Bell Atlantic Electronic Coach

Purpose

In Bell Atlantic, a new Trouble Resolution Workstation System was deployed to business centers that support the provisioning and maintenance of the Residential/Small Business Voice Messaging System product. A need was identified for transitional, detail and process support for new helpline customer care associates unfamiliar with Voice Messaging System products and workflows associated with their job duties.

Bell Atlantic's Process Re-engineering and Assurance asked Training, Education and Development to create a electronic support tool for the associates and supervisors at the call center which handles 100% of the voice messaging helpline calls for New York state. The Alternative Learning Technologies team recommended a revolutionary training tool, an Electronic Coach (EC), which had never been used in the telecommunications industry. By integrating knowledge and learning experiences within the system:

• Bell Atlantic would:
  • provide relevant support information to associates at the moment of need,
  • improve performance and productivity,
  • reduce defective work and
  • improve quality customer service.
• Training, Education and Development would:
  • make use of creative new technologies to drive training from a centralized location to the desktop,
  • provide just-in-time training and
  • improve development productivity using a systematic approach.
• Bell Atlantic's residential and small business Voice Messaging System customers would experience:
  • a decrease in customer inquiry wait time,
  • improved customer service,
  • consistent and up-to-date information and
  • a decrease in the length of call.

A decision was made to accept the challenge to start at ground zero, be innovative and develop a Bell Atlantic performance support product from beginning to end. Baydon Solutions' development tool, Assistware®, would be used. The goal for the project was to have content support on-line within three months and context sensitive support provided six months later. Evaluations and an impact analyses would be completed within the year.

Solution

A rapid and systematic development plan was implemented. The plan included technical testing and formative and summative evaluations. An impact analysis would be reported.

A needs analysis was conducted and performance deficiency data was gathered from service level and activity reports and monitoring sheets. The EC had to:

• empower associates to require less supervisory and peer coaching and to be proactive in their own learning while performing their jobs,
• reduce the learning curve to meet department service level objectives,
• bridge the performance gap between novice and experienced users while providing support for the intermittent user,
• reduce system training time of five days,
• re-focus the classroom training from systems input subjects to more customer focused issues and
• provide easy on-going maintenance capability.

Brainstorming sessions were held by the entire team to identify the EC objectives, requirements and content. While this was going on, a technical feasibility test of the call center's hardware platform was performed.

Content was developed, programming was completed and successful alpha and beta tests were conducted. After being shown how to use the EC, associates started using the on-line content support help. In six months, context sensitivity support was implemented. EC training for associates, supervisors and trainers were conducted. All paper notes in the associates' workstations were eliminated and associates were encouraged to use the EC for support in performing their job functions. Assistware's® on-line user feedback and tracking mechanisms were activated.

One month after deployment, an initial evaluation was conducted and results showed that the coach was easy to use and associates were adjusting to the new culture. Associate on-line feedback and tracking were analyzed. Software system training took place for newly hired associates and training time was reduced from five days to three days.

Obstacles faced included:

• a new system and operating environment,
• new methods and procedures,
• resource availability and
• new EC development software.

Follow-up evaluations were conducted and an impact analysis was published. Results are summarized below.

Figure 1

The EC provides the associate with Context Sensitive Performance Support. This is achieved when the associate moves the Electronic Coach Entry Point Manager (Bubble), as in figure 1, over the software application.

Figure 2

The associate then drops the bubble onto the exact section or area of the software application for which s/he requires support (e.g. Field, Button or Screen Level Support). As can be seen in figure 2, instantaneous context sensitive support is provided in the Assistware® full viewer screen.

The EC has embedded functionality and features. The standard functions designed for this application appear on all support screens are:

• Table of Contents (TOC)
• Back
• Forward
• Glossary
• Find
• Feedback
• Bookmark
• Exit

Screen Overviews were designed to help a new associate understand the purpose of the software application screen s/he is viewing. After reviewing the EC support, the associate goes right back to where s/he was in an application without exiting out of the software application.

The associate also has the option of selecting one of the Hypertext Links that have been built within the EC support screen to get additional information relative to where s/he is in the application. This design is standard throughout all EC support screens under a Related Topics Section or within the performance support content.

Figure 3

To learn how to perform a particular job function outside the constraints of the software application, the associate can access a Workflow Process, as shown in figure 3. The workflow process is designed in a concise easy-to-read Step-Action format.

Incorporated into the workflow are standard Graphics. For example, a post-it note graphic identifies important information that should be read. Support specific to a geographical region is identified using a graphic of that region (e.g. NY State). A simple graphic flowchart is presented next to the title of the workflow to identify it as a workflow.

Figure 4

As seen in figure 4, an Application Procedure differs from a workflow process in that it explains how to perform a software procedure within the software application. Again, Step-Action format is used.

Figure 5

In figure 5, Product Information, designed in the form of a flow chart, is used by an associate while talking on the telephone with a customer who is having difficulty using a particular product.

Other performance support materials built into the EC include Reference Materials, Trouble Shooting Scenarios and Scripts. All support materials have been designed to fit the needs of the associate and to satisfy the business performance issues.

Prior State

Customer care associates had five days of application training and were given a hard copy of a user guide. For support, associates depended on their own personal paper notes and coaching from their peers and supervisors. There was no electronic performance support solution in place.

User Profile

The customer care associate is PC literate, has customer service and problem solving skills experience, and possesses a high school or high school equivalency diploma.

Results

Initial deployment, providing associates with access to the same up-to-date information at the time of need, consisted of:

• 375 content support topics,
• 100 screen and field context sensitive support topics and
• 2375 hypertext links.

Support topics included:

• workflow processes,
• reference material,
• flow charts,
• product information and
• troubleshooting scripts.

As a result of associate on-line feedback:

• 75 support topics and
• 125 hypertext links were added to the EC.

Turnaround time for this maintenance was within a very short time frame.

Impact analysis results

Methodology:

1. The quantitative analysis was broken down into two parts:
• Two control groups, Pre-EC and Post-EC, were compared during weeks 4-7 on-the-job for the average number of calls handled, the average length of call and learning curve. Data was gathered from the Tele Professional Agent Activity Reports.
• Bell Atlantic Product Support Help Desk Activity Network Summary and Performance Report Card data for all associates for four weeks were averaged and analyzed concerning service level, number of calls handled, number of calls abandoned and length of call.
2. Qualitative analyses included initial and follow-up evaluations using questionnaire and interview techniques. These evaluations were sent to all supervisors and associates and realized a 100% return rate. Questions were mapped directly to the EC objectives. A 140 random sampling of CCA supervisor monitoring files was reviewed.

Key Findings

1. Quantitative key findings were:

• the average number of calls handled increased by 22.2%,
• the average length of call decreased by 15.2%,
• service level improved by 10.2% and
• the number of abandoned calls reduced by 23.8%.

  The learning curve to meet service level objectives was reduced by 50% and software training time was reduced by 40%, enabling the trainer to spend more time on customer focused issues.

2. Qualitative findings included agreement by:

• 86% of the supervisors and 62 % of the associates that the EC supported the associates' needs in performing their jobs.
• 75% of the supervisors and over half of the associates strongly that the EC delivered accurate information for determining a customer's problem.
• 86% of the supervisors and 50% of the associates that interruptions for coaching were reduced.

  The supervisors' monitoring files indicated that the associates were able to maintain the same "standards" and "quality" while significantly improving performance and productivity.