How to treat your learners as customers

Why learners should be treated as customers in L&D programs

In the success of customers, we consider the customer journey as a series of steps designed to create value and deepen the commitment over time. This life cycle begins with integration, moves in a continuous commitment and ideally ends with advocacy: customers who love the product and promote it to others. The same idea can apply to learning in the workplace. Instead of seeing learners as unique participants, what happens if we consider their experience as a journey that goes from initial adoption to long-term advocacy? By mapping steps to learn, commitment, engagement, continuous growth and advocacy, L&D teams can create more significant and better results. Treating learners and customers means investing in each step with a goal and a strategy, making sure to see the value and remain motivated throughout.

How to treat your learners as customers

1. Welcome to your course (alias Integration)

As is the integration of the customer presents to users a product and guides them to early steps, the integration of the learner should warmly accommodate employees and define clear expectations. Personalized welcome messages, simple tutorials and first victories help strengthen confidence and demonstrate the value of learning from the start. Learners also need a clear direction where they need support. Like starting a new job, a learner who includes his current place and the next steps is more likely to remain committed and come back to find out more. Do not be satisfied with the standard message “Welcome to your course”. Go further by connecting the training objectives to real and tangible skills they will develop and can present, for example, on platforms like LinkedIn. This helps learners to see immediate value and motivation in their very first interaction.

2. Commitment: value at each point of contact

Customer success teams monitor the use and check proactively to keep customers committed. Likewise, L&D can take advantage of regular data and points of contact (such as progression kicks or managers of managers for a purpose) to keep the learners motivated and resolve obstacles before disengaging. Ideally, an LXP or a similar platform allows managers to guide learners and keep them on the right track. We know that engagement stimulates productivity, which in this context means (and better) learning more (and better). As in the customer's success, placing the learner (your “customer”) at the center of your ecosystem is essential. Design training around their needs and, above all, around their objectives and aspirations. This is the key to creating really committed learners who come back for more.

3. Verification or … Expansion of learning paths

In customer success, encouraging customers to explore advanced features or additional modules stimulate growth. For learners, offering following steps or personalized learning paths maintains continuous and relevant development, preventing the formation from feeling as a unique event. Instead of recurring income, what learners you want is recurring learning. How to get there? Do not stop at a single compliance course: offers related and complementary subjects that deepen their knowledge and invite them to engage more. Like customers, learners do not just buy a single article; They invest in the entire learning experience.

4. Advance: Create learning champions

In the success of customers, defenders are individuals within the organization of a client who have such a positive experience that they share their stories and influence their peers, often helping to obtain renewals or additional companies. These are not only income; These defenders are crucial to stimulate internal adhesion and shape perceptions of knowing if a product really offers value. Likewise, in learning, the identification of committed employees and invite them to share testimonies or direct the sessions by peers helps to spread enthusiasm and strengthen the culture of learning. This step fills the gap between learning as a check box and learning as a significant shared value. Beyond typical gamification, consider establishing learning champions that actively promote good training, especially when it is not compulsory.

Imagine a company struggling with disengaged learners who deal with training like any other check box. If they start by personalizing integration (as we have said, welcoming employees with clear expectations and showing immediate value), learners are more likely to feel confident and remain committed. By introducing significant commitment strategies, the company can approach road dams early and maintain high motivation, offering tailor-made learning paths, going beyond unique prices for continuous growth. Finally, the identification of enthusiastic employees as learning champions to share experiences and direct sessions by peers can build a culture of plea which is propagated in an organic way. Put them together, and you transform a compulsory task into a significant and continuous experience that people will really want to come back.