The Essential Role of Technical Training in Powering a Seamless Customer Journey

In today’s competitive landscape, technical training has evolved from a supplementary service to a powerful and strategic tool that drives measurable impact across the full customer journey. As recent data from Thought Industries' State of Customer Education 2024 report shows, organizations that invest in comprehensive training are reaping the rewards: a 56% improvement in impact on customer onboarding in the last 2 years and 21% more influence on customer lifetime value.*

Customer education (CE) professionals are increasingly aware that training is no longer just about onboarding—it’s about creating an end-to-end learning experience that fosters deep engagement, loyalty, and growth. Immersive, hands-on training through virtual labs is critical, acting as both a growth engine and an experience differentiator that improves product adoption, satisfaction, and long-term expansion.

Due to training alone, organizations have seen a 56% improvement in impact on customer onboarding in the last 2 years, as well as 21% more influence on customer lifetime value. –Thought Industries, Research Report, State of Customer Education, 2024

How technical training powers every stage of the customer journey

Each stage of the customer journey—from awareness to retention—has unique needs, and technical education meets these demands with a blend of tailored learning, realistic simulations, and data-driven insights. The Learning Pyramid, 70-20-10 Training Model, and Bloom’s Taxonomy underscore the value of active and immersive participation in the learning process for learning retention and application. 

Let’s explore how customer education professionals can maximize the impact of virtual hands-on labs at each stage of the journey.

1. Generate demand and evangelize solutions

In the awareness stage, technical education can build trust and spark interest by allowing prospects to “try before they buy.” Thought Industries’ report highlights a trend: 71% of organizations prioritizing product adoption are investing in user experience enhancements.* By offering prospects hands-on experiences through self-paced training, companies provide an immersive introduction to their solutions in a realistic context, helping shorten the sales cycle and convert leads more effectively. 

Goals:

• Evangelize: Educate the market on the problem and the solution (your product).‍
• Discover: Allow end-users to experience and experiment with solutions.

Best practices:

• Offer self-guided labs: By providing prospects with autonomous access to product labs, companies can capture the interest of technical users like developers who value independence in exploring new solutions.
• Refine demand generation with data: Analyzing engagement metrics from these labs helps reveal which features resonate most, helping to refine messaging for more significant impact.

Metrics to consider:

• Marketing lead pipeline: Measure lead and revenue impact from increased demand generation where labs drive awareness of your software.
• Completion rate: Track how many users complete the self-guided lab experiences. Higher completion rates indicate strong engagement and relevance of the content.
• Time spent: Measure the average time users spend in each lab to gauge engagement. Longer times can indicate deep exploration, while shorter times may indicate the need for lab difficulty or interest level adjustments.
• Feature engagement rate: Identify which product features are most frequently explored or interacted with within the lab, helping refine messaging and product positioning based on interest.
• Lead conversion rates: Track how many lab participants convert to leads or move further in the sales pipeline. This metric ties the virtual lab experience directly to revenue generation.
• Post-lab surveys or net promoter score (NPS): Quick surveys assess user satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending the product based on their lab experience.

Example: 

An infrastructure automation company could boost its pipeline by using browser-based, hands-on virtual labs gated by a lead capture form. This approach allows prospects to engage in a smooth product learning experience while enabling a marketing team to track and measure new leads effectively. (Related: Read our HashiCorp customer story.)

2. Drive sales with hands-on demonstrations

During the sales stage, potential customers need an in-depth look at the product’s fit for their needs. Hands-on demonstrations or proof of concepts (POCs) make this phase interactive and personalized. Organizations prioritizing customization create more relevant experiences that help prospects see how a product will fit within their environments.

Goals:

• Qualify: Ensure prospects are the right fit before advancing.
• Demonstrate: Run sales-led, buyer-centric demos and POCs.
• Technical validation: Prove technical fit with hands-on demos.

Best practices:

• Create buyer-centric demos: The demonstration phase is highly effective when labs are aligned with workflows relevant to each prospect’s business needs.
• Enable self-paced exploration post-demo: Allowing prospects continued access to labs following a demo fosters deeper engagement, turning interest into action.

Metrics to consider:

• Sales cycle time reduction: Measure any reduction in the sales cycle duration for prospects who engage with hands-on demos versus those who do not.
• Win rate: Identify any increase in opportunity-to-close win rates based on increased customer confidence from demos and POCs.
• Demo completion rate: Track the percentage of prospects completing the hands-on demo to understand engagement and interest in the product.
• Lead qualification score post-demo: Assess how well-qualified prospects are after completing a hands-on lab demo, helping sales teams prioritize high-quality leads.
• Feature validation rate: Track the number of successful demonstrations of critical features directly impacting the prospect’s purchase decision, indicating demonstration of product fit.
• Prospect feedback on demos: Collect qualitative feedback or NPS to assess how well the demo addressed prospect needs and improved their product perception.

