Customer Service Recovery
Overview
This is an eLearning concept project designed and developed to help restaurant workers engage in effective customer service recovery techniques. At the end of the course, the learners test their knowledge by engaging in a real-life, low-risk scenario, ultimately learning what actions lead to service recovery and positive customer reviews.
Audience: New & existing employees at a sub shop
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, Action Mapping (Needs Analysis), Storyboarding, Visual Design, eLearning Development
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Rise 360, Canva, Google Suite
Highlights: Custom sorting activity, Complex branching scenario, Built-in strategic feedback
The Problem
I was approached by a sub shop owner experiencing a decline in his customer rating score. Based on the comments of the poor reviews, he deciphered that his employees had not been handling upset customers properly. We did further analysis and found that customers were upset after experiencing a service failure. They were more upset about how the failure was handled than the actual failure itself since mistakes are common in fast-paced businesses such as the popular sub shop. After interviewing the employees, I found that it wasn’t their attitudes that needed shifting. The young inexperienced employees had no idea what to do once a service failure occurred. They had no knowledge of service recovery techniques.
The Solution
I suggested to the client that we train the employees on service recovery techniques. I offered to design and develop an eLearn because the owner mentioned the difficulty of getting his entire staff together at once since they worked on staggered shifts.
My Process
Action Map
I used an action map with the client to analyze the situation and to understand the gaps that I needed to fill. This led to the development of the new service recovery technique cleverly presented as H.A.M. I chose to use a mnemonic because it can help employees in a fast-paced environment mentally walk through the steps at times when they may be flustered and struggling with a situation.
Storyboard
Based on my analysis, I made informed decisions to design the best possible learning experience. My storyboard was created in Google Slides using my own custom template. The template includes a course outline for referencing that details the course objective, audience, format, tools, and each section's goals and instructional techniques. The storyboarding slides include the section title and purpose, on-screen text and media, scenario mapping, audio narration scripting, visual instructions/development notes, client and/or SME comments, and development status updates.
Full Development
Rise 360 Lessons
I created sections and lessons based on my outline. Next, I added aesthetically pleasing and interactive content to each lesson. I customized the course theme and restricted navigation to prevent learners from freely navigating the course since each step of the H.A.M. protocol builds on each other.
Custom Storyline Drag & Drop Block
I created an activity where learners sort apologies as good or bad and earn stars for each correct choice to reinforce the impact that service recovery has on customer reviews.
I used the freeform feature to create a drag-and-drop interaction. When learners make a correct choice, the apology disappears, a star is filled in, and a new apology animates onto the screen. To achieve this, I made custom states, adjusted the freeform settings, added animation, & created triggers. When learners make an incorrect choice, a custom layer appears providing strategic feedback and the opportunity to try again.
The incorrect choice interaction caused some problems that needed troubleshooting. Since I created my own custom feedback for each choice instead of using the standard freeform feedback, it challenged the built-in freeform functionality. After the learner was prompted to try again, the original apology and a new apology would appear in error. I wanted to resolve this issue so that only one apology would be shown at a time. To do so, I tried multiple methods until I found a solution. The resolution was to use separate slides for each question instead of using one slide with all assets and relying on the freeform "reveal drag items one at a time" feature to work with my complex interactions.
Branching Scenario Block
I created a real-life situation where learners need to use their service recovery skills to turn things around for upset customers. In order for learners to experience the real consequences of their decisions, I chose not to use the built-in try again feature and created a complex branching scenario instead. When learners make the wrong choice, they get feedback via the customer's response and they're taken to a slide that provides coaching before being given the opportunity to try again. Depending on the severity of the impact of the learner's choice, they are prompted to try again with the same customer or will have to start over with a new customer.
