Why Ease of Use and Expert Support Matter in an LMS

This post explores how LMS usability and responsive customer support help training providers onboard clients faster, reduce admin time, and retain customers.

Why Ease of Use and Expert Support Matter

What happens if an LMS is not easy to use or lacks support?

As a training provider, you’ve probably been there before: glacial LMS onboarding, untrustworthy support response times, endless learner support tickets, and ultimately, frustration with your LMS. 

Adoption and retention are the cornerstones of a successful training business. Yet both become difficult when your LMS slows down client onboarding or complicates course management. So what’s the solution? 

Well, two common barriers to LMS adoption are a lack of a user-friendly interface and inadequate training and support. So let’s dive into these challenges to determine how ease of use and expert support in an LMS can help you save time, increase revenue and reduce client churn.

A User-Friendly LMS Saves Time and Improves Retention

Research shows users adopt technology more readily when it’s intuitive and requires minimal effort to use effectively. This, in turn, increases acceptance and adoption of an LMS, leading to higher levels of utilization and engagement. 

An intuitive interface allows new LMS admins and learners to get started quickly without the need for extensive training, making LMS adoption easier. More specifically, clear, structured navigation makes it easy to manage course building, assignments, and reports without frustration. Furthermore, LMS capabilities like assignment automation and bulk actions can save hours of work each week.

This efficiency is exactly what Zach Myers, Operations Manager for Corporate Training Materials, highlights when describing Firmwater LMS’ ease of use as one of their key advantages, noting that he can have a client admin trained to use the LMS within 30 minutes. When LMS admins are empowered and properly trained, they are better equipped to launch training programs and respond to learner requests, decreasing support time and increasing learner satisfaction.

A user-friendly LMS also means training providers can focus on delivering effective training instead of troubleshooting complex systems. Calgary-based Corridor Interactive delivers training to multiple clients across North America, but can update shared content for all users with just a few clicks using Firmwater’s multi-tenant content updating capabilities. In the short video clip below, Corridor’s Director of Content, Jen Stack, notes how that has saved her a lot of time, allowing her to focus on improving content and developing new courses: 

Ease of use is key for end learners, too. Students are more likely to complete a course when it’s easy to navigate an LMS. A 2019 study showed that when students find it easier to access and navigate LMS features, their satisfaction with using an LMS in learning increases as well. 

Happy and successful learners result in two things: 1) Support tickets decrease, saving admin time, and 2) repeat training in the future becomes more likely. 

Onboarding Clients Quickly Without the Headaches

Streamlined LMS onboarding lets clients and learners access training with minimal delays. Defencify Training can set up new LMS client sites in just 20 minutes. As CEO Russ Willmon explains, “A lot of software companies require 30, 60, even 90 days to deploy their product and we don’t have that issue.”

This saves everyone time and enables fast, effective customer service by reducing the time between set-up and course deployment. It also means customers interested in buying your courses know they can get their users trained as soon as possible, giving you a distinct advantage.

“A lot of software companies require 30, 60, even 90 days to deploy their product and we don’t have that issue.”

-Russ Willmon, CEO, Defencify

A significant portion of this is ensuring seamless user account creation and course assignments. For example, you can save time by assigning courses in bulk to users based on their job role and location or building Learning Paths that automate compliance training.

Additionally, many LMS users struggle with integration issues, so ensuring compatibility with existing systems is essential. Seamless integrations mean faster data access for admins and smoother logins for learners. Here are three key scenarios where LMS integrations can help improve onboarding:

1. Integrate with a client’s LMS so you don’t have to load users into a new LMS. You host and control courses on your LMS, but users launch those courses through their organization’s internal LMS
2. Connect to existing systems using SSO or an integration like Zapier
3. Use an eCommerce integration to automate course purchases and LMS access

Pre-configured course templates and workflows can also reduce customization time and simplify the onboarding process. With a multi-tenant LMS, pre-built courses in the master dashboard can be easily granted to new clients, so you don’t have to spend time loading and creating new custom courses for each new client. This maximizes your business potential as it allows you to sell your courseware to customers across multiple industries, including eCommerce buyers, SMEs and enterprise customers. 

Streamlined onboarding ultimately results in faster course uptake, increased course sales and a higher likelihood of client retention. Moreover, instead of spending excess time on LMS admin tasks, training providers can focus on business growth. Jen Erb from Tallan Resources has saved hours of admin time weekly by automating course access for her customers, allowing her to prioritize other revenue-generating projects like consulting services. 

Expert Support to Keep Training Running Smoothly

Petra Meyer and Associates Consulting suggests that expert LMS support benefits training providers in 4 key ways: 

• Increased Efficiency and Productivity
• Better ROI on LMS Investment
• Improved Employee Satisfaction and Retention
• Enhanced Organizational Learning and Development

Responsive support teams resolve issues quickly, minimizing downtime and keeping training on track. According to Gyrus, organizations with robust help resources see 40% fewer support tickets.

So, what should you look for in LMS support? Use the checklist below as your guide when exploring LMS options:

• ✔Dedicated account manager
• ✔Onboarding and training for admins
• ✔Regular check-ins
• ✔Proactive health checks of the LMS
• ✔Integration expertise
• ✔Custom development support

When buying a new LMS, make sure to check what levels of support are included in each package. Many providers charge extra for one-on-one or phone support, while others include it in all plans.

LMS support teams should also provide access to best practices and advice on optimizing courses and LMS features to maximize ROI. In fact, proactive suggestions from support teams can help training providers improve ROI. 

Ultimately, strong LMS support reduces hidden costs (like downtime, user frustration, and admin hours) while helping you scale training operations profitably.

Ease of Use + Expert Support = Faster Revenue & Stronger Retention

When you have minimal downtime, fewer support tickets, and higher user satisfaction, you reduce operational risk and improve course completion and renewals. This is why ease of use and expert support matter so much in an LMS. Instead of losing time to troubleshooting, you can focus on what truly drives growth like creating great content, marketing your courses, and serving more clients.

Here at Firmwater, we pride ourselves on providing the best customer support and LMS expertise the industry has to offer. All of our plans include a dedicated Customer Success Manager, onboarding & training, and phone & email support. If you’d like to learn more about Firmwater’s client experience, you can book a demo here: Book a Demo