Educating customers, easier said than done, or is it?
30 October 2024
First things first: what do we mean by educating customers?
Can you educate customers? To answer that question, we delve a little deeper into the prerequisite for education. In other words: when do we learn something?
In most cases, if we see a benefit in it ourselves. For example, you want to learn a new language to get a promotion at work. Or you want to learn the rules of a new sport to perform better.
You can probably guess: people rarely learn anything against their will. Anyone who has ever tried to get an unmotivated child to do their homework knows exactly what I mean. So the question is, do your clients want to learn something and/or change their behavior? Do they benefit from it?
Furthermore, it is important to consider the fact that your perfectly engineered business process or customer experience accounts for only 0.000005 percent of the customer's day. You can teach your children to load the dishwasher because you will keep repeating it every day. Teaching your customer to use a complex platform that they only need once a year? That is unlikely to prove very successful. In my view, therefore, proximity and repetition are also prerequisites for education.
In plain language: educating customers only works if:
- the customer to see the usefulness and benefit of it themselves
- you have enough interaction moments to repeat your message
Nudging: a better way to educate customers
In my opinion, you have to be a bit careful with the term 'educating customers'. The line between helping the customer with good intentions and ' teaching the dumber customer a lesson ' (an actual expression heard in the IT world) is quite thin.
It is difficult to prevent the customer from feeling stupid in this situation, and therefore not perceiving your good intentions as customer-oriented at all.
At Customerry, we are therefore big fans of nudging.
Nudging, what is that actually?
Nudging is a concept originating from behavioral science and refers to subtly encouraging people to make certain choices without restricting their freedom to choose. Sounds complicated?
A few examples you will certainly recognize:
- Sweets at child's eye level at the supermarket checkout
- The more expensive bottles of wine that are on the rack at your eye level
- Paper waste bins with only a narrow slot and a grey color
- Traffic lights that turn red if you are speeding in a 30 zone
- A checkout offer on a webshop that appears when you want to check out.
You can also apply this principle in your company. By first thoroughly investigating the benefit of the behavioral change for the customer, and then linking a process to it that guides your customer towards your desired behavior. Educating customers may not always succeed, but with a few nudging techniques, you will get a long way.
Tip: If, like me, you get easily enthusiastic about this subject, I highly recommend the book 'The Art of Designing Behavior' by Astrid Groenewegen.
3 practical tips to get the customer to do what you want
Customerry is known for very practical and applicable advice. We therefore conclude this blog article with 3 concrete actions to make raising your customers easier.
Make the benefit for the customer clear
Simple, yet so often forgotten. Ensure that every change you make on the client side actually provides a tangible benefit for the client. If none can be found, you must ask yourself what you are trying to achieve.
But Sarah, surely a new CRM system offers no advantage because the customer doesn't see it? No, but he might see clearer invoicing, an online portal, or a better overview of his purchases from you.
Show, guide, do it together, explain, experience it yourself
This applies to everything you think today, 'but the customer just needs to learn to listen and follow our instructions.' I invite you to try following your own instructions for a change, without all your prior knowledge. Better yet, have your new employees look at your business processes through those customer eyes. Is it really clear? Or is it clear to you because you know the inside as well?
Make it fun!
Why do we always think that educating customers or getting them to change something has to be boring? Why not make it fun for a change? A giveaway for the first 10 customers who order something via your new portal. Engaging communication about your new PBX or ticketing system. A generous dose of storytelling about the 'why' behind your adjusted process or operation. Ensure the customer feels involved and is eager to collaborate on your new way of working.
An example? Yours truly once announced a new ticketing system by turning the explanation into a Star Wars movie. You can be sure that everyone saw when we were about to start.
Could your clients use a lesson too?
Undoubtedly! Shall we start by taking a look together at how clear your processes are today and where improvements are possible? This can be done during a no-obligation consultation, during which we can already provide you with some concrete tips.
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