LG North America, America’s most reliable line of home appliances and the #1 appliance brand in the United States [1], has long been at the forefront of the home appliance market innovation with its sleek, cutting-edge designs. However, being first to market with new designs and ideas comes with unique challenges. In shaking up a sometimes staid category, LG is often faced with the need to educate customers and salespeople about the capabilities and functionality of its products.
“Our products often look like nothing else on the market,” says Peter Vossler, Senior Manager of Home Appliance Product Training for LG North America. “We needed a radically new approach to help these stakeholders experience these products during the decision-making process, understand their features, and ensure they fit perfectly into their homes.”
LG has differentiated itself in the appliance market as a technology innovator. One of the company’s key challenges is ensuring that high-tech features stand out even when devices aren’t connected to power.
As Vossler notes, “LG has reimagined the buttons and dials that clutter many appliances with digital interfaces. Our laundry machine digital dial is a prime example. It’s an elegant, sleek control that gives customers access to all the options on a traditional laundry machine interface—but when it’s not powered, it just looks like a blank circle. That unfamiliar form factor can be daunting to both customers and salespeople.”
LG also grapples with an industry-wide issue: product returns due to customers not properly measuring their spaces, resulting in improper fitting of their appliances. Selecting a major appliance is complex. Customers usually consider aesthetics, features, and dimensions, but they don’t always account for things like connections, door clearances, or whether the appliance can fit through the home’s doors and hallways.
LG needed to help customers and sales associates understand its products and make the right purchasing decisions. Vossler recognized that these issues could both be addressed through education: but that in the modern era of microtransactions and waning attention spans, education would need to be highly engaging and tailored to individual customer needs.
LG considered several traditional media approaches to product training and found them wanting. Stickers on the digital dial? Costly to produce and update, with a static appearance that detracted from the high-tech, dynamic nature of the interface. Video walkthroughs? It could not hold the customer’s attention as they reviewed irrelevant features. Vossler’s background in training led him to an ah-ha moment: what if, instead of creating something for people to watch or look at, LG gave them something to do?
“Interactivity was key,” says Vossler. “An interactive tool can be self-guided, allowing customers to explore features and answer questions that matter to them without having to sit through anything they don’t care about.”
To address these challenges, LG turned to Dave Chace, Founder and President of Cogent360, a firm specializing in interactive digital media. Vossler had previously worked with Cogent360 to produce e-learning tools and the LG Virtual Home, so he knew Cogent360 had the capability to create the interactive, simple-to-understand experiences he was seeking. The partnership led to the development of several key tools, including a virtual Digital Dial and a Measure First tool, which allows customers to collect all the necessary fit information prior to making purchasing decisions.
One of the early successes of this collaboration was http://www.lgdial.com, a mobile-ready site that allows retail sales associates to walk potential customers through the various features of LG’s laundry machines—even if the machines are not powered on. The tool can be embedded in the retail website or accessed via a QR code from the showroom floor. The tool also includes a training mode, offering guided tours that help users understand the full functionality of the product.
“Including a tutorial really increased the value of this digital model,” says Chace. “Rather than just explaining how the Dial works with a few pictures or text, we built in an interactive simulation to walk the user step-by-step through a laundry cycle, as if they were operating the appliance themselves. This ensures that both the salespeople and customers clearly understand the operation, benefits, and simplicity of this technology, product messaging is consistent, and makes sure sales associates are always supported in highlighting the most important features of these innovative appliances.”
Another significant digital innovation from this partnership was the interactive Measure First tool, which addressed one of LG’s most persistent issues: product returns due to incorrect fit. The tool is available both on LG’s website and on major retailer sites, guiding customers through the process of measuring their space and ensuring that an appliance would fit before they make a purchase. This tool can help customers judge whether a specific LG product is right for them—or, it can generate a PDF that customers can bring into stores, providing all the necessary measurements to assist sales associates in making informed recommendations.
This win-win approach didn’t just improve LG’s customer satisfaction. The results were impressive. Vossler notes that partners using the Measure First tool have seen a double-digit reduction in returns, with several partners requesting to re-skin the tool to add their own branding. “The Measure First tool demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction that strengthens our relationships and builds loyalty,” says Vossler. “Our goal is to ensure that customers make the right decisions, even if that decision isn’t to choose LG today. By building confidence and providing value, we know they’ll come back to us in the future.”
The collaboration between LG and Cogent360 represents a powerful example of how digital innovation can transform the retail experience. By embracing interactive tools, LG has not only reduced product returns but also improved customer satisfaction and strengthened its partnerships with major retailers.
“The audience for these digital tools has turned out to be much bigger than in-store shoppers,” says Vossler. “Consumers use them to conduct research at home before visiting a store. Sales associates used them to familiarize themselves with new products and refine their pitches. People return to them over and over, ensuring LG is at the top of their minds.”
These digital tools can also save on media costs in the long term, as Chace explains: “Interactive, digital tools like the Measure First tool allow for quick updates, something you just can’t achieve with traditional media. The tools can be quickly updated with the latest LG product releases and changes, making the customer experience seamless.”
As the appliance industry moves towards more immersive and personalized experiences, LG and Cogent360 are already planning the next steps. “We’ve started expanding these tools into virtual kitchens and laundry rooms where customers can visualize entire product ecosystems, switching out appliances in real-time to see how they look together,” said Vossler. This approach not only aids customer decision-making but also transforms the retail environment into an interactive and engaging experience.
“We believe that the future of product education is in creating immersive, experiential environments where customers and sales teams alike can learn, explore, and make decisions in a low-pressure, high-engagement setting,” said Chace.
As Vossler aptly summarized, “Immersive experiences like these digital tools make the difference between standing out and being forgotten. Passive experiences are seen and forgotten. We spend more time with interactive experiences and return to them more often. This is the future of product training sales and marketing.”
[1] #1 Appliance Brand in the US | Source: OpenBrand Quarterly Consumer Survey – Units & Dollars, Major Appliances (AHAM Core 6) Q2-Q3 2024
See also: LG Launches Its First Curved Smart Monitor With 21:9 Aspect Ratio
