User adoption and modern business technology training seem far removed from Benjamin Franklin. But the wise founding father offered some advice on learning that remains relevant today.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin’s famous quote reminds us that learning is never complete – and that we learn best by doing and learning at the moment. The same is true for business training.

Most companies utilizing Salesforce, and other business technology platforms, provide formal up-front training for management and end-users.  However, best-in-class companies don’t stop training when the course ends.  

User adoption best practices state that a continuous training cycle is required for end-users to truly and confidently understand how to operate the system.  Yes, it starts with formal training such as Instructor-Led Training and Management Training and Implementation.  But to truly drive user adoption, companies should provide employees access to training on-the-job, in the heat of the moment, and within the technology itself.  

Think of this as a magic help button that saves employees from scrambling to dust off old training manuals or seeking unplanned instruction time from colleagues.

Users can simply click for help, in Salesforce, to gain immediate instruction on the task at hand.

Contextual Embedded Help helps User Adoption With Just-in-Time Training

To offer training at the moment, companies can build contextual help directly into their technology platform.  Such help can offer users instant instruction, at the moment they need it, embedded directly into the technology platform. 

One such example is Digadop Help by Stony Point, which is readily available on the Salesforce AppExchange and integrates with all three Salesforce interfaces: Lightning Experience,  Salesforce Classic, and Salesforce Experience Cloud.

Digadop Help delivers targeted help and coaching directly within Salesforce when and where users need it most.  The tool embeds a help button directly into Salesforce pages and records. The help button, when selected, displays help layouts. These layouts can feature Article (text-based), Video, File Attachment, and URL style help content. Digadop Help is capable of serving as a “one-stop-shop” for users to get help within the system, containing not only training material/support, but also documentation, updates, announcements, and reminders.

Why go to this degree? Do Users Remember Their Upfront Training?

Reports show that following training sessions, employees don’t always retain what they learned. In fact, 70% of users forget what they had been taught within one day.

This does not mean that their training was ineffective.  Rather, it’s a reflection of how human memory works.  Some studies suggest that humans forget about 50% of new information within an hour of learning it. That goes up to an average of 70% within 24-hours.  

So, following formal training classes, companies should provide reinforcement tools to coach users, at the time they need them.

What’s an Example?

Without continued training, employees will not work efficiently and might stray from the process and outside the technology.

Let’s imagine an employee is working on a project and forgets how to implement a certain task within their technology.

Or that employee is struggling to remember how to implement a task they don’t routinely utilize.

In both cases, they will likely lose valuable time researching the proper method.  Or worse, due to time pressures, they might develop a workaround outside of Salesforce or the preferred platform.  This behavior can quickly lead to loss of employee confidence, poor user adoption rates, and loss of data records.

In contrast, if that same user worked in a platform that offered contextual help programs such as Digadop Help by Stony Point, they could click a help button within Salesforce Lightning, Salesforce Classic, or Salesforce Experience Cloud and gain the contextual instruction they need then and there to keep their task moving forward, correctly.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “involve me and I learn”.

Continued Learning and Contextual Help Reinforce Training and USer

For companies implementing a new technology, the most effective user adoption strategy is to implement a full complement of training programs. These programs should follow the end users’ learning and usage cycle: from the introduction of the new technology to the everyday use of that technology.  This cycle includes instructor-led training, routine management coaching, and continuous training offered via contextual help.

Instructor Led Training

Instructor-led training remains the most effective training method to introduce new technology due to the ability to train multiple users quickly, reinforce the corporate objectives, answer students’ questions and provide motivation and reassurance. 

These training classes create time efficiencies by allowing many students to complete the training quickly.  The instructors should have real-world experience and lead carefully curated curriculums in real-time. The classes provide students with the live interaction and custom training they need to operate the technology, as it applies within their specific organization.

Typically, instructor-led training courses also provide training manuals and other support documentation students can use later as reference material.  However, as valuable as these materials are, users might not have them readily available while working in the system. Contextual help systems such as Digadop Help make the instruction available to the user right when they need it. 

Manager Training

Instructor-led training for end-users is essential for driving user adoption. But manager training is the most important element for companies seeking to drive the adoption of new technology.  Why? Because managers are the ones who make things happen in the organization.

Managers, first and foremost, must buy into, accept and utilize the technology hands-on.  In doing so, they’ll positively influence end users to also adopt the platform.  Managers can help implement the new software and allow employees to implement it as well.  Good managers work with their staff and can routinely provide ongoing encouragement, coaching, and training of the software.

Embedded Contextual Help Drives User Adoption with Continued Training

Finally, after initial training classes are complete, companies should close the training loop with contextual help embedded directly in the technology.  This will coach and guide end-users, at the moment, with the specific help they need. 

In addition to instructor-led training and management coaching, companies should close the training loop by launching and utilizing contextual help embedded directly in the technology.  Such technology as Digadop Help by Stony Point offers users powerful, context-aware help content embedded directly into Salesforce and other applications.  Digadop Help integrates directly into the software to display relevant help videos, articles, or files based on the user’s current page, profile, and application.  Administrators have full access to control where and how help is displayed, allowing any team to configure to their needs.  

Digadop Help is available now on the Salesforce AppExchange and integrates with all three Salesforce interfaces, Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and Salesforce Experience Cloud.

So What’s Next?

Want professional training services for your end-users and managers? Stony Point offers world-class instructor-led Salesforce training. With classes for beginners all the way to experts, we can help you train your employees to be more efficient and productive.

Did you already purchase training but still see your employees struggling with adoption? Digadop Help by Stony Point is a Digital Adoption platform designed to increase user adoption. With customizable, targeted help, you can create a different help experience for each employee, with no coding needed. Digadop Help reinforces the training you paid for and builds on it.