The Secret to Effective Digital Customer Success: Curating Essential Content
Ever felt lost in the clutter of too much information? That's often the hurdle your customers face when they use your SaaS platform. What if you could strip away the excess and highlight what truly matters? Jonny Tennyson, Head of Customer Success at Secure Code Warrior, recently shared his secrets during a webinar on how to make your customer's journey feel more like browsing a favourite bookshelf, not getting lost in a city library. Keep reading to discover Jonny's tips and how they can clear up any confusion, ensuring your users not only stay on track but thrive.
- The Importance of Curated Content
- Key Strategies for Curating Essential Content
- Understand Customer Needs
- Prioritize Key Topics
- Create High-Quality Resources
- Organize Content Logically
- Regularly Update Content
- Benefits of Curated Content
- Improved Customer Satisfaction
- Reduced Support Load
- Faster Onboarding
- Enhanced Product Adoption
- Implementing Curated Content in Digital Customer Success
- Develop a Content Strategy
- Leverage Technology
- Collaborate Across Teams
- Promote Curated Content
- Case Study: Secure Code Warrior’s Approach
- Challenges and Solutions in Curating Content
- Identifying the Right Content
- Maintaining Relevance
- Balancing Detail and Simplicity
- The Future of Curated Content in Customer Success
- Conclusion
The Importance of Curated Content
Curated content makes it easy for customers to find exactly what they need without feeling overwhelmed. It boosts their ability to teach themselves and use your product effectively. Jonny Tennyson explains it like this: “For digital customers, the real secret sauce is getting that book together of the most important stuff in there and having that as the look here first.”
While curated content is great for guiding users, what is crucial is to support it with a strong product adoption platform. Without the right tools, even the best content won't be as effective. Imagine having a great cookbook but no kitchen—your users need both to succeed.
Interested in making sure your content and products work perfectly together? Take a look at our guide on the top product adoption platforms to find the best one for your users, ensuring they not only adopt but excel with your product.
Key Strategies for Curating Essential Content
Curating content effectively means zeroing in on what truly matters to your users. Here are a few strategies to ensure your content is not only useful but indispensable:
1. Understand Customer Needs
To really help your customers, you first need to know what they're looking for. Take interest in your data—look at the questions they ask the most, check out what issues come up in support tickets, and listen to what they're saying in their feedback. This way, you can figure out exactly what they need and customize your content to fit those needs perfectly.
2. Prioritize Key Topics
Put your focus on the topics that will help your customers the most. This means things like quick-start guides, tips for solving common problems, and advice on using your product’s key features. By focusing on these essential topics, you will make it easier for your customers to get up and running quickly and smoothly, which will, of course, then make them happier with your product.
3. Create High-Quality Resources
Good resources are clear and easy to use. Write in simple language and add helpful pictures, diagrams, or videos to explain things better. This is where MeltingSpot comes in handy—it lets you put all these great learning tools right into your app.
We pride ourselves on being the only tool focused solely on customer education, providing everything you need to teach your customers effectively. You can check out our product feature to learn more about how MeltingSpot can enhance your customer education efforts.
4. Organize Content Logically
Structure the content in a way that is easy to navigate. Use categories, tags, and a search function to help customers quickly find what they need. Jonny mentioned, “Whenever a new customer comes on board who’s going to be a digital customer for us, our gift to them should be the book that they’re looking for.”
5. Regularly Update Content
Things change fast, so it's important to keep your content up to date. Regularly update your guides and information to reflect any new features or changes to your product, as well as to address new questions or issues that your customers might have. Keeping your content fresh means your customers will always have the latest information, which will then help them use your product better and stay happy with it.
Benefits of Curated Content
Curated content goes beyond simplifying; it targets the heart of what your customers need. Here’s how this strategic approach can significantly benefit both your users and your business:
1. Improved Customer Satisfaction
Curated content makes it easier for customers to find answers and learn how to use your product effectively, leading to higher satisfaction and reduced frustration. For example, when customers can easily locate a troubleshooting guide or a specific usage tip without sifting through irrelevant information, their experience becomes more enjoyable and stress-free.
2. Reduced Support Load
By providing essential information upfront, you can reduce the number of support tickets and inquiries, freeing up your customer success team to focus on more complex issues. This shift will allow your team to improve their efficiency and provide higher quality service, as they will not be constantly bogged down by basic queries.
Remember: There is a clear difference between customer support and customer success. Do not confuse these terms, as it can lead to negative consequences in terms of your business growth.
3. Faster Onboarding
Curated content can streamline the onboarding process by providing new users with the key information they need to get started quickly. This will help accelerate their time to value and enhance their initial experience with your product. To ensure you're on the right track, have a look at our article on measuring the success of your onboarding process, as it will help you check your progress.
4. Enhanced Product Adoption
When customers can easily find the information they need, they're more likely to try out more features of your product. This means they get more involved and are likely to stick around longer. By helping users dig deeper into what your service offers, you will increase how much they rely on your product and make them happier and more loyal in the long run.
Implementing Curated Content in Digital Customer Success
Here are some practical ways to integrate curated content effectively, ensuring your digital platforms offer the best support and guidance to your customers:
1. Develop a Content Strategy
Start by creating a clear content strategy. This plan should outline your goals, who you want to reach, and the main topics you’ll cover. Think of this strategy as the blueprint for all your content efforts—it guides what you create, how you organize it, and how you keep it up to date.
