My roles in this project:
- Instructional Designer (February 2022 – March 2022)
- Created training content
- Assisted with Shelf.io knowledgebase integration
- Worked with Strategy & Ops (S&O) to define processes
- Facilitator (March 2022)
- Facilitated a virtual 2-week training class of 30 for the Auto LOB
- Project Manager (April 2022 – May 2022)
- Met with stakeholders to assist with establishing processes and procedure
- Led a team off 6 instructional designers to complete the project
- Led a team of 12 offshore knowledge specialists by documenting processes using Figma wireframes
- Program Manager from May 2022 – November 2022, when the company dissolved
- Managed 4 direct reports tasked with maintaining the existing curriculum and creating new training as details become available
- Met with Vendors from Shelf and Genesys to continue tech integration progress
- Provided weekly governance call updates to the startups key leadership team
- Led the process to ramp down the project when the startup dissolved
This case study reviews the curriculum and knowledge solutions that were built for a Banking & Insurance Startup for the following LOBs:
- Retail Banking
- Auto/Home Insurance
- Mortgage
Business Conditions and Needs
Banking & Insurance Startup, a new company, approached TTEC with a daunting task: building a contact center from scratch. This challenge was intensified by the fact that key elements, such as the operational business model, Interactive Voice Assistance (IVA), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and various policies and procedures, were either incomplete or not started at all.
The Instructional Design (ID) team was given the demanding responsibilities of crafting Banking & Insurance Startup’s training curriculum outline, developing learning content, and setting up the company’s knowledge base (KB), all while policies and procedures were still in the drafting phase. This case study highlights how the Instructional Design team successfully navigated these seemingly insurmountable obstacles in content development.
For their pilot, known as Minimum Viable Product (MVP 1), Banking & Insurance Startup emphasized support for callers. They wanted to assist them in utilizing self-service options on the app and website, answering general questions, and aiding them in signing up for Banking & Insurance Startup’s primary offerings, such as Insurance and Mortgage.
The Banking line of business (LOB) was somewhat distinct, as Banking & Insurance Startup’s subject matter experts (SMEs) already had documentation regarding their policies and procedures. Additionally, the main CRM system, Savana, was already in place.
Given these factors, a decision was promptly made to construct the KB and training materials. For the Insurance segment, these were based on wireframes and use cases that were in the process of being developed by Banking & Insurance Startup’s User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designers. For the Banking segment, the materials were designed according to the documentation provided to the ID team. This approach ensured that the KB and the new hire onboarding training would effectively prepare trainees for their roles, equipping them with the essential resources to address inquiries from potential customers and existing members.
Solutions Overview
The Instructional Design (ID) team at TTEC took on the task of developing member support training for Banking & Insurance Startup across three key lines of business (LOBs), including retail banking, automotive and home insurance, and mortgage. This initiative was strategically designed to focus on the knowledge and training strategy, approach, and methodology, and was guided by collaboration with the client’s primary stakeholders to envision new training curricula and improved tools.
The comprehensive solutions provided to Banking & Insurance Startup aimed to achieve the following goals:
Establish Learning Curriculums for All Major LOBs: Each curriculum was designed to develop agent understanding of:
- Company’s history and background
- Customer personas targeted by Banking & Insurance Startup
- Daily work systems, including telephony and documentation systems
- Required call scripting when communicating with the company’s prospects or clients.
Create a Knowledge Base with Dual Purposes: This knowledge base contained content for agents and customers. Specific information included:
- Procedures for customers to use the company’s website and app
- Scripting for agents to interact with customers
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for both customer and agent reference
- System processes for Customer Resource Management (CRM) and telephony systems.
Throughout the development process, the ID team maintained regular contact with the company’s key stakeholders, allowing them to adjust goals and learning materials as needed. This ensured that the agents were fully prepared for the launch date and that all objectives were consistently implemented across the company and all LOBs. This collaborative and strategic approach was vital in shaping the new training systems to align with the specific needs and expectations of the Banking & Insurance Startup.
Design and Deployment
The Instructional Design (ID) team was tasked with creating educational content for Banking & Insurance Startup’s various Lines of Business (LOBs), including Home Insurance, Auto Insurance, Retail Banking, and Mortgage. Working closely with our partners, the team developed and implemented the following key solutions:
Knowledge Base in Shelf.io: This became the central reference point for the sales service team. Beyond training materials, we embedded knowledge articles within the training content as a “best practice” initiative, helping learners find up-to-date information easily.
Blended Learning Curriculum: The curriculum was both specific and universal, with tailored training paths for Insurance, Retail Banking, and Mortgage, as well as general courses for introductory content, soft skills, and mobile app information. It also addressed unique aspects of each business line.
Interactive Training Content Design: We focused on a blend of process review and interactive learning. This approach provided learners with comprehensive education and hands-on experience in a secure learning environment.
Learning Academy with Custom Paths: We housed all training modules in a learning academy, organizing them into specific learning paths. Learners were enrolled in courses relevant to their roles, ensuring targeted education.
