Building a comprehensive learning program is about more than just issuing a credential.
It’s about empowering your learners to do something with their credentials.
It’s about building the best training experience possible.
It’s about promoting a spirit of continued learning.
Fitting all those pieces of the puzzle together while implementing a new credentialing platform is a big ask for our clients — regardless of whether they work at an enterprise organization or startup.
Our solution? An onboarding team that not only helps our customers understand the capabilities of our platform but also helps them:
- Build a highly tailored learner journey
- Formalize a credentialing strategy
- Achieve their program goals
And it works. Year after year, the onboarding team, led by Nicole Ferguson, has helped Accredible hit an impressive Net Promoter Score (NPS). At 68, it’s 37 points higher than the industry standard for software and apps and 10 points higher than the industry standard for higher education.
Keep reading to learn what makes the Accredible onboarding process so unique and what her winning team does differently.
How Accredible’s Onboarding Team Drives 95% Customer Satisfaction
1. They Hire Well-Rounded People
Nicole makes a point of hiring a diverse group of top-notch talent, purposely looking for people who aren’t afraid to experiment with new strategies and expand their knowledge.
Ultimately, this mix makes her team well-suited to help virtually any customer achieve their credentialing program goals — from those in academia to SaaS to professional associations.
Nicole says, “Because we come from different backgrounds, we never get stuck in a loop of ‘this is what the industry does, so this is what we tell others to do.’ We aren’t afraid to think outside the box and help our customers find a process that’s right for them.”
2. They Acknowledge Program Nuance
The Accredible sales team’s job is to understand the core functionality a customer needs and when they want to go live. But that information alone isn’t enough to ensure a successful implementation.
The onboarding team is responsible for the deeper dive, asking questions about:
- The customer’s team structure
- Who the customer’s average earner is
- The value of each credential
- Where the organization wants to go in the future
In the background, they use their experience and knowledge of the Accredible platform to create a mental map that connects Accredible features to the customer’s ideal learner journey and long-term goals.
Nicole shares, “Getting into the details with our customers and adopting their language helps them feel like we ‘get them’ and can make their credentialing goals a reality. It also helps us assess their readiness and take a highly tailored approach to onboarding and planning that makes sense for their business and user set.”
Customers appreciate that level of care. Anne Hickling, Strategic Executive at Trauma Care UK, says, “Despite being a small charity with few resources, we were made to feel like the most important customers. I've dealt with a lot of companies, and this is hands-down the easiest onboarding that's ever happened. Everyone worked so hard and really made us feel valued.”
3. They Preview a “New Normal”
Whether a customer is getting started with digital credentials or from a well-established credentialing program, implementing a new digital credential platform can feel daunting.
Knowing how intimidating implementations can be, Nicole and her team put customers at ease — not just by understanding their core business and learning goals but also by giving them a sneak peek of how much better or how exciting their program will be with Accredible.
“Many times, people come in with credentials being a point of anxiety,” says Nicole. “We try to help them move to a place of excitement.”
How? By sharing examples of similar companies that were in a customer’s shoes. They explain:
- How the customer’s department is structured
- What their learner path looks like
- The metrics they’re tracking day in and day out
- How their credentialing strategy has evolved, and where they plan to go next
These models act as inspiration for customers, showing them what’s possible. “It’s funny, we show these examples, send test credentials, or talk through potential strategies, and suddenly, there’s a lightbulb moment for our customers. They start getting all these ideas and envisioning what they want,” says Nicole.
4. They Offer End-to-End Support
Although the onboarding team doesn’t do any of the actual implementation (e.g., they don’t create groups, generate credential designs, or upload any content), they still offer a broad scope of value-added services — from helping customers prepare for complex integrations to surfacing lesser-known Accredible features to verifying a customer’s configuration.
Aylar Batyrova, Product and Solutions Learning Manager at Kantar, describes the Accredible staff as “Very generous with their time, answering all of our questions and showing platform features that we never knew existed! We really like what the platform offers and the team is so lovely to work with.”
The team can also be a sounding board for new ideas, complex use cases, and troubleshooting issues before launch. John Hart, Director of the Office for Professional Education of the University of Illinois, shares, “Accredible’s team is responsive and effective. The onboarding was thorough but interactive so we could focus on details important to our particular circumstances.”
To top it all off, the Accredible onboarding team also hosts live and on-demand workshops to enable customer learning whenever and wherever is convenient. Having myriad expert touchpoints gives Accredible admins the confidence, skills, and strategy they need to make their program successful — at launch and over time.
5. They Set a Long-Term Strategy
For Nicole and her team, a successful Accredible launch is table stakes. Program adoption is the real measure of customer success.
Nicole explains, “We need to ensure Accredible drives real value in our customers’ learner communities. To do that, we push our customers to reward and recognize learners beyond the credential, find ways of reengaging learners over time, and encourage them to take other courses.”
Part of that, she says, is achieved through Accredible’s learner engagement marketing features. But not all of it.
“Our job is to help customers extract as much value from Accredible as possible and then push them to think beyond the Accredible platform. For example, perhaps they turn credentials into a fully-fledged brand awareness and networking strategy, driving traffic through social media, learner profiles, and even connecting learners to potential employers,” says Nicole.
That thinking ahead is what makes Accredible’s service stand out. Ryan Cousins, Digital Product & Experience Director at TechSkills, shares, “I've always worked in our digital product roles, and I've been through a lot of Saas onboarding calls. This is probably the best prepared and best structured one I've ever been through.”
Continuing to Raise the Customer Service Bar
Time and again, Nicole and her team have proven how much of a difference creative, responsive, and effective onboarding can make. And they continue to push the envelope on what’s possible for credentialing programs as Accredible’s platform and customer list grow and change, learning from past experiences and making a concerted effort to create valuable new ones.
In fact, after Nicole took a professional development course earlier this year, her instructor nominated her for Rocketlane’s Golden Comet Awards’ Best Implementation Leader of the Year, for which she was a finalist. This recognition encapsulates her commitment to broadening her knowledge and delivering outstanding service.
Thinking about reshaping your digital credentialing program but don’t know where to start? Contact our expert team today — they’ll ensure you’re in good hands.
