Customer Education Statistics: Why Customer Training Matters

Key takeaways

• 96% of organizations have recouped their investment in customer education and 86% report a positive return, according to Intellum research.
• The average customer education program increases product adoption by 38% and customer satisfaction by 26%, per Intellum benchmarks.
• A 2024 Forrester report commissioned by Intellum found companies that invest in customer education see a 16% reduction in support requests and a 7% drop in support costs.
• Salesforce reports that 53% of customers expect companies to anticipate their needs, while only 33% feel companies address issues proactively.
• 92.6% of teams actively use AI — with content creation, learner support automation, and planning as the top use cases.

Ever ask yourself how Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, and other Olympians became such dominant winners in their sport? Innate talent and unworldly genetics, for sure, but also something equally important: excellent training.

When people have the right tools and resources, the hard work ahead of them gets a bit easier. A seemingly insurmountable goal can be broken down into smaller, more accessible steps. By learning—then practicing—how to reach that next step, you can clear hurdles with confidence.

Customer education follows the same philosophy. By teaching your clients how to navigate your products and leverage your services, you help them get the value promised in your sales and marketing collateral—increasing the odds of a satisfying customer experience.

You know the value education offers, but do your executives and key stakeholders? In this article, we’ll equip you with customer education statistics you can use to prove ROI and expand your training efforts.

Why These Numbers Matter

Education technology has made the ROI of customer training easier to prove than ever. The 30 statistics below cover adoption, retention, support costs, and business outcomes. Plug them in wherever you need to make the case to your team.

30 Customer Education Statistics to Prove ROI

Behind every successful customer education program, there's data to back it up.

These are stats to cite when making the business case — not a framework for deciding what to track in your own program. For that, see our guide to customer education metrics. Here are 30 customer education statistics you can plug and play to articulate the value of your education efforts:

The value of customer education

• 96% of organizations have recouped their investment in customer education. (Intellum, 2024 Forrester Study)
• 86% of companies have seen a positive return on customer education. (Intellum)
• 90% of businesses...have made CX their primary focus. (Zendesk)
• Customer education programs drive an average 7.6% increase in annual revenue for the products they target. (Intellum, 2024 Forrester study)
• Businesses plan to nearly triple their spending on customer education between 2024 and 2026. (Intellum)
• 92.6% of teams actively use AI, with content creation, learner support automation, and planning as the top use cases. (Intellum)

Product adoption statistics

• 62% of consumers agree that personalized recommendations are better than general ones. (Zendesk)
• The average feature adoption rate across products is just 6.4% — meaning only 6.4 of every 100 features a team ships drive 80% of user engagement. (Mind the Product)‍
• 72% of organizations have now embedded microlearning in their corporate training mix. (LinkedIn)
• The average customer education program increases product adoption by 38%. (Intellum)

Customer retention statistics

• 53% of customers expect companies to anticipate their needs. (Salesforce)
• Customer education programs are increasing product engagement by an average of 31%. (Intellum)
• The average customer education program increases customer satisfaction by 26%. (Intellum)
• Customer education programs are increasing product retention by an average of 22%. (Intellum)

Support costs statistics

• 71% of consumers make buying decisions based on the quality of customer support. (Salesforce)
• 61% of customers prefer self-service materials for simple issues. (Salesforce)
• The average company that invests in customer education sees a 15.5% decrease in support questions. (Intellum)
• The average customer education program reduces annual customer support costs by 7%. (Intellum)

Advocating for customer education

• 39% of brands saw a decline in customer experience over the past 12 months. (Forrester)
• 52% of organizations lack the tools to build training resources. (Intellum)
• 42% of organizations lack the personnel to manage and/or moderate training. (Intellum)
• Only 22.2% of education programs report executive-level leadership. (Intellum)
• Only 7.4% of companies have a dedicated education department. (Intellum)

These barriers are common, but not insurmountable. For a closer look at the specific challenges programs face and how to work through them, see our guide to overcoming customer education challenges.

Why invest in customer education

• 68% of education programs say they're closely tied to product success in the market — up sharply from 32% in 2025." (Intellum, 2026 Education-Led Growth Report)
• Just 19% of programs are operationally proven — formally sponsored, dedicated budget, continuously refreshed content, and proactive lifecycle engagement (Absorb)
• 78% of high-success organizations have fully formalized customer education programs (vs. just 35% of low-success organizations). (Intellum)
• 70% of high-success organizations value scalability in their education programs. (Intellum)
• 60% of companies that invest in curriculum-based education experience increased revenue. (Intellum)
• 80% of high-success organizations leverage multiple types of data in their education programs. (Intellum)
• 57% of high-success organizations value personalized content and learning paths. (Intellum)

Get More Customer Education Statistics to Prove ROI

Download our 2024 Forrester report, and bring the biggest findings back to your executive team. Read about the state of customer education and discover the biggest benefits, so you can prove ROI and get the buy-in you seek.