blended
Customer Service Soft Skills
This initiative marked a transformative redesign of the client’s onboarding training program, aiming to align it more closely with their brand identity. The previous training lacked distinctive branding and relied heavily on generic assets, with a considerable portion necessitating direct trainer facilitation.
The client’s objectives were to infuse modern and fresh visuals, elevate the trainer’s role by transitioning from lecture-based to experiential learning, and introduce a suite of soft skills courses, encompassing topics like Customer Empathy, Building Rapport, Active Listening, and more.
Project scope:
Analysis, Discovery, Instructional Design, QA Development Assets
Tools Used:
Articulate Rise, Canva, Storyline
Client Problem & Solution
The client’s existing training program faced multiple challenges, including a lack of focus on key performance indicators (KPIs). The content was generic and didn’t reflect the client’s brand or industry. Trainers were heavily involved in facilitation, limiting opportunities for coaching and validation. Most of the content was lecture-based leaving little time for engagement or learning exploration. The solutions that were delivered with the redesign included:
KPIs were baked into the overall curriculum, giving time for learners to listen to calls, evaluate them using a rubric, and engage in discussions about their impact on KPIs, day-to-day business, and the customers’ needs.
Enhanced trainer involvement to go from “information sharer” to coach, leaving room to facilitate feedback, clarify doubts in group activities, and conduct exercises.
Lecture-based modules were replaced with self-paced modules, hands-on experiential activities, call listening, simulations, QA conversations and real-world scenarios.
The training length was reduced while increasing learner retention and lessening the cognitive load.
The new content is flexible and agile without relying heavily on the trainer’s personal experience and tenure.
The Process
I was responsible for all phases of the instructional design process for my courses. I was involved from the discovery phase to the final client handoff. The discovery phase included discovery workshops with the client, SME demos, and reviewing the client’s curriculum and knowledge base resources. The design phase was split into 2 phases: the design document and the storyboard.
Client Handover
Final Developed Assets
The final assets included the following for each course:
Self-paced course built in Articulate Rise using Storyline elements
PowerPoint deck for the facilitator-led workshop portion of the course
Facilitator Guide
Course Welcome Video
The welcome video’s purpose is to introduce learners to the course and expectations and explain the course objectives.
Demonstrating Empathy
I wrote the script for this asset, which developers built in Storyline. The learner selects each speech bubble to read and hear examples of the seven empathy techniques.
Course Review Activity
This is the final review activity before learners are required to complete the final assessment.