Gamification and Badges: We added gamification and badges awarded upon completion to make training engaging. These features contributed to a positive learning experience and accurately reflected learners’ skills.
Soft Skill Modules: We designed content to enhance essential customer engagement skills such as rapport-building, listening, and communication. (This was the catalyst that led me to the Soft Skills Library project)
Maintenance Process for Content Updates: We introduced a streamlined process to manage updates or the creation of training materials, including a review and approval cycle. This ensured that only authorized personnel could make changes, fostering collaboration between Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and content managers and capturing valuable internal knowledge.
Use of Templates: We ensured consistent design across all learning materials by creating templates in advance. These templates also sped up the development, quality review, and SME review stages.
In summary, our team’s approach combined diverse learning strategies, technology, and collaboration with stakeholders to create a comprehensive, engaging, and efficient learning program for Banking & Insurance Startup. This multifaceted plan aimed to equip employees with the knowledge and skills they needed while enhancing the overall learning experience.
Design Tools/Technology
In our development of the content, we leveraged the following technology to develop various activities and content articles:
- Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Articulate Rise / Storyline
- Kahoot
- Zoom
- Litmos
- Shelf
- Figma
- Okta
- MS Dynamics 365
- Genesys Cloud
- Savana (Retail Banking Platform)
Challenges/Obstacles
System readiness:
Systems and training were developed side-by-side. However, system development often took longer than training development, creating gaps in the curriculum when it came time to train the Agents.
Solution:
Because of the nature of the development, IDs worked with Vendors and SMEs to outline system processes and update current processes that had been created.
If the system training was not ready at the time of training, upskilling trainings were held as soon as systems and processes were completed.
In addition, Agents were shifted to more of a Brand Ambassador role that allowed them to take initial calls while systems were still being developed.
No defined processes:
Throughout training development, defined processes were a challenge to get and, in some cases, did not exist at all.
This made it difficult to develop training and provide Agents with proper call flows to use when working with customers.
Solution:
IDs worked directly with vendors and SMEs to gather processes and, in some cases, assisted with the overall development of the processes to be used.
Difficulty understanding learning gaps:
Because this was a startup company, previous data was unavailable to assist with developing the curriculum for each LOB.
This made it difficult to understand the issues that Agents may be having when taking calls and to identify the effectiveness of the training after it was completed.
Solution:
Prior to launching to the public and after training was complete, Agents for each LOB participated in practice calls that were recorded and reviewed by both the client and the ID team during call listening sessions.
These call-listening sessions helped to identify gaps in learning that needed to be addressed and adjust training to fill those gaps.
In addition, this opened conversations about processes with the client.
Dual development:
The Banking & Insurance Startup’s UX team was building their mobile and web applications as the ID team tried to create knowledge articles. This made the development of self-service knowledge articles difficult due to a lack of readily available self-service documentation.
Solution:
The IDs learned to navigate Figma and traced the user experience paths to create self-service articles to train the Agents to assist the customers in navigating the app and website.
Learning to document the Figma steps ensured that the Agents had the knowledge and skills to discuss self-service with Members.
Measurable Benefits
Knowledge Usage Trends
Banking & Insurance Startup used Shelf.io for their knowledge base due to its integration with the Genesys Cloud telephony system. The Shelf KB offers an insights dashboard within their Admin space that allows the program managers and lead IDs to review data analytics relating to active users, content quality, search analytics, and tagged articles. We could view the top and lowest-rated articles, most used tags, and most active and least active Agents. This information ensures alignment between calls and coaching opportunities for Agents, improves training and delivery, and provides just-in-time insights to the client.
In a short amount of time, the IDs were able to create the following in Shelf:
- 25 libraries
- 873 content articles
- 460 Wiki pages
- 333 FAQs
- 54 Document uploads
- 20 Decision Trees
- 6 Videos
- 247 articles rated by Agents
- 313 feedback comments received from Agents
The libraries segment the different lines of business from one another to ensure that the Agents only receive information relevant to their call types. The Agents use the wiki pages to deliver concise and accurate information to callers. The Agents use the FAQs, which are also displayed on the website using an API. Updates to FAQs n Shelf are relayed in real-time to the website, ensuring that information is always accurate for Banking & Insurance Startup’s self-service customers. IDs can upload documents such as home and auto policies so that Agents can review the various sections during training and in production. review the various sections during training and in production. videos are uploaded to demonstrate the usage of the app.
All the various ways Agents can use Shelf articles were designed to ensure they always have the most relevant articles to provide information and assistance to Banking & Insurance Startup customers.
Attrition Rate
Each wave of product training graduated substantially more FTEs than projected. Overall, there were only 15 separations throughout product training and nesting. This was impressive since the overall attrition across other programs for 2022 was 20.09%.
Separations:
- 3 – Auto Insurance
- 8 – Home Insurance
- 4 – Online Banking
