CX EXPERTS INTERVIEW SERIES: Empowering Users: The Role of Customer Education in the Life Sciences Sector

Welcome back to our CX Experts Interview Series! 

The ability of users – whether they are researchers, clinicians, or patients – to utilize complex products and services is essential. But how do organizations in this sector ensure their audiences are truly empowered? Allison Songstad, a Customer Success and Training Program Manager will update us on the best practices and strategies.

Allison Songstad PhD. - Customer Success and Training Program Management

Allison and I met during her time as a postdoctoral fellow at UC-San Diego, where she was using CRISPR to engineer stem cell lines to study autism spectrum disorders. At the time, I was a Field Application Scientist, helping her sort cells for her project. Shortly after Allison transitioned to industry as  Field Application Scientist at NanoString, where she created NanoString University—an online education platform designed for customers, employees, and business partners.

Currently, Allison is a Senior Customer Success Manager at QIAGEN, where she applies her expertise in training and education to help customers navigate QIAGEN’s bioinformatics tools. Throughout her career, she has been a strong advocate for using adult learning principles to design effective educational experiences. In her CSM role, she creates tailored learning journeys for customers, focusing on engagement, knowledge retention, and practical application. Her approach ensures that customers not only understand the products but also feel confident in using them to drive meaningful results.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today!

To begin, what are the challenges you see in educating customers about your products or services in the life sciences and biotech landscape, , compared to other industries?

Hi Elena! It’s a pleasure to be talking with you.

I believe one of the biggest challenges we face in biotech when it comes to customer education is the technical nature of our products. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details, which can overwhelm customers who are new to the product. In comparison, industries like tech or SaaS typically work with intuitive software that’s designed to be easy to use. This allows for more streamlined training tailored to specific customer personas. In biotech, however, our products often have different use cases for each customer, which makes it much harder to develop a one-size-fits-all training approach.

"The key to balancing in-depth information with accessibility and engagement is understanding your customer’s specific needs"

How do you balance providing in-depth information with making educational content accessible and engaging for different customer segments?

This is a fantastic question, and it's definitely one of the biggest challenges we face in educating customers in the biotech field. The key to balancing in-depth scientific information with accessibility and engagement is understanding your customer’s specific needs. For live training, whether in-person or virtual, it's crucial to avoid overwhelming the customer with a broad overview of all the products. Instead, I recommend having a discovery call—what I like to call a "pre-training" call—before the session. This helps you understand exactly what the customer needs help with, allowing you to tailor the training agenda to their specific interests. This targeted approach keeps the customer engaged and ensures they’re getting value from the session.

How can you balance the desire for in-person engagement with the need to reach a wider customer base?

I’ve found that lunch and learn’s are a great way to boost in-person engagement. They create a relaxed environment where customers can connect with our team, ask questions, and get a feel for the solutions we're offering. These sessions often open the door to follow-up 1:1 conversations with customers who want to dive deeper.

At the same time, I like to use these in-person moments to introduce our online education tools—things like self-paced courses, on-demand webinars, or certifications. That way, even if someone can’t make it to the event, they still have access to the same valuable content. It’s all about finding that balance: building personal connections where we can and then using scalable resources to extend our reach and support ongoing learning.

Another important aspect of live training is managing attention. With attention spans shrinking, it's essential to incorporate breaks into the session. At a customer education conference I attended a couple of years ago, I was surprised to learn that the average person can only focus on a single task for about 25 minutes before their mind starts to wander. To keep the training engaging and dynamic, I recommend scheduling short breaks every 25 minutes to help participants maintain focus and stay involved.

"Expecting a customer to sit through a 90-minute recorded webinar is a tall order, it's much more effective to break that content into shorter, bite-sized lessons"

For online asynchronous courses, the same principle applies: keep lessons concise and digestible. Expecting a customer to sit through a 90-minute recorded webinar is a tall order, so it's much more effective to break that content into shorter, bite-sized lessons. Whenever possible, I also encourage incorporating interactive elements like quizzes to reinforce key takeaways. And a little tip—make sure the quiz questions are clear and straightforward. Customers don’t appreciate trick questions! (They really don’t, haha.)

How has the shift towards digital platforms and remote interactions impacted customer education in your field? What are some strategies you've seen or implemented to leverage these changes?

Digital platforms have significantly increased accessibility in customer education within the biotech field. Before the pandemic, we relied heavily on in-person meetings, which limited the number of people we could reach due to travel constraints. Now, with tools like Zoom and Teams, we're able to schedule virtual one-on-one sessions with customers more easily, offering tailored support no matter their location.

In fact, the ability to host Zoom webinars has opened up new opportunities for scalable live training, allowing us to connect with larger audiences and provide valuable content in real time, regardless of geographic barriers.

