Top 5 Customer Education Resources
The best places to learn about Customer Education!
This week’s edition of the newsletter is dedicated to those who are new to the world of Customer Education. From the dozens of CE leaders and practitioners I have talked to, I have learned one (pretty) universal truth: no one plans on doing Customer Education. This is a field/role that finds you where you are. You might be from Customer Success, Customer Support, or Marketing (these are the three most common that I have heard), or maybe some other field, but you now find yourself smack-dab in the middle of Customer Education. Now what?
I found myself in this position when I started with Maltego Technologies. I joined as a part-time student employee while I was finishing my Master’s degree. My background was in government-related investigations and prevention education. To be real, I was a glorified training facilitator. I have facilitated hundreds of training sessions in my time, and it is one of my most treasured skills. But, let me tell you, training facilitation and Customer Education program management are not the same. So, when I found myself as the Program Manager/Team Lead of our Training Team (our name for Customer Education), I felt challenged. Then, after about 6 months into the role, I felt completely lost.
I distinctly remember the moment I realized that I was “doing” Customer Education. I had just found the Customer Education podcast (from Adam Avramescu and Dave Derington) and it hit me. This is what I am doing. I am going to be honest with you, that was not a good moment for me. I realized that I had a whole new array of knowledge, skills, and processes to learn if I wanted to be successful. But, instead of avoiding the challenge, I doubled down. I found every Customer Education resource I could find and I started learning.
That is how Customer Ed Weekly started. I have been compiling and sharing Customer Education resources for myself since that moment, and I want to continue to share them with all of you. This list represents the quickest way to get your footing in Customer Education. If you have opinions on these resources, or suggestions on others to include, then let me know!
1. Customer Education by Adam Avramescu
Consider Adam Avramescu’s book a survival guide to investing in a Customer Education function, including:
How to drive a Customer Education strategy across your customer lifecycle
Tips for creating killer content that will actually lead to customer performance
What tools to implement as part of your technology stack
Measurement strategies for improving your content and showing ROI
And more…
2. Skilljar’s Foundations in Customer Education Course
Skilljar offers this free course through their online academy to teach you everything that you need to know to build an amazing Customer Education program, including:
An Introduction to CE Program Strategy
Content Creation and Curriculum Design
Marketing and Distribution Tactics
Measurement and Optimization Strategies
3. CE Lab Podcast
The CE Lab podcast is one of the few places where Customer Education leaders come together to share their knowledge, experiences, and teachable moments. Adam and Dave’s interviews provide valuable information on every topic related to Customer Education, including:
4. The Customer Education Playbook by Daniel Quick and Barry Kelly
The Customer Education Playbook is especially practical for SaaS company founders, executives, managers, and practitioners seeking to extract and provide maximum value from their customers over the long haul. This book will enable you to:
Learn why you should prioritize customer learning and invest in customer training and education
Discover how to create a detailed customer success and retention plan that emphasizes delivered value
Determine how to implement a learning strategy that maximizes and scales lifetime customer value
5. CustomerEducation.Org Slack Community
CustomerEducation.Org is the world’s most passionate Customer Education Community. While the website offers some value, the true value of this community lies within their Slack channel. This channel provides an opportunity to connect and share with 1000s of other CE professionals about topics including:
Events and Conferences
Implementing a Learning Managerment System
Metrics
Job Postings
Bonus: SaaS Academy Advisor’s Customer Education Job Board
Customer Education is a developing field, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t already lots of jobs out there (and lots of us looking to fill them). Enter SaaS Academy Advisors’ Customer Education Job Board. This resource makes it easy to understand the CE job market and find a role that might be a perfect fit.
This job board is updated often, and it even breaks down the jobs into different categories, including: