Combination Simulation, Tutorial & Performance Support

Challenge

ClearNet—one of the Canadian leaders in the cellular marketplace—engaged Learning Designs to help it solve an impending customer support bottleneck created by the roll-out of five new cell phone models.

Learning Designs was engaged to help ClearNet (now Telus) solve the training challenge and provide a performance support solution to meet the customer service challenges the new phones would create.

Our solution was to design an online eLearning solution combined with an electronic performance support system (EPSS) in a single package. Customer support agents can access the stand-alone training program through the company Intranet. The eLearning courseware fully simulates working cellphone for each model (e.g., Nokia, Qualcomm). Agents learn phone functions (Save a Number, Browse the ‘Net, etc.) by either following instruction steps and ‘keying in’ their responses using the virtual keypad, or, by choosing to watch a "Show Me" animation demo which automatically keys in the correct button sequence and displays the appropriate messages on the cellphone display screen.

One of the key advantages of this electronic training solution is it provided double duty service-- a full scale training course and as an interactive, on-the-job-reference tool for customer service agents. (The cost of providing real working phones is prohibitive.) Employees taking the training program can use the tool to practice as much as they need to and, after completing the material, take an online test which is scored and automatically stored in their HR/ file