Free Training with Support?

A well-educated customer is a better support user: more accurate problem descriptions, fewer problems to begin with, no more lengthy phone tutorials, a better chance that recommendations will actually be carried out correctly…  With that, some support organizations are including “free” training with their offerings. Here are some possibilities. Try them!

• provide self-service training on the support web site.
  Idea: provide short videos of training modules that can be played from the support web site. The videos can be taped on a relatively low budget and the quality doesn’t need to be very high for short footage, and you can repurpose existing videos such as webinars. They can be free for all users or reserved to holders of support contracts.
  Pros: relatively inexpensive for short videos or repurposed footage; very helpful for short topics (e.g. how to change a printer cartridge; how to set options); always available to customers; low effort and low cost for the customer.
  Cons: not practical for complex training; requires a good search function if you have many; could create conflicts with the training organization (although you could create short videos that do double-duty as advertising for longer courses)

• hold regular webinars on popular topics
  Idea: support staff (or others, if you can coax them to do it!) lead webinars on specific topics. They can be up to an hour in length and include a question and answer period
  Pros: relatively low-cost, especially if you can offload common questions that would otherwise require 1-1 assistance; support engineers will appreciate the variety, at least some of them will; low cost for customers; can be repurposed into self-serve videos
  Cons: requires some amount of infrastructure (registration, online system); more staff-intensive than self-serve; complex topics cannot be covered in an hour; requires a minimum number of customers to be worthwhile; some customers will not want to wait for a scheduled webinar

• include space-available training with the support contract, at no charge
  Idea: as long as space is available in regular training classes, why not allow customers to attend at no charge?
  Pros: great for in-depth training; uses training seats that would otherwise go to waste; may encourage customers to attend classes on a fee basis; makes the support offer more attractive
  Cons: it may make it difficult to sell training classes at the regular price; customers still have to travel to the training class and pay for the travel expenses; because the training is on a space-available basis it makes it hard for them to plan their time and they have to wait for months for a seat

• offer free reserved seats for training events with the support contract
  Idea: include a number of reserved seats in the support contract; the seats must be used within the year
  Pros: good for in-depth training; a wonderful addition to the support offer; customers appreciate being able to hold a reserved seat
  Cons: requires an arrangement with the support organization that will involve money transfers and some kind of tracking system; the training organization may oppose the scheme if there’s no appropriate compensation; customers may fail to show up since they are not paying for the training (hint: impose a no-show penalty like you would for paying customers, through which they forfeit their free days)

And the kitchen sink?

When creating high-end support offerings it’s tempting to load them up with all the goodies: the best response times (naturally), access to dedicated support resources, and perhaps non-support extras such as free training or a pass to the annual Users’ Conference. Is the kitchen sink approach a good thing?

• What’s the tangible benefit for the customer? While all customers may appreciate free training perhaps the higher-end customers organize training internally instead, or would prefer onsite training that’s not covered under the program — in other words won’t see the value of the feature. Validate the features with actual customers before committing to them.
• Be specific. As an ex-training manager who had to deliver against a promise of “two free training days” I had to explain to dozens of unhappy customers that the two days of training had to occur at a training facility and could only apply to one lucky individual, in other words no onsite training and no group training. I rarely had the heart to add that it was on a space-available basis only. As a result, customers were unhappy while taking up seats that could have been sold. Make the deliverable very clear to avoid misunderstanding.
• Create a tracking mechanism. The customer with that “free” pass to the Users’ Conference should be able to register easily and receive the freebie without hassle. This requires some kind of cross-functional tracking system. Think of it as you create the mixed offerings.
• Add an expiration date. Typically benefits accrue only during the support period so a customer that gets, say, 10 free training days must use them or lose them before the end of the year. That will make your CFO happy and reduce the tracking burden.
• Remind customers to use their freebies. This may sound counter-intuitive: why remind customers to use their free or discounted training or consulting if they will expire soon? Why not keep the money instead? That’s because you want customers to experience the value of premium support: even if they don’t use the freebie they will be reminded of what they are getting. Schedule the reminders so customers have ample time to schedule training or consulting.