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For SaaS companies, there’s no denying the impact customer education has on your bottom line. The reason is simple: in order for a customer to stick with your product, they need to know how to use it. That’s where a customer training software comes in.
This kind of learning tool is basically an LMS platform for customer training. It’s the most effective way to build and organize content and monitor user progress throughout an entire customer lifecycle.
There are dozens of options for customer training software out there, each with scores of useful features and benefits. So to help you choose, this article breaks down the most important elements you need to look for in a proper customer training platform for your organization.
Key takeaways
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Customer training software is a platform that helps companies create, deliver, and track training for their customers, so customers can learn to use a product or service successfully. Most customer training software is built around a learning management system (LMS) that hosts courses, learning paths, assessments, and certifications in a branded academy, with analytics on who is learning what.
The terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a difference in scope:
A customer education platform supports both.
Extended enterprise training means training audiences outside your organization, such as customers, partners, resellers, franchisees, and distributors. Many customer training platforms are designed to manage several of these audiences in separate, branded spaces.
Customer training software isn't one category. Most programmes combine several of these tools:
A customer training platform has a few long-term benefits beyond being a centralized space to monitor learning. Proper training can lead to faster time to value, which not only improves product usage but boosts revenue to support your bottom line.
Mitsubishi Electric achieved 99% customer satisfaction while reducing training costs by 65% with 360Learning.
Every customer training platform claims to be the best. But a software only works if people can properly use it. And not all LMS systems cater to companies looking to train their customers.
To build a library of training materials and share it with customers, customer training software should have a few essential features. These ensure simple content creation tools, and friendly interfaces for a positive user experience.
The majority of your training will be original materials specific to your company. A flexible and robust authoring tool on the customer training platform lets you easily create engaging content for your customers.
Leverage different types of content, like video, presentations, and voice recordings to keep your learners interested. Look for platforms that support multiple formats, like PowerPoint, audio, MP4, and video, and can host assessments and surveys to gain valuable feedback on content.
AI-assisted authoring and AI translation now make it possible to create courses in minutes and localize them for global customers without a separate translation project.
360Learning's AI Content Builder helps you quickly create courses without spending multiple hours learning to use the platform.
Assessments let you quiz your customers on training. This helps you understand if they are absorbing lessons fully, or if training is no longer clear or relevant.
In your platform, you’ll want options for multiple choice, true/false, single selection, ordered questions, linker questions, and open-ended responses. Additionally, platforms like 360Learning offer more advanced questions:
No two learners are alike. Personalized learning paths ensure all customer roles have access to a training process that fits their unique needs.
Learners can access the materials they need in the moment they need them, rather than only seeing certain materials cherry-picked by a customer success manager. It helps learners gain access to quality experiences regardless of their learning type or knowledge background.
Custom learning paths also combine different modules of your organization’s content with sourced media, so you don’t have to spend hours creating content that might already exist elsewhere.
Personalized learning paths ensure all customer roles have access to a training process that fits their unique needs.
Customers want to learn on their own time. When customers take training on their own time, they are more motivated and engaged, which will ultimately result in a better, more positive learning outcome. Mobile learning is a great investment to empower this.
Beyond the benefits your customers receive from a training solution, mobile learning saves organizations time and money. Tap-and-learn content means you don’t need to spend money on physical training experiences like conferences or workshops.
Your customer academy is an extension of your brand. Look for custom logos, colours, banner images, and URLs, plus the ability to run separate, branded spaces for different customers, partners, or regions, each with its own content and custom domain.
External audiences grow and change quickly. Look for group hierarchies that keep each customer's users and content private, delegated admins who can manage their own team's users, and simple provisioning such as CSV import or self-registration via a link.
Certifications motivate customers to complete training and give them credentials they can share. Look for automated certificates, expiry dates, and recertification reminders, especially if you train partners or resellers who must stay qualified.
Analytics for a customer training platform can get tricky. At the very basic level, you need a program that looks at usage stats for your online courses so you know what lessons are the most helpful for your customers and what could be improved.
Statistics like completion rate, courses accessed, and drop-off rate are useful to know. You also want to track the progress of individual users within their own learning initiatives. This will help you keep customers on track with their training needs and identify roadblocks to product adoption.
A relevance score is a unique reporting feature that helps content authors ensure training is up-to-date and understood by learners.
A relevance score is a unique reporting feature that helps content authors ensure that their training is up-to-date and understood by their learners.
Game-based learning, or gamification, gives your customer training a boost. Gamification works best when it rewards real progress, such as completing a certification path or mastering a new feature, rather than activity for its own sake.
Some popular things to look for in a customer training software include:

Most platforms let you integrate other tools to build training courses, or academies. For customer training, the most valuable integrations connect learning data to your customer records. A CRM integration such as a Salesforce user sync lets you see training activity alongside account health, renewals, and expansion. Single sign-on (SSO) makes access seamless.
Integrations can also help streamline your workflow, reducing time spent on admin work or duplicate data entry. Some commonly sought-after integrations include Salesforce, Zoom, and LinkedIn Learning.
