The Law Of The Vital Few In Customer Education
Highlights:
Why are vital few important to understand?
Benefits of the 80/20 Rule of Customer Education
Five Ways to Apply the 80/20 Rule of Customer Education
You probably heard about the Pareto principle — it states that most effects (80%) are the result of a few (20%) vital causes. This principle also constitutes one of the axioms of business management:
80% of sales come from 20% of clients
However, it can also be applied to customer education and specifically to building your customer education strategy.
What is vital few?
In customer education, the term vital few is also known as the law of the vital few or the 80/20 rule. As it goes from another definition for vital, it represents the critical elements, topics, or use cases that significantly impact customer success and satisfaction. These key areas can lead to better customer and business outcomes when adequately addressed and prioritized.
Get your priority straight
Remember, the priority of Customer Education is to enable users. But you should also keep in mind the fact, that your users do not want to learn your product per se, they want to do their job and do it better. After all, that is the reason they purchased your solution, right?
The most enthusiastic people who care about every new feature of your product are the ones on your product team, but not your users. Of course, users will benefit from these features and updates, but you must tell and show them how. This is where your customer education comes in to bridge the gap.
“It’s important to prioritize industry education over pure product training”
— Adam Avramescu, Head of Customer Education at Checkr
We could not agree more — people are buying your product to become better at their jobs and to solve the tasks at hand, not to learn every feature of your software. Therefore, you have to move away from feature focused training and dive deeper into more practical education.
Why are vital few important to understand?
Understanding the concept of the vital few is crucial in customer education because it allows businesses to focus their efforts and resources on what truly matters. Clearly, there is no magic few definition numbers. Still, companies can streamline their educational strategies and provide more value by identifying and prioritizing the essential elements that drive customer success. This approach increases customer satisfaction, retention, and overall business success.
Learner-first design
Learner-first design of your customer education strategy will help your customers find value in using your product. To achieve that you must focus on very specific things. Start by answering this question:
Who are your product users and how are they using it differently?
You will most likely have a couple of user categories with different goals and priorities — this will help you understand what the best motivation for these people to use your product is.
Answer these questions to help you develop your learner-first approach:
- How will your product help your customer do their job?
- What use cases are they interested in?
- What is the “basic knowledge” your users need and is there an “advanced knowledge” further in your educational strategy?
- What will your users accomplish with your product?
Apply the 80/20 Rule
Now you need to apply the Pareto principle to your educational strategy. Do some research beforehand and find out the 20% of use cases of 80% of your customers. Even if you think your clients are unique, you will still find patterns after you talk to them.
Your customer support team can also be of great help — they will give you 20% of cases where 80% of customers need help. Now you have a very clear idea for a set of lessons or courses covering these topics.
Remember, people may use your product in very different ways, so you might want to design special courses for a very specific set of users and teach them how to use certain features of your product to achieve the desired results.
If you correctly identify these key 20% and properly address them, you should see the law of the vital few in action.
Benefits of the 80/20 Rule of Customer Education
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, can be highly beneficial in the field of customer education:
Efficiency: By identifying the significant key vital that significantly impact customer success, businesses can allocate their resources more efficiently. This means focusing on the areas that deliver the most value rather than spreading resources too thin.
Improved Customer Satisfaction: Customers who receive targeted and relevant education that addresses their specific needs and goals are more likely to be satisfied with the product or service. This leads to higher customer retention rates.
Reduced Churn: The 80/20 rule helps companies reduce churn by addressing customers' key pain points and challenges. When these issues are effectively resolved through education, customers are less likely to leave.
Customization: Tailoring educational content and resources to the vital few elements allows for a more customized approach to customer education. Different user segments can receive content that aligns with their unique needs and objectives.
Data-Driven Insights: Implementing the 80/20 rule involves gathering data and feedback to identify the critical areas. This data-driven approach provides valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences, enabling continuous improvement of the education strategy.
Five Ways to Apply the 80/20 Rule of Customer Education
To effectively apply the 80/20 rule in customer education, consider these five strategies:
Talk to customers.
Engage with your customers through surveys, interviews, and feedback sessions to understand their challenges and goals. Identify the vital few areas where they need the most support and education.
Talk to CSMs and Support Agents.
Customer success managers (CSMs) and support agents interact directly with customers and often have insights into common issues and questions. Collaborate with them to pinpoint the critical topics for education.
Define user roles.
Segment your customer base by user roles and responsibilities. Different roles may require additional educational content. Tailor your education strategy to address the unique needs of each user category.
Focus on user outcomes.
Rather than just teaching customers how to use your product, emphasize the outcomes they can achieve. Help them understand how your product can solve their specific problems and make their jobs easier.
Curate content.
Create educational content and resources that specifically target the vital few areas. Develop courses, guides, and materials that address these critical topics in-depth, ensuring that customers have access to the information they need to succeed.
Incorporating these strategies and embracing the concept of the vital few in customer education can enhance the impact of educational efforts, drive customer success, and build stronger, more loyal customer relationships.
Proper content structure
If you follow the advice in this article, you will eventually have content tailored for different groups of learners, who have different goals in mind. For example, you might have courses covering a very narrow topic for a very specific group of users, and at the same time, you will have a set of courses with a broader industry education designed for a much wider audience.
If your educational content is not structured properly, it may impair the educational journey of your learners and lead to high churn rates.
We addressed this issue with AcademyOcean’s Course Folder and Group features. Using those you will be able to create sets of courses and even whole educational sequences for your learners and guide them through your educational journey.
Whether you decide to have a comprehensive product Academy or just a handful of educational content pieces, remember to focus on what your users are trying to achieve by using your product. Help them to their goal, and they will become your long-time customers or even product ambassadors.