The Online Coaching Gap: Clients Are Desperate for Self-Improvement But Struggle to Stick With It
highlights:
The Online coaching industry is booming, with demand for self-improvement higher than ever.
Despite initial motivation, many clients struggle to finish courses, and to sustain new habits and routines taught by coaches.
Coaches face a critical challenge: helping clients turn knowledge into lasting change.
By Sharon Pope, CEO and Co-Founder of Shelpful
The self-improvement industry is booming, especially online coaching. The online coaching market is projected to reach $11.7 billion by 2032 (Allied Market Research). This significant growth is driven by increased accessibility, flexibility, and the growing demand for personalized guidance.
Coaches across niche areas - fitness, organization, life, decluttering, nutrition, parenting, business - are offering life-changing knowledge online. Even physical therapists and psychologists have entered the online space to share their knowledge and help people help themselves.
Social media feeds are overflowing with expert advice, and countless "self-improvement gurus" who are able to reach a perfectly matched client who truly wants and needs their advice to improve one or more aspects of their life or work. And with the convenience of social media, potential clients can just click their link in bio, and be dropped right into their lessons.
But here's the rub: knowing isn't doing.
The Stats on Course Completion Rates
The first problem is with the initial knowledge transfer – with increasingly popular services like courses, workbooks (self-paced services). Coaches are pouring their expertise and energy into creating life-changing programs, and clients very often LOVE this model.
While these courses are packed with valuable information, a staggering number of us never actually finish them. Completion rates for online courses are alarmingly low:
General Online Courses: 15% completion rate (source: Columbia University)
Self-Paced Courses: Often under 15% (source: Learning Revolution)
MOOCs: 3-6% completion rate (source: Science Magazine) – the bigger audience for the course, the lower we see the stats go.
Udemy: 8% completion rate from top instructors (source: Client Engagement Academy)
We are in the age of powerful coaching tools like Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia, empowering coaches to create and deliver their programs. But a critical piece of the puzzle is missing - a way to bridge the knowledge-action gap.
This disconnect between desire and action is a major pain point for online coaches, who are passionate experts… they want to see success from every client who purchases a service. Coaches pour their heart and soul into crafting incredible programs, but long-term success can remain elusive for many clients.
The numbers are better for cohort-based courses, where a group of people go through course at the same time period (e.g., a 4-week cohort), and meet periodically / discuss. Courses featuring structured schedules and peer interactions tend to have higher completion rates, often exceeding 85%. (EdSurge)
Even when clients do complete courses, the real challenge often lies in applying the new knowledge to their daily lives.
The Struggle to Integrate Teachings
Even for motivated individuals or cohorts that finish the lessons, another hard truth looms: integrating new habits into a busy, life is hard, and it’s even harder when we’re overwhelmed ( over 70% of adults report overwhelming stress levels).
That’s the challenge clients face when they try to integrate new habits and routines from an online course into the chaos of their regular routines. Coaches can provide powerful frameworks, life-changing tools, and breakthrough insights, but keeping clients engaged and on track is another battle entirely.
When the coach or the community go away, you are left alone to integrate your new tools into a hectic life. Life is busy, distractions abound, and old habits die hard. It's easy to get overwhelmed and fall back into familiar patterns.
Here are some common challenges clients face:
Just forgetting: When life is flying at you, you fall into your old patterns of just getting through it, and may simply forget to use some of your new skills.
Lack of Time: Busy schedules and competing priorities make it difficult to carve out time for new routines.
Overwhelm: Too many new habits at once can lead to burnout and frustration.
Lack of Accountability: Without external support, it's easy to shrug off self-improvement, in favor of taking care of everyone/everything else.
Perfectionism: You don’t feel like you can do 100%, and it’s hard to lower the bar to a smaller version of success. Doing even a little bit of a new skill / habit.
A new thing to try: AI-Driven Accountability Checks
This is where we at Shelpful think we can help. We believe the key to lasting change isn't just great content, it's ongoing support that fits seamlessly into a client's daily life.
So, we just launched a new tool for coaches: an AI mini-me, which coaches train in 5 minutes. After the free set up, coaches get a link they can share with clients to start chatting with their AI companion :)
The Power of a Coach’s AI Mini-Me:
Shelpful allows coaches to create a personalized AI companion - essentially, your very own AI "mini-me" for your clients to chat with.
This AI bot is programmed with your unique coaching methodology, offering clients micro-coaching prompts, personalized reminders, and timely accountability checks - all within the familiar interface of a favorite messaging app (WhatsApp)
It can remind them to watch course videos, but ongoing, it can remind them to actually DO the coach’s recommended actions.
Imagine this scenario: a nutrition coaching client is at the grocery store, feeling overwhelmed by endless food choices. With a quick photo texted to their AI buddy, it can reference files from the coach and share suggestions on what to buy, or what they could make tonight, based on their goals, preferences, and dietary restrictions. It's personalized support, available 24/7, right when your client needs it most.
Clients will like that they have a hype squad in their pocket to:
Help clients talk through roadblocks and stay motivated.
Celebrate achievements and reinforce positive behavior changes.
Remind them to do what they have set out to do.
BONUS: Shelpful will soon give coaches the ability to offer to chime in on their chat with the AI mini-me, for unbeatable human accountability and re-strategizing.
Shelpful’s AI mini-me is completely free for coaches to set up!
Visit https://shelpful.com/coach to learn more about creating your own AI mini-me and empowering your clients to achieve lasting change. Let’s try and do this together!
It’s still early stages, but our team is former Alexa, Apple, Microsoft and Y Combinator team members. We know how to build impactful products, and this is a passion project for us. We hope we can partner with you!
