CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING

Project: Minimizing Negative Customer Interactions

Role:  UX Designer, Instructional Designer, eLearning Development, and Visual Design.

Duration: 3 weeks

Overview

Front office employees at ClearBlue-Optical are great at providing excellent customer service to their patients. Before they have their first shift at the desk, they need training on the various interactions they'll face. Dealing with a variety of patients requires them to balance solving problems while accommodating different timelines, attitudes, and backgrounds. The goals for this training is to reduce confusion, reduce delayed service, increase efficiency, and prevent the loss of patients. I decided to use the scenario-based approach by Cathy Moore to create a series of story-driven exercises. They include common situations that employees are confronted with whenever they communicate with patients.  Based on my own experience working at this optical office, this project seeks to give new employees the ability to experience several scenarios before they encounter the real thing. 

Design Approach

From the beginning, I knew it needed to be an interactive experience since experience learning is more beneficial for retaining information. Rather than checking off a few boxes, BlueEye-Optical was more concerned with employees getting a realistic feel for different scenarios. They would have dedicated time in the back office for the training, so I started outlining a full desktop experience that employees could complete from their personal or work device.

Personas for "Minimizing Negative Customer Interactions" Project

Personas and user stories represent the needs of the users I am designing for. The user always comes first in all of my learning experience developments, so it's important to understand their points of view to construct the most successful learning experience. During the analysis of the user persona and user journeys the problem statements provided clarity about BlueEye-Optical goals and helped to identify constraints that prevent users from meeting those goals. 

Action Mapping and Research

I asked the owners of Blue-Eye Optical and management to identify what the employees can do to communicate more effectively with the patients. Then, we broke down each behavior and listed examples and strategies. This allowed for a scenario for every action that needed to be trained.

Storyboard & Script

Next, I wrote the text-based storyboard. It was important to use relatable scenarios with natural, conversational language, and a script that drew the learner in from the start. The script started off by showing them a busy day at the office and allowing the employee to imagine they are actually in the busy office. Using the action map, I came up with five scenarios, each of which includes a short description of situations that the employee would encounter, and three options. We identified feedback for each option, so employees were able to learn satisfying options and see the response impact from each option they select. I designed a fictional character called Donna to be the trainer, providing feedback and hints. Learners can choose “Ask Donna” to get help throughout the course if they need assistance navigating the course. 

Low Fidelity Prototype 

The low-fidelity mockup includes visual mockups of scenarios, scenes of the office, narration and sound design . The idea was to engage the learner through an introduction, with scenario prompts before each question. I sourced vector illustrations and used AdobeXD to create custom vector graphics like the arrows, buttons, and "Ask Donna" button and the general layout. By keeping a minimalist design to help learners focus on essential information, I was able to reduce unnecessary cognitive load, by choosing two colors, blue and white, as the primary colors. I picked a complementary orange button to draw attention to the navigation options and other important information. 

Usability Study

The research plan includes a usability study as the research method. This research method is ideal in the development stage of a project because it involves testing out designs with real, potential users. Usability studies were my primary, qualitative research methods because they allowed me to make direct and indirect observations based on the participants’ behavior and words.  

After launching the initial version of the mockup, I also collected feedback and improved items like color contrast and alignment accordingly.

Some of the feedback I received:


High Fidelity Prototypes 

Following the flow and notes on the visual storyboard, I created a prototype in AdobeXD. After studying the user research from the initial prototype, I made changes such as:

After completing all the changes, I tested the entire course by clicking every button to ensure its pathway on my laptop and mobile device.

Final Product

Since the prototype was completed and approved by the SMEs, management, and business owners, I continued to develop the rest. Then, I published the course and shared it with BlueEye Optical.

Minimizing Negative Customer Interactions

Please click on the image above to launch the project.

Evaluation

Please click on the image to the left to view the evaluation form. 

Results and Takeaways

The final product has been delivered to BlueEye-Optical Management and Owners, who provided feedback verbally. Overall, they think this scenario-based learning experience brings BlueEye-Optical employees through the communication process from the start of the project to the end, which is helpful for improving their communication skills. I hope to use my instructional design skills and eLearning development skillsets to work on my future projects that can help people learn in meaningful ways. 

Thank you!

Thank you for your time reviewing my work on the "Minimizing Negative Customer Interactions" Project. If you would like to see more or get in touch, my contact information is provided below.


Email: barrientoscaf@gmail.com

Website: www.christinafbarrientos.com

LinkedIn: Christina Barrientos, M.S.