What Causes LMS Buyer Regret? Customer Ed Nugget 27
When choosing a system for customer or partner education, the last thing you want to experience is LMS buyer regret. Yet, bad software decisions happen all the time.
According to Gartner research, 60% of enterprise software buyers regret their decisions within 12-18 months. (That’s right, 60%.) No one can be proud of that statistic. But as a learning systems selection consultant, I have ideas about why so many decisions go south.
The True Cost of Bad Buying Decisions
If you’ve struggled with LMS buyer regret, you know how devastating the wrong solution can be. When a learning system fails to deliver, it becomes a huge drain on your budget and other resources. That translates into stalled initiatives, lost credibility, and diminished team influence.
However, organizations rarely blame a bad LMS choice on a flawed system. Instead, they’re likely to attribute the problem to a leadership failure, a lapse in selection team judgment, or poor purchasing due diligence. And sometimes, new leadership is brought in to clean up the mess.
The consequences are serious for your business, for your LMS selection team, and for customers who rely on you for effective education. With so much at stake, getting your choice right the first time matters.
My Perspective on Finding a Strong LMS Match
I know about LMS buyer regret because I’ve seen it all too often. The same scenarios play out time after time.
Eventually, clients come to me after making one or more of the mistakes I discuss below. If they hadn’t slipped up, they wouldn’t need my guidance.
So, consider this a cautionary tale based on 8 common traps to avoid if you want to choose a customer education system that works. Join me now for this 27th episode of the Customer Ed Nuggets mini-podcast!
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8 Sources of LMS Buyer Regret (And How to Avoid Them)
1. Start Too Late, Move Too Fast
If your contract expires soon, the time to act is now. Tight timeframes force your team to skip critical steps and make rushed decisions. This can lead to costly oversights or even a failed launch.
To reduce the odds of LMS buyer regret, allocate 9-12 months to select, implement and roll out any new customer education system.
2. Contact Vendors Too Soon
While starting too late is a problem, engaging vendors too early can be just as damaging.
In this age of instant access, it’s tempting to schedule demos right away. But successful LMS buyers know better. They realize they must define their requirements first. Why?
With more than 1,000 learning systems available today, it’s easy to become a victim of Parkinson’s Law, where work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Talking with software providers before you clarify requirements only creates confusion, wastes time, and triggers a flood of follow-up activity you’ll have to manage. Until and unless you clarify your needs, you’re likely to spend too much time with too many of the wrong vendors.
Find out how companies are achieving more with learning systems that create business value. Get inspiration from dozens of success stories in our free LMS Case Study Directory…
3. Develop Vague Requirements That Ignore Audience Needs
Strong LMS requirements revolve around use cases based on key learning audiences and their objectives. Who are your customers? What do they want to accomplish? How can education help them achieve their goals?
After documenting these needs, you can map them to relevant functional, technical, service and licensing requirements. Without them, it’s easy to choose an LMS that falls short.
4. Overlook Go-To-Market Goals
Effective customer education initiatives support measurable business priorities. For instance, is it important for your organization to improve customer onboarding, drive product adoption, reduce support tickets, improve partner performance, or achieve a combination of these goals?
Unless you tie your customer LMS to business-critical outcomes, it is just another content platform. And that means you could base your platform choice on features that sound good but don’t deliver real value.
5. Forget an LMS Shortlisting Strategy
Without a shortlist, you have no way to narrow the field. Trying to evaluate too many vendors at once leads to surface-level comparisons and buyer fatigue. That’s a great recipe for an LMS decision you’ll soon regret.
Here’s a better approach: Use your requirements to identify 4 or 5 highly qualified solutions. Then, thoroughly evaluate those pre-qualified contenders. Tools like the Talented Learning RightFit Grid, Customer LMS Buyer’s Guide, and LMS Directory are designed specifically to help you with these steps.
6. Skip the RFP
A well-written RFP may take effort, but it’s your best tool for avoiding surprises. A formal document ensures that vendors will address your specific needs. It also provides written accountability and lets you compare pricing and capabilities side by side.
Without RFP responses, you’re forced to rely on unstructured verbal promises and sales scripts that put vendor interests first. How will you know which choice will help you avoid LMS regret?
7. Don’t Bother Building a 3–5 Year Success Plan
Buying only for today’s needs is a common trap. Instead, you’ll want to plan for success now and in the future by projecting your needs on a 3-5 year time horizon.
To the best of your ability, create a roadmap that estimates your program’s expected growth, related technology integrations, monetization strategy, and global reach over time. This long-term vision will help you choose a platform that scales efficiently and remains cost-effective as your business evolves.
8. Ignore Key Stakeholders
Customer education affects more than just your training team. It touches marketing, product, customer success, support, IT, operations, leadership, and beyond.
When these stakeholders aren’t included early in the selection process, you could needlessly put your LMS plans at risk. Without their input, you could miss critical needs, lack near-term buy-in, and jeopardize long-term ownership.
Watch This Customer Ed Nuggets Episode
Want to find out more about how to avoid LMS buyer regret? Watch the brief podcast video below…
Or, if you’d rather listen, tune in to the audio version of the podcast right here at TalentedLearning.com.
The Bottom Line on How to Avoid LMS Buyer Regret
If you want to invest in a new or better platform for customer education, prepare yourself for success. To avoid LMS buyer regret, you’ll want to approach this decision as a strategic process.
Before moving forward, take sufficient time to consider the 8 mistakes I’ve outlined above. Do you see the potential for one or more of these issues to derail your decision or lead to a weak outcome?
If you keep these issues in mind from the start, I’m confident you’ll make a smart investment and reduce the risks that naturally come with software selection. You’ll also position yourself and your organization for long-term success with the right learning platform.
Along the way, if you want experienced, independent advice and support, let me know. We’re always here to discuss your questions or concerns.
About Talented Learning Customer Ed Nuggets
Hosted by Talented Learning CEO John Leh, the Customer Ed Nuggets podcast is a trusted source of advice, guidance, and best practices for customer education professionals of all types. In this series of brief video and audio “nuggets” (each 10 minutes or less), we explore key topics with numerous guest experts.
Join us anytime here or on our YouTube channel to explore all facets of customer education, from how to build a persuasive business case, to effective strategies, technologies, and content that help professionals create, deploy, and grow successful customer-centered programs.
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Avoid LMS buyer regret with our 2025 Customer LMS Buyers Guide! This independent analysis compares 16 top customer learning systems, so you can make better decisions, whatever your role:
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Benchmark your current platform with leading-edge solutions and see how you can level up. - LMS BUYERS
Clarify your requirements to more quickly and confidently identify systems that fit your needs. - LMS SELLERS
Keep your positioning on point by comparing your system’s strengths and weaknesses with award-winning customer education solutions.
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Want Help to Avoid LMS Buyer Regret? Let’s Talk.
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