Challenge
Challenge
Buildertrend offers solutions for home builders, remodelers, and specialty contractors including building process management, sales, finance, and communications. They were using Zoom to conduct hands-on training with customers, but soon found the staff was far too busy to continue this high-touch method as the company grew. Additionally, they had a “less than ideal” certification platform. They knew they needed a better customer education provider to scale the business.
Buildertrend wanted a better experience for their customers, whose main focus is to get a home built or home renovation completed on time. They needed an online customer education platform that would allow users to learn when they want to create a better experience overall, both for new customers and those onboarding a new feature.
Buildertrend’s goals in switching to an improved LMS were to:
- Increase adoption rate (accelerate users through customer lifecycle stages faster)
- Increase operational efficiency
- Expand internal education efforts
Solution
Cameron Boettcher, Learning Systems Administrator, has been with Buildertrend for five years. He championed the need for a better system to leadership, and they launched an external customer education program, Buildertrend Learning Academy, powered by Skilljar in June of 2020
Automation of customer training starts with implementation at Buildertrend. All new Buildertrend customers must sign up for an implementation course, which assists users in setting goals and helps prepare them to implement the software.
From the Implementation course, users are directed to select a desired outcome, such as onboarding, certification, or feature-focused learning. According to Cameron, “Our customers work in construction, so every company has different issues they are hoping Buildertrend can solve. The desired outcome paths provide step-by-step features training to help them achieve their desired outcome.”
Buildertrend Learning Academy offers role-based certifications, which highlight the main features a person in that role would use. The goal is to provide a different way to learn the platform that is separate from a desired outcome, geared more toward a skills-based approach to the role.
The last piece is a course catalog for those users that may not want to select a desired outcome or get certified. The course catalog essentially allows users to select a feature and see all of the content available on that particular feature.
Employees Need Training Too
Cameron Boettcher has worked at Buildertrend for five years, starting as a Customer Success Manager/Team Lead, then moving to Education Coordinator, followed by his current role as Learning Systems Administrator. He is the ongoing manager, content creator, and course developer of Buildertrend’s education platform, always leveraging his foundation in Customer Success with every new achievement.
In addition to Buildertrend Learning Academy, Buildertrend has an internal product training domain for employees, BT Education. Prior to Skilljar, Buildertrend was conducting internal employee education through in-person classroom training.
Because they already had Skilljar for customer training, Cameron figured it only made sense for their internal team to use it as well.
Buildertrend uses its internal platform for product training on different features. As a one-person team, Cameron leveraged the content he created for external audiences for internal training, as the functionality is the same. Their internal education team supplements that content by adding coaching points. They plan to extend the content offering as more resources become available.
Results
As of July 2022, Buildertrend realized the following results for Buildertrend Learning Academy versus January 2022:
- Over 9,000 course registrations (+90%)
- Course completion rate of 58% (+70%)
- Average Session Hours per learner is 1 hour, 48 minutes (which translates to lots of time saved for customer-facing teams!)
Using Skilljar to create Buildertrend Learning Academy proved so successful, Cameron was able to add two content strategists to his team to help keep up with the demand for content. (When they initially launched, Cameron was a team of one and it took him six months to create the content he needed to launch Buildertrend’s Learning Academy.)
What’s next for Buildertrend Learning Academy?
Cameron promises that, “More quality content is on the way now that we have a bigger team! And we couldn’t have gotten there without Skilljar.”
Cameron’s advice to LMS seekers:
“Make sure you have a champion at your company that wants to provide a better customer experience. Then, when you can, build a team around the platform.”