Why Treating Learners Like Customers is Crucial in L&D Programs
In the realm of customer success, we often emphasize a customer’s journey—a carefully orchestrated pathway aimed at delivering value and fostering deeper engagement over time. This cycle begins with onboarding, progresses through ongoing involvement, and ideally culminates in advocacy, where satisfied customers promote the product to others. The same principles can be applied to workplace learning. Instead of viewing learners as mere participants in a one-time activity, we can reimagine their experience as a comprehensive journey from initial engagement to enthusiastic advocacy.
By aligning learning experiences with distinct stages such as onboarding, engagement, continuous improvement, and advocacy, L&D teams can foster more meaningful connections and achieve superior outcomes. Treating learners like valued customers entails strategically investing in each stage, ensuring they recognize the value and remain motivated throughout their learning experience.
Strategies for Treating Learners Like Customers
1. Warm Welcome (Onboarding)
Just as customer onboarding welcomes users and guides them toward their early goals, learner onboarding should create a supportive environment that sets clear expectations. Personalized welcome messages, introductory tutorials, and quick wins help to instill confidence and highlight the value of learning from the outset. Clear pathways for support are essential; when learners know where to turn for assistance, they are more likely to stay engaged. Go beyond a standard “Welcome to your course” message—connect training objectives to real skills they can showcase, such as those on LinkedIn, to emphasize immediate value from the get-go.
2. Meaningful Engagement: Value at Every Interaction
In customer success, teams actively monitor engagement and proactively reach out to keep clients invested. Similarly, L&D can utilize data to create regular interactions—like progress nudges or intentional manager check-ins—to motivate learners and tackle obstacles before they lead to disengagement. Platforms such as Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) can support managers in guiding learners and keeping them on course. Just like in customer success, centering the learner in your strategy is vital. Design training that caters to their specific needs and aspirations, ensuring a cycle of continual engagement and learning.
3. Expanding Learning Opportunities: Upselling Your Learning Paths
In the context of customer success, introducing clients to advanced features or additional products fuels growth. For learners, suggesting personalized next steps or tailored learning pathways fosters ongoing development and relevance, moving beyond one-time training sessions. Instead of aiming for single compliance courses, consider providing a suite of related topics that encourage further exploration and engagement. Like customers in a retail experience, learners are interested in a holistic learning journey, not just isolated offerings.
4. Advocacy: Cultivating Learning Champions
In customer success, advocates emerge within organizations through exceptional experiences, often influencing their peers and enhancing the overall perception of a product’s value. In learning environments, nurturing engaged employees and encouraging them to share testimonials or conduct peer-led sessions propels a culture of enthusiasm and strengthens the learning community. This initiative transforms learning from a mere checkbox into an enriching, collectively valued experience. Establishing “Learning Champions” who promote beneficial training can bolster these efforts.
Picture a company grappling with a disengaged workforce that views training as just another obligatory task. By personalizing the onboarding process—welcoming employees with clarity and demonstrating immediate value—they can foster confidence and sustained engagement. Implementing strategic engagement tactics enables them to address obstacles early, maintain motivation, and offer customized learning paths to facilitate continual growth. Finally, recognizing and empowering enthusiastic employees as Learning Champions can organically nurture a culture of advocacy. Together, these strategies shift a mandatory task into a meaningful, ongoing experience that employees will actively seek out.