Also, from my experience with creating and leading NanoString University, I found that asynchronous online education is especially well-received.

"Video libraries of recorded webinars don’t truly qualify as online courses. They must be transformed into structured courses to ensure engagement and knowledge retention"

Customers are eager to take ownership of learning how to use your products, and on-demand courses empower them to do so. However, the success of asynchronous learning hinges on the quality of the content. In my view, video libraries of recorded webinars don’t truly qualify as online courses—they're just video libraries. To be effective, these recordings must be strategically transformed into structured courses, using adult learning principles to ensure engagement and knowledge retention.

How do you measure the effectiveness of your customer education programs? What key metrics or KPIs do you track, and how do you use that data to refine your strategies?

When leading NanoString University, I focused on several key metrics to measure its effectiveness. These included:

1. Unique Course Registrants: We tracked the number of students who signed up for the courses. I was initially aiming for 500 students in the first quarter of launch (September 2021), but the academy exceeded expectations with over 1,000 sign-ups for the on-demand courses, which highlighted our customers’ eagerness to learn how to use NanoString products.

2. Engagement Metrics: I monitored the total number of visits to the academy and the total session hours students spent learning. By the following quarter, I implemented micro-learning modules, which made the content more digestible and led to exponential growth. By early 2022, NanoString University surpassed 10,000 students, who collectively spent over 22,000 hours in the academy, resulting in more than 100,000 login visits. On average, students visited the academy 10 times, indicating a high level of engagement and content "stickiness."

3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): After each course, I gathered feedback through a simple survey. With an impressive CSAT score of 4.6/5, I also collected requests for future course topics. This feedback not only helped me refine course offerings but also guided me in prioritizing the development of new content that would further drive customer engagement and success.

By closely monitoring these metrics, I was able to adjust my strategy, ensuring NanoString University met the customers’ learning needs and contributed to their success.

"What role does customer education play in driving product adoption and long-term customer success in life sciences/biotech? Can you share any examples of how effective education has directly led to positive business outcomes?"

Customer education is super important when it comes to product adoption and long-term success, especially in life sciences and biotech. After all, how can customers get value from a product if they don’t know how to use it? By teaching them the basics and getting them comfortable early on, you not only speed up adoption but also make the product stick—customers are more likely to keep using it if they understand it.

For example, in my current role as a Senior Customer Success Manager at QIAGEN, I’ve been able to bring the skills I developed while managing NanoString University into our training approach. I’ve worked with my team to create a bite-sized, microlearning style for onboarding new users. We take our complex data analysis software and break it down into easy-to-understand chunks, starting with the simplest features. This helps spark interest, and a lot of the time, customers end up asking for follow-up sessions with our application scientist team. This approach has really helped increase product usage and improve customer satisfaction.

Looking ahead, what emerging trends or technologies do you anticipate will significantly influence customer education in life sciences/biotech, and how should companies prepare for these changes?

I believe biotech could greatly benefit from adopting some of the strategies that have proven successful in the SaaS industry, especially when it comes to customer education. SaaS companies have mastered the art of simplifying training programs and making it easy for customers to quickly see the value of their products. In biotech, we’re dealing with highly complex products, so we need to figure out how to make learning more accessible without compromising depth.

Some important questions we should be asking ourselves include: How can we shorten our onboarding process to quickly hook customers? How can we define a seamless, engaging onboarding journey? And how can we make training more interactive—and maybe even fun?

In my opinion, the key is to keep initial onboarding short, engaging, and non-intimidating. This helps prevent customers from feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the product. From there, the onboarding process should be personalized to each customer’s needs, guiding them step-by-step through the product’s features. Gradual, follow-up training sessions will help build their confidence and deepen their understanding.

Moreover, biotech companies should look into incorporating some emerging trends, like community-driven learning or even gamification if they’re considering an online, asynchronous academy. By creating a space for users to learn from each other or adding elements like rewards and progress tracking, we can enhance engagement and retention. Additionally, interactive and immersive learning experiences, like microlearning, will help users stay engaged while improving their ability to apply what they’ve learned in real-world settings.

"Biotech companies should look into incorporating some emerging trends, like community-driven learning or even gamification if they’re considering an online, asynchronous academy"

Ultimately, embracing these innovations in customer education will help biotech companies not only boost adoption but also create long-term customer success by making learning more engaging, personalized, and accessible.

By investing in education, companies can significantly improve user engagement and product usage. At BioCustomer Support Solutions, we recognize this value. We offer a suite of services, including assessing your organization's preparedness, developing and implementing strategies, and providing the necessary tools and expertise to help you thrive. Contact us today for a free consultation!

Elena Rubio de la Torre, PhD.

Global Customer Support & Service Leader