Intelligently designed eLearning programs boost sales

ELearning was once considered just a cost-cutting tool driven by human resources departments wanting to lower training costs, but if it is intelligently redesigned it can become a method of finding and retaining customers and boost customer loyalty.

“Traditional eLearning programs are excellent for keeping finance professionals in touch with new compliance requirements and products, but the technology is now playing a greater role in branding and sales,” said David Becker, senior eLearning consultant with IT consulting group iFocus. Branded eLearning has emerged from marketing departments as a way of influencing consumer decision-making, building trust and establishing a brand as an ‘authority’ in its category, according to Becker. “In the current financial services environment of choice and competition, service providers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and build stronger relationships with staff, partners, customers and third parties

“There is a hunger for quality investment information, and providing this in a convenient and engaging way strengthens relationships with potential and existing customers.” But Becker warned that audiences would not respond if the branded eLearning was blatantly sales-driven. “They have no time for marketing guff. It has to be something they actually value. “That means researching your audience and identifying where in the sales cycle customers need instruction versus emotional engagement.”

Becker said a survey of nearly 200,000 consumers to have done an eLearning program, conducted by Next Century Media, identified a ‘gratitude effect’ in branded eLearning such that 90 percent of respondents viewed the associated brand more favourably. One third of respondents also reported being more likely to purchase the product. Companies to have used eLearning intelligently this way include Barnes & Noble, Fidelity, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and the World Bank.

Author: Alex Dunnin