Example: 

A software company could enable sales engineers to set up customized POCs in virtual labs, replicating each prospect’s environment. This approach can reduce the time to make decisions and increase the likelihood of closing the sale by letting prospects test features independently. (Read our SpectroCloud customer story.)

3. Onboarding and enablement for accelerated adoption

Smooth, effective customer onboarding is essential for a successful customer experience, reducing friction and helping customers achieve value faster. With a 56% improvement in onboarding impact due to training,* CE professionals understand the importance of interactive, step-by-step labs that guide users through the product’s functionality. The report indicates that 67% of companies with reduced churn have customized the learning experience,* underscoring how tailored training supports a seamless start.

Goals:

• Onboard: Train new end users how to effectively use solutions.
• Upskill: Train existing end users how to use new or updated solutions.

Best practices:

• Design interactive, guided labs: Step-by-step labs with real-time feedback enable users to learn autonomously while eliminating setup and configuration challenges.
• Automate progress tracking and feedback: Built-in assessments and feedback keep users motivated and allow for adjustments based on real-time data.

Metrics to consider:

• Onboarding lab completion time: Measure the average time users take to complete onboarding labs, which can indicate how quickly users reach initial proficiency.
• Customer retention rate: Track the percentage of users who continue actively using the product after completing onboarding labs, indicating the lab’s effectiveness in driving engagement.
• Task success rate: Measure the accuracy and completion rate of specific tasks within the lab to assess user comprehension and proficiency with key product features.
• Time to first value (TTFV): Measure how quickly new users experience value after completing labs. This indicates how well the labs support the user journey and reduce time to value.
• Customer health score or NPS for onboarding: Collect satisfaction scores immediately after onboarding to understand user sentiment and areas for improvement.

Example: 

A cloud infrastructure company might deploy guided onboarding labs that allow new users to set up systems independently. This proactive approach reduces setup times and accelerates users’ journey to mastery, ultimately increasing product satisfaction. (Read our Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions customer story.)

4. Expand and scale usage for long-term retention

After onboarding, ongoing education is crucial for encouraging customers to adopt advanced features and stay engaged with new updates. Organizations are increasingly adopting role-based learning paths and certifications, recognizing the value of creating product champions within their client organizations. Offering role-specific certifications can boost loyalty and advocacy—often resulting in increased product expansion within these client bases.

Organizations with the biggest reduction in customer churn cite the following as contributing factors: 

67% customized the learning experience for large groups

49% integrated with key parts of their tech stack 

52% use comprehensive reporting to pinpoint what’s working and where to improve

–Thought Industries, Research Report, State of Customer Education, 2024

Goals:

• Expand: Drive adoption within existing customers, both horizontally and vertically.
• Measure: Generate additional value from actual end user activity.

Best practices:

• Implement certification programs: Certification programs motivate users to continue learning, while recognized badges or certificates incentivize deeper engagement.
• Deploy role-based learning paths: Tailoring training to specific roles, such as administrators or developers, helps users achieve proficiency faster and drives broader product adoption.

Metrics to consider:

• Certification completion rate: Track the number of users who complete certification programs, which indicates the level of engagement and user interest in developing expertise.
• Role-based engagement levels: Measure usage and engagement across different role-specific labs to ensure each user group actively benefits from the training.
• Feature adoption rate post-certification: Assess how many users begin using advanced features after completing related labs, indicating the lab’s impact on expanding product use.
• Product expansion rate: Track the number of additional features or modules adopted post-training, which indicates the effectiveness of training in encouraging broader product utilization.
• Churn rate reduction: Measure churn rates among users who complete advanced or certification labs to assess the impact of training on long-term retention.

Example: 

A software company could establish advanced certification programs for different user roles, creating advocates who promote product expansion and stay loyal as they build their skills. (Watch our on-demand Isovalent webinar.)

Conclusion

The role of technical education in the customer journey has never been more critical. By embedding hands-on, experiential learning at each stage, organizations can build trust, accelerate adoption, and foster long-term customer relationships. With measurable onboarding and lifetime value improvements, CE professionals can position technical education as a high-impact driver of success across the entire customer lifecycle.

By adopting a strategic, data-backed approach to training, customer education professionals can create an educational journey that enhances the user experience and drives business growth, making education a true differentiator in today’s market.

*Source: Thought Industries, Research Report, State of Customer Education, 2024

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To learn more about how industry leading software companies leverage Instruqt to power all stages of the customer journey with virtual hands-on IT labs, check out our Customer Stories page here.