Meet Damani, Skilljar's Internal Customer

Your title is Customer Training Manager, but you’re also known as Skilljar’s internal customer. What exactly is your role at Skilljar?My role at Skilljar is to put myself in our customers’ shoes to understand where they encounter challenges, how they can successfully solve those issues with Customer Education, and help develop resources to guide those solutions. I also use that experience to build Skilljar Academy, Skilljar’s own customer training program. Any process or task we expect our customers to complete, I also work through to ensure it is effective, user friendly, and valuable.You are part of the Customer Success Team, but you have a very specific role. How do you collaborate with other members of the CS Team?Similar to our customers, I have an assigned Customer Success Manager (hi, Mike) that I meet with regularly to review key goals and milestones for Skilljar Academy. Implementation Managers will periodically pull me in to customer calls to advise on training strategy. Several members of the CS Team also help out with content QA, which is always a huge help.Even though I am technically a team of one, I never feel isolated with Skilljar. Collaboration is the true key to success in customer training.Is there an overarching piece of advice you have for companies with Customer Education programs (or those planning to build one)?I’d say that planning is super important. If you don’t plan ahead, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time and energy trying out ideas that may not get you very far - especially if you’re creating your training program from scratch.My advice is to start by thinking about your customers’ pain points today and how you would like to make their lives easier tomorrow. I learned this from a very empathetic boss in a previous position and I try to keep it in mind whenever I’m planning out new offerings.What’s one thing you find customers tend to forget about?If you’re offering in-person or virtual instructor-led training (VILT), it’s critically important to consider the timing of your training. For example, are your users in different time zones - on the West Coast, East Coast, or abroad? Do they travel for business, and spend most Thursday nights in an airport? Be sensitive to their needs. Try to find that sweet spot where you can maximize attendance.What is one feature Customer Education programs should have regardless of their size or maturity?To me, a well curated resource library offers value to CE programs of any size. If you are just getting started with training, a resource library offers learning on demand and the quick wins that get frustrated end users moving forward without taxing the support organization. Well developed training programs that feature onboarding, certification, and live training offerings will benefit greatly from a resource library that addresses common how-to questions and keeps admins sharp in the software.Our resource library in Skilljar Academy is our QuickTips course series, which features brief video lessons that address the top support issues submitted by our customers.Any final thoughts?We will be releasing our Marketing Fundamentals course series in August. This will be an entirely new kind of offering for Skilljar and we look forward to sharing it with customers.Look out for Marketing Fundamentals, coming soon to Skilljar Academy!