How to Measure Customer Training ROI: 15 KPIs to Keep an Eye on

Return on investment (ROI) is a major concern for any business, especially when they invest significant resources. When it comes to customer training programs, the investment can be small or large, but the potential wins are always big.

Customer education programs enhance the onboarding experience and improve overall customer experience, positively impacting business growth. That said, measuring the ROI of customer training is challenging, mainly because it can be difficult to pinpoint its exact impact.

In some cases, the effects are apparent. For example, you build a course or create a video tutorial to help customers use a specific feature. If feature adoption increases a few months after the launch, you can safely attribute this to the recently introduced training resource.

But what happens when renewal rates or upsells go up? In this case, It’s hard to link success to customer education (or measure the extent of its impact). Sales growth can be achieved by multiple factors, like an exciting new feature release, an offer, or some capable additions to your sales team.

In this blog post, we’ll shed light on the puzzle of customer education ROI by examining 15 key KPIs that indicate success and explaining how to track them in a way that links them back to customer training.

But first…

Why Should I Measure Customer Training ROI?

A customer education program is a business initiative and a significant investment. As such, it shouldn’t be left to fate. Measuring the ROI of customer education helps you understand where your efforts stand and make data-driven decisions regarding its future and even the future of your business.

• Demonstrate value to stakeholders: Proving that customer training has had a positive impact on the business is key to justifying the investment in the first place, securing a budget for the future, and even requesting more resources to scale the program further.
• Improve program appeal and effectiveness: Tracking engagement metrics, like completion rates and engagement with content, uncovers your program’s strengths and weaknesses. This enables you to improve and enrich your training resources so they’re even more valuable to your customers.
• Maximize the business impact of your program: An improved customer training program is a more impactful program. A program that effectively addresses your customers’ pain points will improve the customer experience with everything that follows: higher satisfaction, reduced churn, and a financially healthy business that keeps growing.

15 Essential KPIs to Measure Customer Training ROI

Let’s clarify that there are no wrong or right KPIs to measure. The following ROI metrics are indicative, and not everyone will be relevant for your business (although all of these matter to stakeholders). Since customer education is linked to your business strategy and goals, the must-track metrics are unique for every business.

In any case, implementing a measurement framework is essential so you know whether your initiatives not only meet customer needs but also help you achieve business growth.

💡 Want to learn more on how to maximize your business impact with customer education? LearnWorlds held an insightful webinar with customer education expert Vicky Kennedy, who shared her tried-and-tested measurement framework. Click the link below to watch for free!

First, we’ll start with metrics that demonstrate how customers respond to your program and how effective it is in terms of learning and engagement.

Note that the most efficient way to gain access to these essential metrics with no fuss is to create and deliver your training program using a customer training platform or learning management system (LMS).

1. Course Completion Rates

This metric tracks the number of customers who finish the courses they start, reflecting content engagement and perceived value. High completion rates indicate that customers find the content engaging and valuable.

How to measure: Track the percentage of customers who finish the courses they start.

2. Learner Engagement Metrics

Learner engagement is linked to interaction with training content and is expressed through analytics like time spent on each activity and module, click rates, number of logins, and interaction with different types of training content (videos, articles, quizzes) or even your community. These metrics monitor learner behavior and can help you determine which content, activities, and courses are the most engaging.

How to measure: Use analytics to track user activity, monitor click rates, time spent on pages, and interaction with multimedia elements.

See an example from our platform:

3. Certifications Issued

Awarding a certification enhances perceived product value and enables you to monetize your customer training course. A high number of certifications issued points to an effective and engaging training course, provided that the certification is issued upon the successful completion of an exam. It also shows customer commitment to mastering your product, which is a positive indication for product adoption and retention.

How to measure: Count the number of customers earning certifications and compare it against participation rates.

4. Attendance and Participation

Attendance rates at live training sessions, webinars, and workshops clearly reflect the program’s appeal and success. High participation rates indicate that customers find value in the training sessions offered and are actively engaged.

How to measure: Track attendance at webinars, workshops, or live training sessions.

💡 The following metrics focus on the business impact of customer education. These are the most important metrics when determining customer training ROI as they demonstrate tangible results and are, therefore, directly linked to your business goals.

5. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS)

These metrics gauge customers’ satisfaction with your product and whether they would recommend your offerings to others. You want CSAT and NPS to be as high as possible; the opposite is a strong predictor of customer churn and negative word-of-mouth.

How to measure: Conduct product-focused surveys at key touchpoints, such as after product usage, purchases, or during regular customer check-ins with CSMs and support, to gather specific feedback on their satisfaction levels.

