This Office Hours session was packed with insights on leveraging education programs to drive business outcomes. We discussed how to align education KPIs with key goals like scaling, adoption, and retention.
Vanity Metrics and Engagement Numbers: (8:20)
We began by discussing the importance of vanity metrics to begin; enrollment numbers, course completion rates, active learners, etc. are important to celebrate and to set benchmarks for, but sometimes they don’t always tie to business outcomes, like improved retention or reduced onboarding time.
Start with Baselines: (10:05)
Setting baseline metrics is critical to proving the value of your education program over time. Track progress at key intervals, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, to showcase improvements and drive decisions.
Examples of Metrics by Goal:
Scale: (11:38)
Reduce onboarding time by creating Learning Paths: Save time for CSMs by including actionable next steps, like embedding Calendly links in course completion screens. Transition from onsite to digital training for broader reach.
Use your support tool to categorize common customer queries. Reports like top keyword searches and click-through rates to help articles can uncover training opportunities and refine your content strategy.
Adoption: (18:18)
Training on specific features can lead to higher product usage, reduced customer frustration, and greater awareness of new releases. For example, pairing feature launches with Academy learning increased utilization and excitement, while also serving as a marketing tool for product awareness.
Analytics can also uncover correlations between education engagement and product adoption, either in CE or in another tool. Gainsight University demonstrated the impact of education on customer satisfaction, showing companies with Certified Admins had an average NPS of 45 compared to 31 for those without.
Retention: (21:30)
Your training and education provides continuous value, which can lead to loyalty and engagement. Regularly updating content and offering tailored content to maximizing product value and business value(thought leadership) help keep customers invested.
Strong onboarding sets a solid foundation for retention by enabling users from the start.
To measure success, consider whether customers are exploring more of your offerings, becoming advocates, or consistently engaging with training and webinars. For example, Gainsight CE’s people leaderboard can help identify if top learners are also retained and renewing customers.
Hornbill’s Journey and Wins with Joel Eaton (28:28)
Hornbill's journey started with no existing education program, giving them the opportunity to build from the ground up by meeting with customers and aligning business objectives with customer goals. Their key outcomes included:
- Transitioned from 1:1 training to on-demand learning, allowing users to learn more upfront, reducing frustration, and enabling them to get ahead.
- Improved time-to-value for new users with a streamlined onboarding process.
- Surveys revealed the impact of on-demand learning, with 92% of learners reporting they feel more motivated to grow their use of Hornbill.
- Eliminated repetitive training by putting demos online and starting with small cohorts to scale effectively.
- Asked learners, “Do you feel more proficient in this area?” to measure training effectiveness and continuously improve their offerings.
Watch the full recording below:
