This bank, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, needed to improve the performance of its online banking services team. Associates for this team were having difficulty navigating the online banking portal and troubleshooting customer issues; customer satisfaction scores were suffering as a result. We worked with this client to create a hands-on Simulated Learning solution that would raise the confidence and aptitude of team members, and in turn bring the customer experience up to the bank’s high standard of excellence.

Associates needed a “practice field” where they could build their proficiency with the bank’s systems, but a training environment did not exist. Our solution began with a Sandbox Learning project – a virtual contact center that replicated the live-customer production floor. Previously, associates couldn’t become skilled at resolving issues without using customers as test subjects; now they could hone their service skills in real-world scenarios, using exactly the same tools and technology that would be needed in an actual customer interaction. While our media development team was building the Sandbox for associates to role-play in, our instructional design experts used their analysis of the team’s live call recordings to produce customized Simulated Learning scenarios. Each scenario advanced in complexity as trainee skills improved, with an emphasis on call drivers that were either frequently addressed, or particularly complicated.

The new training scenarios were strategically integrated into the bank’s existing curriculum, so that learners could practice what they learned throughout the entire training program. Peers would rotate roles and play through the scenarios as both customer and associate, using the replicated systems in the Sandbox to process the mock customer requests. Team leads and Quality Support teams would score, monitor, and mentor each learner as their skills increased.

We deployed the entire solution in two of the bank’s contact centers as a pilot program. For the first thirty days out of training, new associates entered into a “nesting” phase where they are closely monitored during each customer contact. Associates who went through the new training solution achieved customer experience scores that were 25 percent higher than those who had not. Today, the team’s confidence is higher than ever. Associates who were previously intimidated by the complex systems and customer issues are more relaxed, and report a higher level of preparedness for the live customer environment.