Call Handing e-learning
Experience
A scenario-based e-learning concept project.
Audience: Anyone who answers calls in an office environment.
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My Roles: Needs Analysis, Instructional Design, Scenario Mapping, eLearning Development
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Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Adobe XD, Twine, Murf, Audacity
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The Problem
Observations have shown that there are some basic call handling issues when dealing with incoming calls. These issues are consistently repeated by office staff and can result in unresolved problems and reduced caller satisfaction.
The Solution
Analysis of the problems showed that certain call handing errors are repeated due to a lack of training, laziness, or an unwillingness to take responsibility for resolving a callers requests. By making some straightforward changes to the behaviour of people who handle incoming calls a significant improvement in caller satisfaction can be achieved. I decided to produce an interactive e-learning experience where learners embark on a realistic call but are forced to think about the choices they make as they progress. The impact and consequences of those choices on the caller are presented. By offering an experience rather than just 'telling and testing' call handlers get a better appreciation of the consequences of their actions and understand what good practice looks like.
Scenario Map
The initial part of the design was to model the call scenario. To do this I used the tool Twine to develop a map of all the decisions that can be taken and the possible routes through the scenario. It was key that choices should not be straightforward or obvious so that the learners are forced to think carefully about the choices they make. The scenario map was tested and enhanced before moving to the next phase and acted as a text-based storyboard for the project.
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Audio Assets
Audio was produced using the AI voice generator tool Murf.AI. Some time was taken to try and make the speech segments sound as natural as possible. To make the voice segments sound more authentically as if they were coming from a telephone, they were processed through a digital filter using the audio processing tool audacity.
Senario Map
Visual Mock-Up
A visual mock-up was produced in Adobe XD to reduce the development time in Articulate Storyline. A colour pallet was chosen to give a business feel to the presentation.
Visual Mock-up
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User Feedback and Observations
Feedback was collected by observing people working through the experience. It was notable that they fell into many of the behavioural traps set in the experience. This showed the experience was fulfilling the set goals and resulted in learning from making decisions similar to those they would make in real call scenarios. It also led to immediate self-reflection of their call handling practice. The interruption sequence seemed to invoke an emotional response in many of the learners which should mean they recall this when they encounter similar circumstances. The use of a synthesised voice did not cause any negativity and was not questioned.
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Future Development Improvements
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Data Entry: The data entry is somewhat crude; however, I was able to program storyline so that upper or lower-case letters could be accepted in any combination. An improvement would be to accept only one character per field, and to auto-tab between fields. Using JavaScript may provide a solution to overcome this limitation.
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Measuring Call pick-up time: Call Pick-up time was measured using the elapsed slide timer in Storyline. The problem with this timing method is that the experience cannot be re-run as going back to this slide does not reset the timer. A timer built around the timeline function would be more appropriate for this purpose.
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Layout and Graphics: The crispness of the graphical elements of the project could be upgraded. This is especially true of the interruption sequence. This would be made significantly stronger and more appealing by using a video animation.
My learning from the project
Executing this project has given me an invaluable insight and experience of the e-learning process. It has helped to clarify the value that can be added by digital experiences. In my view finding a solution that confronts potentially sceptical learners with poor behaviours that they regularly use is a powerful way of driving improvements. I can see how delivering this as an e-learning experience has a greater potential to result in behaviour change than the more traditional show and tell classroom approach that I have used before.