6. Customer Retention Rate

The most crucial metric, customer retention can be significantly improved through education, which ensures users understand and derive value from your products. The impact of customer education on retention is even more evident for complex products where lack of understanding leads to cancellations.

How to measure: Compare churn rates among educated vs. uneducated customers.

7. Time to Value (TTV)

Another essential metric to track during customer onboarding, time to value measures the time from initial engagement with educational content to achieving the first success milestone, eg., performing a task. Reducing the time it takes for new customers to understand and effectively use your product can boost satisfaction and adoption rates and prevent early churn.

How to measure: Measure the time from the customer’s first interaction with educational content to when they achieve their first success milestone.

8. Product Adoption and Feature Utilization

Product and feature adoption are among the must-have KPIs on your list. These metrics calculate feature usage among educated customers, showing how education drives product understanding, which directly impacts adoption rates.

How to measure: Track which features are used more frequently by customers who have participated in education programs.

9. Support Ticket Reduction

Assesses the reduction in support tickets after customers engage with educational content, indicating improved self-sufficiency. Effective education should reduce the number of support tickets as customers become more self-sufficient.

This, in turn, can also reduce customer support costs because your customer base can continue to expand while your support team stays the same.

How to measure: Monitor the volume of support tickets before and after customers engage with educational content.

10. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Educated customers tend to spend more, stay longer, and are more likely to purchase additional products or services. This is why we always say, “educated customers are your best customers” – not only is acquiring new customers expensive but also repeat customers are those who contribute the most to your bottom line.

How to measure: Analyze the CLV of customers who participate in education programs compared to those who do not.

11. Sales Growth and Upsell/Cross-sells

The definition of “let’s talk numbers” and some of the most burning KPIs: sales growth. Customer education often leads to increased sales through better product understanding and awareness of additional offerings.

Not only that; through social media engagement and regular communication, customer training increases existing customers’ loyalty to your brand and brings repeat business.

How to measure: Track the revenue generated from upselling or cross-selling to educated customers.

12. Self-Service Success Rate

This metric tracks how frequently customers resolve issues independently, reflecting the effective use of self-service resources. When customers can solve problems independently using available resources, you can rest assured you’re doing a good job offering targeted training.

How to measure: Track how often customers resolve issues without contacting support, utilizing resources like knowledge bases or forums.

13. Community Engagement

Customer activity in forums, user groups, and social media indicate a strong connection with your brand and deep product knowledge. Engaged customers not only help others but also transmit their enthusiasm for your brand and help boost engagement. Overall, this metric clearly indicates loyalty and advocacy, and it should be closely monitored.

How to measure: Monitor activity levels in online communities, forums, and social media groups.

14. Customer Effort Score

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy it is for customers to interact with a company, typically during support interactions, purchases, or using a product or service. It is a great indicator of customer satisfaction and a predictor of churn. This metric is also helpful for identifying deficiencies in your customer enablement strategy.

How to measure: Customer Effort Score (CES) can be measured by asking customers to rate how easy it was to interact with your business or complete a task on a scale (e.g., 1-7). This is usually done through a survey right after the customer interaction with a question like “On a scale of 1 to 7, how easy was it to resolve your issue today?”

15. Customer Reviews

Customer opinions and ratings on products or services provide insights into customer satisfaction, features they love or hate, and areas that need improvement. Reviews highlight strengths and weaknesses in your offerings and can heavily influence potential customers.

How to measure: Monitor and analyze reviews across platforms like your website, third-party review sites, and social media to gauge overall sentiment. Engage with customers as much as possible.

Final Thoughts

ROI calculation is tricky but necessary. By tracking these KPIs, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your customer training programs and their impact on your business goals and bottom line.

Investing in customer training is an investment in your customers’ success, which ultimately drives your business forward. Start measuring your customer training ROI today to ensure that your educational initiatives are not just meeting customer needs but also contributing to long-term success.

Looking for the best customer training LMS? LearnWorlds is your go-to solution. Our platform offers features that facilitate streamlining and administration, content creation, and in-depth monitoring with reports on learner progress and engagement, academy performance, and sales.

Take advantage of our 30-day free trial and try LearnWorlds now, commitment-free.

Androniki Koumadoraki

Androniki is a Content Writer at LearnWorlds sharing Instructional Design and marketing tips. With solid experience in B2B writing and technical translation, she is passionate about learning and spreading knowledge. She is also an aspiring yogi, a book nerd, and a talented transponster.