience with your product.

B-Lynk is proud to offer a number of both training and support solutions and services to give your customers only the best. Contact us to learn more about what we offer.