In today's SaaS economy, proving the value of your role and organization to the business is critical for securing budgets and ensuring the longevity of your programs. If your leaders aren't aware of the tangible value your Customer Education program brings, it could be at risk of being cut. This makes it imperative to measure and communicate the true business impact of your educational initiatives.

Moving Beyond “Vanity Metrics”

While metrics such as

1. "Course Completion Rates,"
2. "Number of Certifications," and
3. "Monthly Active Learners"

… are important leading indicators, they don't necessarily demonstrate direct business value. To truly understand the impact of your Customer Education Academy, you need to focus on lagging outcomes that reflect the broader business value.

Analyzing Certification Impact

Certifications are a prime example of where you can measure deeper value. Gainsight's analysis of its Admin Certification Program revealed significant business impacts:

1. Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Sentiment:
   • KPIs: NPS Scores, Customer Satisfaction Surveys
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Customer Success, Marketing, Data Analysts
   • ❤Increased NPS Scores: Companies with a Certified Admin reported an average NPS of 45, compared to 31 for those without.
     • Executives at companies with a Certified Admin had an average NPS of 69, versus 28 without
2. Customer Growth:
   • KPIs: Expansion ARR, Upsell Rates NRR
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Sales, Revenue Operations, Data Analysts, Finance
   • Increased NRR: Clients with trained Gainsight Admins saw a 51% higher Expansion ARR per account.
3. Increased Adoption:
   • KPIs: Feature Adoption Rates, Healthy Active User Scores
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Product, Analytics
   • 65% of active customers had a trained Admin.
   • Increased Adoption: Customers with a trained Admin had a 3x higher average Healthy Active User score.

These metrics clearly illustrate the substantial impact certifications can have on customer satisfaction, growth, and product adoption.

Tactical Solutions for Measuring ROI

To effectively measure the ROI of your Customer Education Academy, consider these tactical solutions and cross-departmental collaborations:

1. Collaborate with RevOps and Data Analysts:

   • KPIs: Customer Retention Rates, Churn Rates
   • Track customer retention among users who have higher numbers of certified users or course completions. For example, analyze retention rates for certified users versus non-certified users.

2. Track Product Adoption:

   • KPIs: Feature Adoption, Usage Frequency
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Product Management, Data Analytics
   • Use tools like Gainsight PX to segment users based on course or certification completion and measure their feature adoption rates. Even without PX, your product team likely has tools to track adoption and can segment users from your Academy export.

3. Identify New Revenue Streams:

   • KPIs: Revenue from Training Programs, Enrollment Numbers
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Finance, Sales
   • Introduce programs like Instructor-Led Training (ILT) to generate new revenue streams. Measure this revenue to demonstrate direct financial impact.

4. Reduce Cost to Serve:

   • KPIs: Training Costs, Time Spent on 1:1 Training
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Customer Success, Professional Services
   • Use your Academy to supplement 1:1 training, reducing the time spent by Customer Success Managers (CSMs), Onboarding Specialists, or Professional Services. Tools like the Gainsight Customer Education ROI Calculator can help quantify training costs and potential savings.

5. Reduce Support Tickets:

   • KPIs: Number of Support Tickets, Resolution Time
   • Teams to Collaborate With: Support, Knowledge Management
   • Partner with your Support team to identify frequently asked questions and create Academy courses to address these. Measure the reduction in support tickets post-course launch to demonstrate the impact.
     • TIP - Ensure your organization uses Reason Codes as granular as you can get.  When users are submitting basic queries, see if you can get specific to the feature level.  This can help provide clearer insights where users struggle the most and solve issues more proactively with courses.

Maximizing Awareness and Utilization

To achieve these lagging outcomes, ensure your Academy is highly visible and accessible:

• Include Academy links in email signatures.
• Announce the Academy launch in your community, onboarding materials, email campaigns, and newsletters.
• Use tools like Gainsight PX to launch in-app announcements and drive awareness.

Conclusion

While leading indicators provide valuable insights into engagement, it's the lagging outcomes that truly demonstrate the ROI and business value of your Customer Education Academy. By focusing on metrics like NPS, customer growth, product adoption, and cost reduction, you can effectively showcase the impact of your education programs. Collaborate with other departments and utilize all available tools to maximize the effectiveness and visibility of your Academy, ensuring it drives meaningful results for your business.

For more insights, check out our detailed analysis of Gainsight's Admin Certification Program here, and explore our Certification Programs here.