The technology market has never been more crowded. Every category, whether it’s cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity or enterprise software, is awash with vendors competing hard and pushing for growth.

At the same time, however, customers are operating under tighter budgets and higher expectations around return on investment.

From a sales perspective, it’s an environment where tech companies can no longer rely on passive enablement.

The challenge for many, however, is that they are still overlooking one of the most effective routes to retention and expansion: customer education.

Recognizing customer-centric fundamentals

For many modern businesses, being ‘customer-centric’ is fundamental to how they operate. Whether it’s a high-level brand promise or is deeply embedded within organizational culture, the idea that customers sit at the center of business strategy has become a widely accepted principle.

A 2023 study, for example, found that, on average, references to customer-centricity appeared on a third of the annual reports of FTSE 350 companies. It’s an ethos that appears to deliver tangible results; the same report found that “those that lead on customer centricity . . . grew their share prices over a three-year return by 10% more than those who were the least customer-centric.”

However, as many organizations recognize, bridging the gap between strategic objectives and real-world delivery can be challenging, particularly when it comes to enabling customers to succeed with the products or services they have purchased. In this context, customer education - or the lack of it - plays an increasingly important role.

Clearly, every organization places at least some emphasis on customer education, with onboarding guides, help documentation, knowledge bases, webinars, and product walkthroughs among the more typical examples.

But to be truly effective, it should go much further than that, actively bridging the gap between the initial product purchase and successful real-world use. This is particularly important as products become more sophisticated and feature-rich, with structured education increasingly important for helping users navigate complexity.

Understanding what works

When customers understand how to apply a product’s capabilities, they are more likely to achieve the outcomes they expect. That directly reflects on the vendor or service provider, creating a virtuous cycle that powerfully demonstrates customer centricity.

More specifically, it can help deliver on a range of classic customer success metrics, from increased product adoption and reduced support queries to improved overall satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. These aren’t just nice-to-haves; they are fundamental to the way contemporary businesses measure success.

One of the first steps is gaining a clear understanding of what resources already exist. This includes identifying where customers currently receive education and which tools are used to deliver it. Organizations can then examine where customers encounter difficulties when using the product or service. It is also important to understand which teams are involved in delivering customer education, as responsibilities are often shared across functions such as sales, support and marketing.

Armed with this insight, it becomes much easier to identify gaps where additional education resources may be needed. A great example is an onboarding program that guides new users through their early interactions with a product. Many cover the basics and stop there, even though access to training on more advanced features can help customers explore capabilities they might not otherwise discover.

Similarly, well-designed practical guides or FAQs can address common challenges and enable customers to resolve issues independently. The point is, by identifying gaps in understanding and addressing them systematically, organizations can create a more structured customer education program.

A wide range of structured resources can support this process. These may include creating content hubs that explore practical use cases—or, more strategically—turning detailed documentation into approachable and highly-engaging courses.

Organizations do not need to deploy every option at once. Instead, the focus should be on prioritizing the resources that address the most immediate customer challenges, expanding the program over time as needs evolve.

A long-term commitment

It’s also important to understand that effective customer education isn’t a one-time deal arranged around specific pain points. The most effective approaches also evolve as products and customer needs change.

For instance, training materials that are effective at launch may become outdated as new features are introduced. Waiting for this insight to emerge through customer feedback channels is vital, but ideally, organizations will try to get ahead of the challenge by using a learning platform system to track how customers engage with content and deliver refreshers as needed—and AI content authoring tools to support this process and continuously update and scale training as fast as the product moves.

However you approach it, the reality is simple: shifting customer education from a reactive task to a proactive strategy is a genuine win-win. Customers get exactly what they need from the products or services they have bought, while vendors and service providers get to prove they are truly customer-centric.

We've rated the best customer experience (CX) tools

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit