8 Benefits of Using E-Learning for Product Training
In a previous article, we outlined why product training is important both for your salespeople and for others in your company. In this blog, we’ll look at the benefits of using e-learning to deliver product training to your team. Here are eight of the most important.
- Repeatable and Scalable
E-learning product training can be offered to employees anytime and anywhere. Compare this with classroom-based training. With classroom-based training, only those who are available to attend the training benefit from it. What about those who can’t or new employees who join the organisation after the training takes place?
E-learning solves these issues as you simply give the e-learning product training course to whoever needs it, whenever they need it.
- Consistent
Another option you can use to provide product training to your staff is on-the-job training. However, one of the big problems with on-the-job training is the widely varied experiences of employees.
For example, one employee could be taught about a product by an enthusiastic and engaged colleague, while another is left to learn by themselves with little or no support.
E-learning ensures everyone receives the same training, minimising gaps in product knowledge. This consistency also ensures everyone on the team gets the knowledge they need without unnecessary delays.
- Customisable
It can be beneficial sometimes to customise product training depending on the learner. For example, you might decide to change elements of the training you provide to your UAE employees before sending it to your team based in Saudi Arabia. You might also want to customise the training based on job role or department.
When you use e-learning as the delivery method for product training, customisation is straightforward. You can change everything from the text on the screen to entire sections of the content. Each variation is then saved as a different version ready for distribution.
- Suits Staff with Busy Schedules
Your staff can complete e-learning training at a time that best suits their schedule. Providing the course is designed to be responsive, they will also be able to complete the training on their phones, increasing the flexibility of the training even further.
This empowers employees to take greater responsibility for their training and professional development, while also making it easier for them to fit the training into their busy schedules.
- Easy to Update
Product training can quickly become out of date for a range of different reasons. You might update a product by adding new features or changing how it works. You might also delist products or add new products to your range.
By creating online product training courses, you will have the flexibility to update the training as and when you need to. Furthermore, the updated training will be instantly available to everyone who needs it. This limits the possibility of people working from outdated information.
- Creates a Reference Point
You can give your team continuous access to your product training e-learning courses, providing them with reference material if they want to refresh their memory. This is particularly important if they need the information right away.
Being able to refer back to e-learning courses whenever necessary also makes it possible for employees to redo training they have already completed. This can be beneficial in a range of situations, including if the employee’s skills have become a bit rusty because they haven’t worked with the product in a long-time.
- Just-In-Time Accessibility
E-learning also makes it possible to implement a just-in-time approach to product training. Just-in-time training involves creating a collection of e-learning courses on various topics and making them available to your employees.
Those employees can then complete the training whenever they want to. Often this happens when they really need the information that is in the training. An example with product training would be when a salesperson needs to know more details about a product that a specific customer is interested in.
The main benefit of just-in-time training is that employees are highly engaged with the content – more engaged than they would be if they were learning something they don’t have an immediate use for. This high level of engagement can make the training more effective.
- Cost-Effective
E-learning is one of the most cost-effective methods of delivering training, including product training. With e-learning, you don’t have the ongoing costs of trainers, travel, and venues to get people trained in a classroom. You also don’t have the cost of lost productivity while employees travel to the training location.
This benefit applies to any type of e-learning course, but it is particularly important for product training given how often the training is required (every time a new employee starts, for example) and the fact that products can change, so updating product training is a common occurrence.
All the Tools You Need
One final point to consider is the capabilities of e-learning as a product training delivery method. With e-learning, you can create rich and detailed learning experiences that are realistic and give your employees the opportunity to practice what they have learned. This improves their skills even further and provides you with a tangible return on the investment you make in developing e-learning product training.
