Educating Consumers is Just as Important as Educating Employees

Education is very important not just for the consumer but employees as well. Training and marketing have the same goal: they all seek to change the behavior. Even as the gap between training and marketing seems to close fast, the importance of education on employees and consumers cannot be underemphasized.

Killing two birds with a single stone

Most corporate training companies will tell you the way marketing messages are being crafted must and should educate customers while making employees much better. For example, if you love camping and always go for your camping gear at a certain store all the time, chances are you have a very good reason. Perhaps it’s because the employees there take their time to educate you immensely on diverse types of camping gear and survival kits that you need.

Right from the beginning you know you are getting good value for any product you take home. While that could be either great marketing or training, the important thing is that you are also being educated. Employees also have to be educated to educate customers accordingly, and informed customers will return tomorrow where they get more value for their money.

Retention

Both employees and customers will be retained if they are continually educated. As already mentioned, a store whose staff takes the time to train and educate a customer about a product all the time simply retains that customer. If the buyer wants something tomorrow you can bet the store where he or she got the most value and education will be the first stop. At the same time, continually educating employees on products, training them on various things surrounding their careers and jobs will retain them; they are well catered for in their present place of work.

Moving with the times

Chances are, the way a specific company engaged customers three decades ago has changed. If a business fails to move with the times, leads will decrease and employees will not be fully engaged. Educating both employees and customers on the digital media and ensuring technology is working for both the customer and employee will lead to more purchases and well informed employees. For example, podcasts, photos and videos geared at customers carry certain messages that employees must first be aware of. It means even before you choose a specific technology to engage prospects your staff must understand it, especially if it relates to social media where everyone is today. No doubt management leadership skills will be as key as ever in making sure that the staff has an adequate grasp of specific technologies.

Different people want to be educated differently  

Educating employees means certain realities that could damage productivity are dealt with. For instance, if a tech company’s staff is not taught how to engage young people who mostly are the chief consumers of technology chances are the sales will not be worth talking about. However, reaching these youthful people in the way they want to be reached (technologically) will bring in a lot of benefits. It’s important to understand how a segment of the target market wants to be reached and engaged and ensuring every employee is educated on this. Trying new approaches, like microlearning to ensure the proper and effective training of employees can help accomplish this goal. 

Trained workforce is an empowered workforce

Expecting employees to be involved in consumer awareness or education while they are not educated or adequately trained themselves will not accomplish much. However, a workforce that has been trained will have a huge impact on the productivity of a company. Among other benefits, a well trained workforce will solve problems much faster, remain highly self-motivated, and show greater versatility. Higher margins of profit, increased productivity and high quality of engagement and work will also be some of the benefits.