Essential Tech Stack Guide for Customer Education Teams
These days, 71% of clients make purchases based on quality of support. That makes customer education teams invaluable for your business.
It can also save you money: companies that invest in customer education see a 16% reduction in support requests and a 7% drop in support costs.
But to see these returns, your customer education team needs to have the right tech stack. This blog will walk you through the essential tools for customer education, highlight their features, and help you craft a streamlined tech stack that aligns with your team’s goals.
Why Your Customer Education Tech Stack Matters
Customer education should offer a seamless learning experience. That also means your team has to have the right tools at their disposal to deliver outstanding IT customer experience.
The right tech stack helps your team to:
Deliver engaging content through webinars, tutorials, and courses that enhance the customer experience
Measure success by tracking attendance, completion rates, and user engagement.
Scale programs effortlessly, from onboarding small businesses to supporting enterprise clients with comprehensive customer education.
If your customers struggle to use your product and don’t get help from you, chances are they’ll stop using your product. Worse still, they might tell others to stay clear from it too as it’s considered too complicated.
Core Components of a Customer Education Tech Stack
Building your tech stack starts with understanding the key components that every customer education team needs:
Webinar and Virtual Training Platforms
Engagement Tracking and Analytics Tools
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Content Creation and Editing Software
Automation Tools for Scaling Education
Let’s break these down further and explore the top tools in each category.
1. Webinar and Virtual Training Platforms
Delivering live and on-demand webinars is a cornerstone of customer education. These platforms should offer features like screen sharing, interactive Q&A, and robust reporting.Here are two that stand out:
Recommended Tools:
Wistia: A video hosting platform tailored for businesses, Wistia offers features like detailed engagement analytics, custom branding, and integrations with CRMs. Perfect for on-demand video content.
BigMarker: Designed for webinars and virtual events, BigMarker allows for live, automated, and hybrid webinars with interactive features like polls, handouts, and Q&A. Its scalability makes it ideal for customer education teams.
2. Engagement Tracking and Analytics Tools
Tracking engagement is critical for understanding what resonates with your audience and where there’s room for improvement. Both Wistia and BigMarker provide some data, but look for tools that provide deeper insights into metrics like attendance rates, time spent on content, and post-session feedback.
Recommended Tools:
Google Analytics: While primarily a web analytics tool, Google Analytics can track traffic and engagement with your customer education content.
Mixpanel: Ideal for SaaS companies, Mixpanel helps track user interactions across webinars, courses, and product features.
3. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
An LMS is essential for creating structured learning experiences, offering certifications, and managing course content. It acts as the backbone of your customer education program.
Recommended Tools:
Thinkific: A user-friendly platform for creating online courses with quizzes, videos, and certificates. Thinkific’s custom branding options make it a great choice for SaaS businesses.
TalentLMS: Scalable and feature-rich, TalentLMS supports both self-paced and instructor-led learning. And it integrates with tools like BigMarker and Salesforce.
Absorb LMS: An enterprise-level LMS with analytics dashboards, gamification options, and mobile-friendly designs.
Don’t forget: When looking at different LMS, choose an LMS that integrates with your CRM and customer success tools so you won’t have problems later on.
4. Content Creation and Editing Software
High-quality, engaging content is at the heart of customer education. From video tutorials to infographics, you need tools that simplify content creation and editing. Let’s look at the best ones.
Recommended Tools:
Camtasia: Ideal for recording and editing video tutorials, Camtasia offers features like screen capture, annotations, and transitions.
Canva: Very popular among entrepreneurs and a versatile design tool for creating presentations, infographics, and social media graphics. Canva’s templates are perfect for non-designers.
Descript: A powerful audio and video editing tool that makes it easy to edit transcripts and create polished content.
Once you have these tools,a customer education team might use Camtasia to create step-by-step tutorials on setting up integrations, complemented by Canva graphics for clear visual instructions.
5. Automation Tools for Scaling Education
According to a Slack survey, 83% of UK Workers say AI and automation will enable more impactful work, so make sure to automate repetitive tasks like sending reminders, assigning courses, and tracking completions to increase productivity.
Recommended Tools:
HubSpot: A comprehensive CRM with marketing automation features, HubSpot allows you to deliver personalized educational content based on user behavior.
Zapier: Connects your apps and automates workflows, from enrolling users in courses to sending follow-up emails after webinars.
Marketo Engage: This marketing automation platform by Adobe supports advanced segmentation and analytics for scaling education programs.
How to Choose the Right Tools for Customer Education
With so many options available, choosing the right tools for your team can feel overwhelming. Here are some steps to streamline the process:
Define Your Goals:
Identify specific objectives in your customer education strategy
Map out your customer experience journey from onboarding to advanced feature adoption
Set measurable KPIs that align with your customer education goals
Consider Scalability:
Evaluate tools based on their ability to support expanding customer education needs
Consider how the platform will enhance the IT customer experience as your product evolves
Assess pricing models and ensure they align with your growth projections
Look for tools that can accommodate multiple languages and regions
Prioritise Integration and Workflow Efficiency:
Ensure seamless integration with your existing customer education tech stack
Look for tools that support comprehensive customer experience workflows
Consider how each tool contributes to your overall customer education ecosystem
Evaluate API capabilities and integration options
Test, Measure, and Gather Feedback:
Utilise free trials to thoroughly test each customer education tool
Run pilot programs to gather real-world customer experience data
Involve your team in evaluating how effectively tools help educate customers
Document and compare results against your requirements
Building a Unified Ecosystem
A well-integrated tech stack is greater than the sum of its parts. When tools work together, they provide a seamless experience for both your team and your customers. For example:
Your LMS can sync with your webinar platform to automatically enrol attendees in follow-up courses.
Engagement tracking tools can feed data into your CRM, giving customer success teams actionable insights.
Automation platforms can trigger personalized emails based on user behaviour, ensuring learners stay engaged.
Final Thoughts
A well-chosen tech stack is the foundation of any successful customer education program, so take the time to evaluate your options, prioritise integration, and focus on your customers’ needs.
All these tools are powerful, but it takes time to learn how they work and feel comfortable using them. It’s better to spend three months on analysing your company’s needs and the customer education tool that matches these best than to jump right in and realise later on that you could have made a better choice.
Have questions or need guidance? Drop a comment below.