The challenge

It can be hard to trade in that trusty gas guzzler for a more efficient model or retire an aging furnace that still heats the house—sort of. That was the conundrum for a regional healthcare company that knew its stale training program was overdue for an upgrade.

The curriculum was decentralized, inconsistent and led to high attrition, particularly in the nesting phase. Reliant on traditional approaches like shadowing and side-by-side listening that had to be suspended due to social distancing, the program could not adapt to remote delivery.

The company lacked a knowledgebase and instead relied on a cumbersome content management platform that was difficult to access, navigate and search, contained broken links and PDF documents far too lengthy to be useful. The system went offline every 3-5 minutes and despite long AHTs, performance targets were achieved because those metrics were out of date, too.

Our solution

In collaboration with the clients’ cross-functional teams, TTEC designed a robust, agile, user-friendly knowledge management system. Homepages were customized for each line of business with content organized according to each LOB’s top call drivers. Unwieldy resource materials were boiled down to shorter, easy-to-digest documents. To ensure continuous improvement and searchability, knowledgebase utilization was analyzed on an ongoing basis and suggestions solicited from users via an integrated social collaboration tool.

TTEC’s Learning and Performance team redesigned the new-hire training curriculum for both remote and brick-and-mortar contact center associates, replacing an instructor-led program suited only for in-person delivery in a pre-pandemic era. All training content was centralized in a new learning management system (LMS) for easy access by trainers and new hires. Self-paced courses were limited to 10 minutes for optimum retention. To enhance engagement, the curriculum incorporated gamification activities and RealPlay, TTEC’s artificial intelligence-powered bot that role-plays in real time so learners can practice their skills and receive instant feedback and coaching.

The results

With improved new-hire training and a knowledgebase that associates not only used, but helped to refine, AHT dropped 7% in the first 90 days. Among new hires, satisfaction rates rose 7.5% in the first 12 weeks on the job and issue resolution rates (IRR) increased 6.17%. Attrition fell by 4%. The company projects $1 million in annual savings as a result of these improvements.

Even after TTEC increased key performance indicator (KPI) targets, the new program continuously exceeded those goals.

Going forward, TTEC will continue to refine the knowledge management system, LMS, and new-hire training with input from both associates and cross-functional teams.