If you're looking for some inspiration or guidance on setting this up, our customer education program guide might offer some valuable ideas.
2. Leverage Technology
Technology can be a huge help in managing and delivering your curated content. Consider using knowledge management systems, content management platforms, and AI-driven tools that suggest content to users. These technologies can automate much of the hard work, making sure your content reaches the right people at the right time with minimal fuss.
3. Collaborate Across Teams
It’s important that different teams within your company work together when creating curated content. Your customer success team knows what customers need, your product team understands the ins and outs of what you offer, and your marketing team can help communicate it effectively. By working together, these teams can create content that is not only informative but also engaging and relevant to your users.
4. Promote Curated Content
Make sure your customers know about and can easily access your curated content. Promote it through onboarding emails, pop-up notifications in your app, and regular updates from your customer success team. Encouraging your customers to use these resources will help them get the most out of your product, improving their overall experience and satisfaction.
Case Study: Secure Code Warrior’s Approach
Jonny Tennyson, who we talked about earlier after he joined us for a webinar, shared a standout example from his work at Secure Code Warrior. The company focused on identifying and organizing the most crucial information their users needed. Instead of overwhelming customers with too much data, they streamlined it, choosing only the most relevant and helpful resources.
Jonny explained, “We put together a selection of the most important resources and made it easy for customers to find and use them.” The result? Customers didn’t have to dig through piles of irrelevant information. They could easily access everything they needed, which made their learning and application process much smoother. This led to a noticeable increase in customer engagement and satisfaction.
This case clearly shows us that when companies take the time to curate their content thoughtfully, focusing on user-friendliness and relevance, it can lead to significant improvements in how customers experience and interact with the product.
Watch this 1-minute video to see how MeltingSpot can help with your onboarding and customer education challenges.
Challenges and Solutions in Curating Content
Curating content effectively is key to enhancing user experience, but it comes with its own set of challenges. There are many common hurdles that do have practical solutions which you can adapt so that your content stays relevant and user-friendly.
1. Identifying the Right Content
Determining which content to feature can be tricky. It's hard to know exactly what will resonate with your users and provide them with the most value, especially when their needs and preferences can change over time.
Solution:
Make it a habit to collect and analyze customer feedback regularly. This insight into their needs and preferences will guide you in choosing the most impactful content. Keeping your finger on the pulse of your audience is a must to make sure you’re always adding value where it's needed most.
MeltingSpot enables instant communication with users through forums and discussion channels. These features allow customers to share their concerns and questions in real-time, helping you gauge what they truly need. Additionally, MeltingSpot’s dashboard is an excellent tool for tracking member behavior. By analyzing which topics and resources are most engaged with, you can gain valuable insights into what content resonates best with your audience, ensuring that your curated content hits the mark.
2. Maintaining Relevance
Content can become outdated as your products and the market evolve. Staying on top of these changes and ensuring content remains relevant is a continuous challenge that requires constant attention.
Solution: Set up a routine schedule for reviewing your content. It helps to assign specific team members to oversee different areas of your content library. This way, someone is always responsible for making updates as needed, ensuring your content remains accurate and timely.
MeltingSpot’s dashboard allows you to identify the most consulted documents and track the success of live sessions. By focusing on the resources and events that attract the most attention, you can ensure that your content remains targeted and up-to-date. Regularly reviewing these metrics helps you adjust your content strategy to better meet the evolving needs of your users, ensuring that your curated content remains valuable and timely.
3. Balancing Detail and Simplicity
Finding the right balance between providing comprehensive information and keeping it simple enough for all users to understand can be difficult. Too much detail can overwhelm users, while too little can leave them confused.
Solution:
Focus on clarity and brevity. Provide the essential details that users need to understand and use your product effectively, but keep explanations clear and straightforward. Use visuals like infographics or short videos to convey information in a more digestible format, making complex information easier to grasp at a glance.
With MeltingSpot, you can embed a variety of multimedia elements directly into your content for a more streamlined user experience. Whether it's a YouTube video, an Instagram post, a LinkedIn article, a Typeform questionnaire, or an Airtable spreadsheet, embedding these elements simplifies the learning process. Users can access all necessary information in one place without navigating away from the platform, making it easier for them to digest complex information in a clear and straightforward manner.
The Future of Curated Content in Customer Success
Looking ahead, curated content is going to become even more important in helping customers succeed. With new tech like AI and machine learning, content will not only be customized to fit each person's needs but will also predict what they might need to know next.
Plus, combining curated content with other ways of supporting customers, like giving help before they even ask for it or personalizing the welcome process, will make everything feel more connected and smooth. This blend of smart content and thoughtful support will make every part of the customer experience feel special, from the first hello to ongoing help. As we move forward, this thoughtful, proactive approach will set a new standard for how businesses help their customers thrive.
Conclusion
Curated content is a powerful tool for enhancing digital customer success. By focusing on the most critical information and presenting it in a user-friendly format, companies can improve customer satisfaction, reduce support load, and accelerate onboarding.
Jonny Tennyson’s insights highlight the importance of understanding customer needs and continuously updating content to ensure its relevance. As the SaaS landscape continues to evolve, investing in curated content will be essential for driving long-term success and customer retention.
And here at MeltingSpot, we're all about making sure you've got the best platform and tools for the job. Our platform is built to power up your customer education and help your content make the biggest impact. Think it's time to kick your customer success up a notch? Discover MeltingSpot and start your growth journey today.