6 Stages of Product Adoption & How Customer Education Helps

Product adoption is when your customers use your product and like it so much that they stop searching for other options. It means they feel that your product and its features are suitable for them. They are committed to using it in the future.

Thus, to improve product adoption, you must help your customers see the value your product can bring to their business. Prioritizing the aha moment at the early stage of the onboarding experience is among the best ways. More on this later.

Another key way to drive product adoption and achieve higher adoption rates is through customer education. By helping people learn about your product, you can increase their likelihood of becoming successful customers.

Let's dive deep into this argument by first looking at the six stages of product adoption.

6 Stages of Product Adoption Powered By Customer Education

To begin with, it is essential to understand what are the six stages of the product adoption process. One can then explore how customer education can make a difference at each stage of adoption.

1. Awareness

The awareness stage is when people become aware of your product. They learn about the features of your product and how it can help them. Sometimes, they don't realize they have a problem, or they don't know how your product can solve it. This stage helps them understand how your product will solve their problems and make their life easier.

Things that can influence people to gain interest in your product at the awareness stage are:

• Problems they have with their current way of doing things that make them want to find a solution.
• Whether they already trust your brand, which can make them more likely to try your product.

Customer Education Can Help Create Product Awareness

You can help people understand what your product is all about by creating educational materials. These educational materials can include things like blog posts, videos, and social media posts. The idea is to explain the benefits of your product and how it can solve people's problems.

2. Interest

During the interest stage, potential customers start to take a closer look at your product. They want to learn more about how it works and how it can help them.

To engage people at this stage, you can:

• Make it easy for them to find the answers they need. This can be done through a chatbot or an interactive help center.
• Offer free trials, demos, and early access programs to attract innovators and early adopters.
• Make sure your product can address potential customers' specific needs and use cases.

By doing these things, you can help potential customers understand how your product can benefit them and build excitement around it. Once this happens, they will surely progress to the next stage.

Customer Education Can Help Build Customer Interest

Educational resources that go into the details of your product's features and how it works can make a huge difference.

These resources can include things like product demos, how-to videos, and user guides.

Customer education can also help address pricing concerns. So, create content explaining the value of your product compared to that of competitors and provide use-case examples.

3. Evaluation

Next in the stages of product adoption is evaluation. At this stage, potential customers compare your product with other options and decide whether they want to try it or pass.

Things that influence prospective customers to prioritize your products at this stage of the customer journey are:

• How your product compares to the competition.
• What do other customers think of it?
• How much does it cost, and what additional features are available?

How Customer Education Can Help at this User Adoption Stage

Here is how you can help customers in evaluating your product through customer education:

• Create comparison resources that show how your product stacks up against those offered by competitors. These resources can be in the form of feature comparison charts, case studies, or user testimonials that highlight your USPs. Have a look at how we've done this.

• Host webinars and demos to showcase your product's capabilities and answer any questions that potential customers may have.
• Offer free trials or freemium accounts to allow potential customers to test your product before committing to a purchase.

4. Trial

The product trial stage is when potential customers try out your product's core features to better understand its value.

This is a critical stage. It allows users to see firsthand how your product can benefit them and determine whether it is worth investing in it.

How Customer Education Helps Here

Customer education can be essential at this stage. During the onboarding process, users may have questions about how to get the most out of your product. They would want to know how to use specific features or how the product can solve their particular problems.

The onboarding process is the stage where you have the best chance to get your users closer to adoption.

You should use educational resources such as tutorials, how-to guides, and customer support to help users achieve success. These resources can help them navigate through your product and realize value faster.

5. Activation

Activation is when users experience value from your product for the first time. This often happens by completing a key action or task. It helps them see the benefits of using your product and decide if they want to invest in it.

Assuming that there are several substitutes for your product in the market, you don't have much time to convince users to stick with your product.

Thus, the earlier your users know your product value and experience the 'aha moment,' the better your chances are to convert them into paying customers.

How Customer Education Can Help Users See Product Value

Providing user-friendly onboarding materials, tutorials, and training can help users achieve their role-based goals.

They can then realize value from your product quickly. Such efforts drive the product adoption process and improve customer engagement.

6. Adoption

In the final stage, activated users are ready to be convinced to keep using the product and pay for it.

Product teams need to show them the ongoing value of the product and convince them that it is worth paying for.

For SaaS products with free trials, this means getting users to start paying. For other products, it means getting users to renew.

Customer Education Helps Improve Product Adoption

Here are some ways in which you can use education to drive the product adoption process as well as ensure better customer retention:

• Provide ongoing training and resources to help users get the most out of your product. You can do this through tutorials, knowledge base articles, and webinars.
• Offer personalized support to help users troubleshoot issues and answer questions through channels like email, live chat, or phone.
• Provide regular updates on new features and improvements to entice users to try new features.
• Encourage user feedback and incorporate it into future product development. This will show users that you value their input and are committed to improving the product based on their needs.

Customer education is at the heart of the product adoption process. If you want to make sure that your efforts drive product adoption, make sure you invest in a customer education tool.

Trainn is among the best tools for customer education. It can help you create and distribute educational content for every stage of product adoption. Try Trainn today.