An Educated Customer Is a Happy (and Loyal) Customer
January 28, 2008
In my earlier post Adobe Video Workshop: Adobe Teaches You Adobe, I said I believed the next big wave of eLearning would be companies teaching their customers how to use their products.
I was wrong.
The current big wave of eLearning involves companies teaching their customers how to use their products.
And companies who aren’t teaching their customers how to use their products are losing sales, customer loyalty, money needlessly spent on excessive customer support, and respectability.
The day will come when you will be able to hop online and watch a video tutorial on how to do everything from changing the filter on your vacuum cleaner to installing a new headlamp in your car to navigating the menu system on your fancy new plasma television. And not low-quality YouTube videos hacked together by enthusiastic (and altruistic) customers for the lack of anything better, but professionally-created multimedia learning materials provided on the manufacturer’s website.
Forget cryptic, badly-translated user manuals that do little more than befuddle and frustrate. We want video demonstrations. We want animated diagrams. We want narrated step-by-step instructions. With photos.
Anything less just won’t be good enough. And companies who can’t provide this, just like companies who can’t be bothered with creating a decent website to represent their business, just won’t be taken seriously.
Panic, much-loved Mac software developers (and visual design geniuses), get this. They’ve provided video tutorials for their new Web development app, Coda.
Many other companies get this. Or are starting to get this.
Does your company get this? How about the companies you buy products from?
Isn’t it time they do?
Addendum:
Apple continues the customer/learner lovin’ with its Find Out How tutorials:
Good stuff for all you eLearning developers out there thinking about a switch to Mac (or a switch to Mac + Virtualized Windows, like I run).
I know you’re out there…
Posted in Evangelism
content
I'm an eLearning developer and presentation designer looking for (and striving to create) eLearning and presentations that delight as well as educate and inform. Please join me.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Techy companies usually get this. They also have employees who can create these solutions. A greater opportunity exists for those of us “in” the business to assist all those companies outside the tech world. They don’t know where to begin with e-learning or online video. I believe there is a HUGE market out there for those of us in the business to assist these types of companies.
Scott
January 29th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I agree completely, Scott. The tech companies are definitely leading the way on this, but it will certainly trickle down (hopefully more of a gush than a trickle) to other sectors as well. And you’re right, big, big opportunities for people who can develop these materials for companies who don’t have the in-house talent.
Hey, developing yearly mandatory corporate compliance page-turners isn’t for everyone.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:22 am
Too funny, Chris.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Nice post, Chris. I agree with you. And your timing is good, too. Coincidentally, yesterday we launched a 29-post series (in honor of leap year) on Articulate 101. A number of the how-to posts we’ll do will include Articulate-powered demos.
And, as we’ve alluded to in our forums, our future products will launch with Articulate-powered tutorials, similar to what we did when we launched Articulate Online with tutorials.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
That’s good news, Gabe. Many of us Articulate customers have been wanting tutorials for a long time - I look forward to seeing the tutorials that accompany your new software versions.
Of course, even more than that, I look forward to seeing your new software versions.