While organizations have been educating customers on products for years, a significant number of businesses have joined the movement within the last decade. Why?
The impact of a well-executed customer education program on a business is profound.
According to a Forrester report commissioned by Intellum, 90% of companies have seen a positive return on their customer education investments.
Customer education statistics are showing us that now, more than ever, companies need to ensure they're providing education that is in line with the needs of their customer.
Impact on the Business
- 90% of companies have seen a positive return on their customer education investments (Customer Education Leads to Revenue & Retention, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Companies with formalized education programs see 6.2% increase in revenue (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Companies with formalized education programs see 7.4% increase in retention (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Companies with formalized education programs see 7.1% increase in lifetime value (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Companies with formalized education programs see 11.6% increase in customer satisfaction (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Companies with formalized education programs see 6.1% decrease in support costs (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Educational content makes consumers 131% more likely to buy (Educational Content Impacts Brand Affinity, Trust… and Conversion, Conductor, 2021)
- ~65% of respondents reported that they can correlate lower support costs to customers that consume training (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
Team Growth Statistics
- 42% of customer education teams increased budget spend between 2021-2022 (2022 State of Customer Education Report, Thought Industries 2022)
- The 2022 Customer Education Council Report found, 63% reported that their customer education teams will grow this year (Customer Education Council Report, CustomerEducation.org, 2022)
- 90% of Customer Education programs grew last year, with more than 60% of respondents increasing their investments by more than 30%. (The State of Customer Education, Thought Industries, 2021)
Team Maturity & Organization Structure
- Most Customer Education teams report into the Customer Success function (41%), but 16% said their Customer Education team reports into the Professional Services team, primarily in the mid-market and enterprise segments. (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
- On average, companies tend to dedicate 0.25-2% of their employee-base to education and training. (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
- Of the companies with more than 10 employees on their education team, 65% were with companies of more than 1000 employees. (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
- Customer Education is a relatively new function, with 30% of the teams surveyed new within the last 12 months. (The State of Customer Education, Thought Industries, 2021)
- 12% of customer education teams have their own department. (The State of Customer Education, Thought Industries, 2021)
Data Analytics & Reporting
- 43% of companies don’t yet have a clear process in place for measuring the impact of their education. (The State of Customer Education, Thought Industries, 2021)
- During the “Consumption Analytics and Education Services” session at TSIA Interact 2020, only 11% of respondents said they’ve analyzed how learning content consumption impacts product subscription renewal. (The State of Education Services, TSIA, 2021)
Process & Company Integration
- 70% said product sales is the primary route to market for their customer training offers. (The State of Education Services, TSIA, 2021)
- 28% of education service teams surveyed have a playbook that is used to prompt learners to consume training (The State of Education Services, TSIA, 2021)
- Only 19% of Education Service teams align both your free and fee-based content and offers to a product adoption curve and/or a customer journey map (The State of Education Services, TSIA, 2021)
- Over a quarter (28%) of customers, on average, are not offered training, and nearly half (47%) have not utilized education offerings. (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
Learner Success Statistics
Customer Saturation
Tech Stack
Community
Monetization
Outsourcing / Hiring External Expertise
- 33% of respondents stated they use consultants/ contractors to assist with their training programs, with the largest percentage supporting content creation. (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
- Outside collaborators were more prevalent in organizations with more than 200 employees and training budgets over $250,000. (2022 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, SkillJar)
- 82% of respondents whose organizations used a dedicated third-party vendor said it was very important or crucial to realizing the current benefits of their education programs. (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- Top reasons cited for bringing in a dedicated third-party customer education vendor are 1) using a partner was faster, 2) they wanted an outside practice, and 3) they wanted access to best practices (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
- 63% of high-success orgs use dedicated third-party vendors and 35% use agency partners to support their education initiatives — compared with just 43% and 13% of low-success orgs, respectively. (Increase Revenue And Improve Customer Retention Through Customer Education Programs, Forrester commissioned by Intellum, 2019)
Reports & Data Sources