Call Center Training

Delta Design, my four-person instructional design team, was presented with a business scenario: SykkelParts, a fictional bicycle parts corporation, hired us to help them identify and address business gaps.

We designed both face-to-face training and eLearning solutions to improve the performance of their call center employees.

  • Audience: Corporate call center employees

  • Responsibilities: Instructional design; graphic design; project management (rotating role)

  • Tools used: Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft PowerPoint & Visio, Amazon Polly text-to-speech

Problem

SykkelParts approached us with a laundry list of problems, which ranged from poor sales to customer complaints. After conducting a gap analysis, we determined that the performance of the call center employees was the most appropriate issue for an instructional intervention.

Solution

After modeling the project management process, our team produced two key deliverables for SykkelParts:

  • A storyboard for an eLearning training module on call center policies

  • A facilitator's guide for face-to-face training on customer-service skills and procedures

Process

Gap Analysis

SykkelParts identified a wide range of challenges. Our first task was to categorize them in order to understand how we could help. We identified 5 problems, their implications, the company’s goals, and a timeline for addressing them.

Most importantly, we developed a vision for bridging each of the gaps through call center training.

Project Charter

We created a project charter to ensure that all of the stakeholders, from the design team to SykkelParts’ executives, were on the same page. The charter included the following:

  • List of stakeholders

  • Business case for an instructional design solution

  • Business objectives for the ID solution

  • Project deliverables, scope, and completion criteria

  • Project milestones and budget estimate

  • Risk analysis

  • Assumptions and constraints

Project Plan

With everyone onboard with the project charter, we developed a project plan that included:

  • Work breakdown structure (below)

  • Project schedule (Gantt chart)

  • Communication plan (directory, matrix, flowchart, and escalation process)

  • Project change request process

Instructional Design Document

I served as the project manager for this stage of the project. Under my supervision, we first conducted task and process analyses.

Then, we developed an instructional design document that included:

  • Project purpose

  • Audience analysis

  • Application of learning theories

  • Environmental analysis

  • Objectives, activities, and assessments

  • Internal quality evaluation plan

Facilitator Guide

With our learning objectives outlined and activities and assessments drafted, we moved on to instructional development. We created a detailed guide for instructors to follow when leading face-to-face training sessions, as well as an internal quality assurance rubric for facilitator guides.

Storyboard

We then advanced to our second deliverable, an eLearning storyboard for policy training. We accompanied this with a quality assurance rubric for eLearning storyboards

Results

Since SykkelParts isn’t a real company, we’ll never know how our instructional solutions worked out for them.

However, our instructor designated our team as “Best in the Class and Exemplary Status for All Project Management Phases.”

I am grateful for the skill, professionalism, and hard work of my teammates in Delta Design. We divided our work evenly and rotated the project manager role.

Please check out their portfolios if you’re in need of talented instructional designers: