This week, we’re sharing some tips on how you can set the foundation for successful training calls. Whether you’re working in customer success, sales, or product management, we have often had to demo or train customers on how to use a technology platform. Read our tips or watch the video below!
Why is it important?
Usually, when we run training calls, it’s happening really early in the customer relationship. This means that we have to make a positive impression and it’s an opportunity for us to showcase that we’re a trusted advisor and it sets the stage for a fantastic customer experience.
Equally important though, we want to help build the customer’s confidence in the product. With a successful training session, customers will walk away with excitement to explore the product and a feeling that they made a good investment.
User Interface First!
Before you start explaining anything, put up the main page of the platform and let the customer soak in the user interface so they can get familiar with what it looks like and what it feels like. Then you can go on to start explaining some of the nomenclatures that you’re going to use throughout the demo. Remember to make no assumptions!
I used to work for a content marketing platform that had a ton of unique lingo like “collections.” What do you think that means?
So ensure you explain and define that lingo:
“Collections are ways to categorize information in a meaningful way. They’re kind of like folders where you can file content so that people can find things easier.”
Name Icons & Give It a Story
SaaS products nowadays have tons of great functionality, meaning there are also tons of icons that people need to know. Make it easier for them by naming them directly and give them backstories.
We used to have an icon, which we called the “Content Menu” – it was your best friend for everything content, whether you’re adding, editing, deleting, and modifying it.
When we went through the process of publishing content, we would remind everyone of the “Content Menu, which is your best friend for everything content.”
Start with a Use Case / Goal
We’ve reviewed the training calls of a lot of companies and what we find is that the presenter is usually really eager to show off functionality without wrapping it up in a scenario or use case in mind.
Make sure that you put together a scenario that will be applicable to the customer (e.g. to create customized reports). Then go into the how-tos (e.g. click on the settings menu, then Create Report). This will ensure that your listeners can logically follow you.
If you start with the steps then reveal the use case – then you’re making it harder than it needs to be for the user to remember what the steps are for.
Learn more about customer success communications hacks through our customer success training!
