Customer Service Social Intro

Problem: Learning courses have become stale and difficult to connect with.

Goal: Meet learners where they are and connect in a fun and engaging way.

Solution: Unless a pre-set template is consistently used with eLearning courses, learners have to adjust to each individual course they have to take. Navigation is never the same, and objectives change from course to course. By using a popular social media platform as a "template," learners don't have to spend mental energy on acclimating to a course. Plus, it's different, fun, out of the norm for a typical corporate training.

Results: Direct feedback from sales agent: "Do more like these, it makes it so much more fun!"

Tool(s): Vyond, Audacity, Articulate Storyline

Security Company Sales Job Aid

Problem: A non-American call center had lots of "dead air" time during their interactions soon after completing onboarding training.

Goal: First, determine the cause, then figure out how to reverse the detrimental statistic.

Solution: After a thorough needs-analysis phase, including listening to an abundance of call recordings and interviewing the site supervisors, it was discovered nobody was prepping callers for the automated payment system, which caused a negative experience, failed payments, and explained the dead air. Therefore, a job aid was created to add a step to their call process.

Results: Reduced "dead air" by 37%, cut failed payments in half

Tool(s): PowerPoint

Customer Service Price Increase eLearning (audio removed)

Problem: Products and services were due for a price increase.

Goal: Inform sales agents about the planned increase and any procedures to guide customer calls.

Solution: The original assignment asked for a Job Aid that spelled out the product-specific price increases and other applicable sales rules. What made more sense was for sales agents to practice how they interact with callers that would doubtless have concerns about prices increasing.

Results: NPS was kept at a higher level relative to the number of customers that called to complain.

Tool(s): Articulate Storyline, Vyond, Audacity

Tech Service Company Podcast

Problem: Technicians had to travel to their service locations, and this was considered unproductive time. 

Goal: Utilize unproductive time to educate, inform, and entertain as a means to build culture for remote workers.

Solution: Technicians were already in their vehicles, so I created a podcast that distributed process changes, interviewed coworkers, and announced initiatives. This was a unique offering vs. getting an email that would be lost or unread, or worse, read while driving.

Results: The first episode was so successfully received that newsletter emails as the main communication medium were eliminated.

Tool(s): Audacity

Tech Company New Hire ILT

Problem: Tech company tectonic-shifted product focus to include both Internet and Mobile service which necessitated overhauling their entire salesperson onboarding material.

Goal: In addition to rewriting everything, make a weeks-long classroom-based training course relatable, fun, and engaging.

Solution: I eat; you eat; he, she, they eat. Breaking down a complex notion into an easy-to-understand and fun concept means you connect with your learner, plus it prevents you from sounding too detached from real people.

Results: This "episode" within the over-arching onboarding material remains a 5-star rated affair.

Tool(s): Xyleme

My Very First Storyline Course

Problem: I developed an interest in Buddhism before my daughter was born and I needed to share it with someone other than my wife.

Goal: Test my own understanding and make Buddhist concepts easy to digest for those with little experience.

Solution: Post-moment of clarity regarding my career, I knew I had to get my hands dirty and actually play with the tools. Playing around with a subject you're familiar with also makes it fun.

Results: I've become a Sr. Instructional Designer and love everything about the day-to-day, love talking shop with others in the L+D space, and continue to study Buddhism.

Tool(s): Articulate Storyline