The challenge

During the COVID-19 outbreak, a leading gas and electric energy provider retailer moved its contact center to a virtual remote environment. But the company still needed to hire and train associates to serve customers with common issues including billing questions, account updates, and auto payment setup. Traditional in-person training simply wasn’t possible. Our client needed a new way to provide new hire and ongoing training virtually.

Our solution

As a long-term CX partner for contact center operations, the client was already using TTEC’s award-winning RealSkill training curriculum. It was a natural step to expand the relationship to the virtual learning version of RealSkill. Within two weeks we created a 100% immersive, virtual environment with special consideration paid to the unique ways people learn online. Much of the learning was transformed into an asynchronous, self-paced program featuring practice scenarios in digital sandboxes, followed by personalized coaching and development conducted online.

We stressed to the client that moving online wasn’t just about taking an interactive, instructor-led classroom training and turning it into a presentation-style webcast or worse, a nonengaging lecture. By using existing RealSkill modules and technology, we provided an effective virtual learning setup that included the following changes:

• Modules converted to activities like Demo and Do, Micro-Drills and Community Research
• Usual side-by-side or y-jacking with tenured associates was replaced by Voice of the Customer call-listening activities
• Live tool demos and role-plays were replaced by RealSkill scenarios and sandboxes

TTEC also collaborated with the client’s IT group to ensure that desktops deployed to the homes of learners had all the systems and applications required in the learning program. To make sure the training classes were ready to learn virtually, the team conducted operational readiness testing (ORTs) on PCs and internet connectivity for each learner prior to the start of training.

The results

In the move to a virtual contact center environment, the quality of training never wavered, thanks to the RealSkill asynchronous learning model. The client’s digital courses synced up well with TTEC’s At-Home RealSkill technology — including sandboxes and scenario training — to help provide the best learning experience wherever agents were sitting.