Even the most user-friendly customer training platform will still have its challenges. When you get stuck, you want a smooth customer support experience.
Look for a company that has a robust support offering. A company should offer a way to contact a support rep through email or chat. A Help Center, like 360Learning’s Knowledge Base, will provide you with step-by-step guides to answer frequently asked questions.
Another helpful addition would be a customer success partner that can help you optimize the software and ensure you use it to its full extent.
Look for a company that has a robust support offering.
You can also turn your training content into extra revenue streams with monetization features. Maximize the impact of training materials by creating a public catalog to share with your customers.
When selling training to your customers (or your customer’s customers), you will want the ability to create a public course catalog and process payments. This will allow your customers to browse training and seamlessly purchase it.
Here's how the leading customer training platforms compare. Each entry covers what the platform is best for, its key strengths, trade-offs, and pricing.
360Learning is an AI-driven LMS and LXP that lets you train employees, customers, and partners from one platform. Its collaborative learning approach turns the expertise of your product, support, and customer success teams into customer training quickly, and keeps it up to date as your product changes.
The collaborative, skills-based approach, combined with deep integrations with systems like SAP and Workday, lets you upskill at scale through expert-led communities of practice around key topics, roles, and more.
It powers onboarding and employee development, and drives customer training at scale. And crucially, you don't need a separate customer training system.
Best for: Mid-sized and enterprise organizations that want one platform for internal and external training, with subject-matter experts creating content.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: Best suited to organizations that create their own training content. If you only need to resell off-the-shelf courses, a creator-focused platform may be simpler.
Pricing: Team plan at $8 per user per month (up to 100 users), with a free trial. Business and Enterprise plans are custom-priced. See pricing.
Docebo is an AI-powered enterprise learning platform used for employee, customer, and partner training, with strong extended-enterprise capabilities.
Best for: Large enterprises running complex training programmes for many external audiences.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: Implementation and pricing reflect its enterprise focus, which can be more than smaller teams need.
Pricing: Request a custom quote.
Skilljar is a customer education platform, now part of Gainsight, built specifically for external training.
Best for: SaaS companies focused on customer onboarding and certification, especially those already using Gainsight for customer success.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: Focused on external training, so you'll likely need a separate system for employee learning.
Pricing: Custom quote required.
LearnWorlds is a course creation and learning platform with strong interactive video, website-building, and eCommerce features.
Best for: Small and mid-sized businesses and training companies that want to sell branded courses.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: White-labelling, advanced reporting, and automations require the higher-priced Learning Center plan, and a branded mobile app is an extra cost. It's designed more for course businesses than for enterprise customer success.
Pricing: Starter from $29/month, plus $5 per course sale; Pro Trainer from $99/month; Learning Center from $299/month; custom plans for high volume.
LearnUpon is an LMS for training employees, customers, and partners, known for running multiple audiences through separate portals.
Best for: Mid-sized companies that need distinct, branded portals for different customer segments or partners.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: Course creation tools are more basic than dedicated authoring tools, so complex content is often built elsewhere.
Pricing: Ask for a custom quote.
Absorb LMS is an enterprise learning platform used for employee and external training, with strong administration and reporting.
Best for: Enterprises that need robust admin controls, reporting, and eCommerce across several audiences.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: The breadth of admin features can mean a steeper learning curve for administrators.
Pricing: Custom quote required.
TalentLMS is a cloud LMS known for fast setup and an easy-to-use interface, with a free plan.
Best for: Small teams that want to launch a customer training portal quickly on a limited budget.
Key strengths
Trade-offs: Built for general training rather than customer education specifically, so customer-focused workflows and CRM-linked analytics are more limited.
Pricing: Free plan; paid plans from $119/month billed annually (Core, up to 40 users).
Use these six questions to narrow your shortlist:
Much like a learning management system, customer training programs follow a SaaS subscription model—meaning customers pay for access on a rolling basis (month-to-month or annually).
Within that model, every company implements different pricing tiers. Here are a few examples of what you might encounter:
Costs can run anywhere from free (with fee-based add-ons) to $10,000 a year or more. Choosing the right platform for your organization will depend on your budget and the learning goals for customers.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to customer training platforms. The best platform depends on your industry, your product complexity, and how your customers prefer to learn. Whether you need powerful content creation tools, scalable delivery, built-in assessments, or monetization features, the right platform will make all the difference in how effectively you educate, support, and retain your customers.
Ultimately, customer training isn’t just about reducing support tickets. It’s about building loyalty, boosting adoption, and turning users into advocates. By choosing a platform with the right mix of functionality and flexibility, you set your customers up for long-term success.
Learn how 360Learning’s customer training platform can help you improve your entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding and adoption to improved customer satisfaction.
A 15-minute discussion with an expert
100% tailored to your needs - with ❤️
No commitment. Free as can be.
By providing your contact info, you agree to receive communications from 360Learning. You can opt-out at any time. For details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
Can you use the same LMS to train employees and customers?
Can you charge customers for training?
Do I need an LMS or an in-app guidance tool for customer training?
How long does it take to launch a customer academy?
What integrations matter most for customer training software?
What is the difference between customer training software and a knowledge base?