Creating Positive Outcomes

Scenario-Based eLearning and Training

This is a scenario-based eLearning concept project designed to help customer service representatives find positive outcomes to their customer's problems. Customer service representatives respond to issues a customer is experiencing which give them an opportunity to bring resolution to a potentially upset customer. Reaching positive outcomes helps build trust and deepen commitment to the brand.

Audience: Customer Service Representatives

Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Storyboard, and Mockups

Tools: Articulate Storyline, Figma, Mindmeister

Overview

The client is a (fictional) national tech-based company that creates apps for phones and tablets use. This project addresses performance issues from customer service representatives that are managing customer issues with the app.

Concerns arose over the way in which representatives were addressing issues raised by their customers. The protocols for resolving these issues weren't being followed and customers were not feeling like their needs were being met. This resulted in a negative experience for the customer.

Customers who didn't feel they were being heard or helped appropriately were likely to cancel their service and take their business elsewhere. This created a massive problem for the company since they lost revenue when this happened.

To get started, I analyzed the customer service policy document and was able to determine that the source of the performance issue was due to a lack of skill and knowledge. For this reason, I proposed a scenario-based eLearning training.

Process

The creation of this project was full of analysis, feedback, revision, and development. Through every phase I sought to make a finished product that was usable and useful.

I created the project from start to finish. To accomplish this, I created an action map, wrote a text-based storyboard, designed visual mock-ups, developed an interactive prototype, and, finally, developed the final product.

Action Map:

To identify the focus of the eLearning simulation and pinpoint the exact skills to target, I referenced the customer service policy and conducted informal check-ins with a customer service representative who gave feedback and revisions throughout the process. Through this process, I gained insight into the essential expectations for the representatives which I used to generate an action map using Mindmeister.

The purpose of this map was to distill exactly what the representatives needed to do in their interactions to provide a positive outcome. I was able to identify important actions that were missing in several interactions on the job, which helped me create the immersive and real-world eLearning experience.

Upon closer inspection, we noticed that we wanted this particular project to focus more on the digital side of resolving issues. This choice came from us recognizing how delicate an online conversation can be since it is challenging to understand components like tone or implied meaning, especially with the absence of body language to help. Furthermore, online interactions seem to be the dominant avenue by which customers seek to get their problems solved. As such, our efforts turned toward building an interaction that would challenge users to develop the skills necessary to conduct their problem-solving in an online format.

The action map revealed three high priority areas that are especially relevant in online interactions with customers. These three areas were used as the foundation for the entire eLearning experience and helped guide the development of the text-based storyboard.

Text-Based Storyboard:

As I moved into the development of the text-based storyboard, I maintained a focus on the three high priority actions from the action map. With these objectives at the forefront, I was able to curate situations under which the representative would need to correctly use one of them to resolve an issue. All other components were contextual pieces for the scenario outcomes.

This context, along with feedback from SME's helped me identify what real-life consequences the customer service representatives would face depending on their selected course of action. Since the context had already been established as online/digital, the consequences reflected this choice. Digital responses were curated to this effect in the interaction.

Since the digital format had been established for this experience, it was decided that the location should be through a simulated e-mail inbox. In this context, different service requests were laid before the user. Each response addressed a different component of focus that had been established from the Action Map.

Throughout the interaction, I decided to have a "mentor" character that the user could choose to interact with based on their need for additional support. Making this choice gave the user flexibility in what help they specifically needed instead of needing to review information they already know.

Additionally, in this step I received feedback on my original draft of the text-based storyboard that the opening scene I had planned was extremely text-heavy and minimal interactivity for the user. Using this feedback, I adjusted my introduction scene and created more built-in prompts that the user could later choose to utilize or not. I made this choice to help maintain engagement and get the user to the portion of the learning experience as quickly as possible.

Visual Mockups:

The text-based storyboard was approved and so I moved to the next phase of production: visual mockups.

For this particular experience, I had begun making a rapid prototype which means I started using Articulate Storyline immediately after approval on the text-based storyboard. I chose to do this because I felt confident of my feel for the project and ability to generate the type of interaction we were building. Additionally, I knew that any feedback or revisions I received could be adjusted throughout the prototyping experience.

However, as I continued building the project, I recognized the benefit of building a visual mockup for the beginning/introductory slides. These were more flexible and required more attention to visual detail in order to maintain continuity and engagement. I used Figma to pull together the mockups and get feedback and approval.

I selected a color theme that highlighted the color blue as a representation of trust. Additionally, it provided the opportunity for high contrast graphics and text.

Visual Storyboard

Next, I moved the visual mockups along into the text-based storyboard to allow for a clear picture of how all the pieces of the learning experience would fit together. I used my original storyboard with an additional section for the matching visual representations to be present.

Since parts of the interaction already existed in Articulate Storyline, this step was geared more toward building a final revision to the interactions the user would be engaging in and having a clear view of the project in totality.

Interactive Prototype

As mentioned above, this project had been partially rapid-prototyped already. This choice made this portion of development easy and quick. Since most interactions, triggers, and variables had already been developed, it really only required some testing and approval with limited revisions necessary. I had only completed a fully-functional interaction for one of the three questions. It was on this one questions that the feedback and revisions were given.

After functionality was established, some minor animation adjustments were suggested to increase engagement and overall "flow" of the project.

Taking the time to test one question and make the revisions was a beneficial step because it helped save time on the other questions. Had I completed all questions prior to doing this, I would have to go back and fix all of them. The time I saved from this step gave me more time to focus on the final product and keeping my workflow moving along.

Final Development

The final steps of the project were to apply all revisions and suggestions that were agreed upon. I applied all of these to the final version that was developed in Articulate Storyline.

The overall project was an amazing experience to build from start to finish. It provided me with challenges to overcome and find ways to gather answers to questions I had. Additionally, it allowed me the opportunity to make some mistakes that I can correct in the future. For example, I will probably avoid doing rapid prototyping unless absolutely necessary from a time stand point. That way, I can be even more intentional with my color and style choices.

However, I do feel confident in my ability to produce content in Articulate Storyline so that if a quicker process was called for, I would be able to produce quality content that would meet expectations in the time frame given.