Hewlett-Packard Call Agent Performance-Centered Design
Closing the Gap Between Training & Working

Performance-Centered Design (PCD) Competition 2001 Entry

Hewlett-Packard's North American Consumer Business Organization needed to design a training and support application tailored to the specific needs of call center agents. To test the design of the new application, a pilot program was constructed to compare the existing training to the new EPSS application. Two new product introductions with the same introduction dates were used for the pilot. One product was a digital camera and the other a Deskjet printer. For each product, 10% of the agent population was randomly chosen to participate in the EPSS program. The remaining 90% of the agents were given the traditional CBT or instructor-led training program, with no design changes.

It’s important to note that the experimental group received no product training, they only received a short demonstration, a password to the EPSS system, and 20 minutes of unstructured system play time. Yet on the job they significantly outperformed their peer group, which received the standard training program. This data is available in the results section.

To create this performance:

• The architecture was built from scratch, ignoring all previous training designs and constraints.

• The interface was designed from agent focus group sessions and observation of agent behaviors.

HP's web SOURCE utilizes the power and flexibility of the Internet to access and seamlessly deliver several types of technical data and instructional material to agents as they help customers identify and solve problems with their HP products. The structural components of web SOURCE include:

• EASE OF NAVIGATION & INDEXES (web GUIDE & web INDEX): 3-clicks to anywhere from anywhere!  With flexible navigation across all web SOURCE components, this flat navigation was a key contributor to the dramatic decrease in call lengths. Includes categorical and alphabetical training documents for products, desktop tools, workflow processes, foundational technologies and new employees.
• ONLINE ALERT MESSAGES (web FLASH): Daily alerts, best practices, and critical issues messaging feature. Quick, flexible online communication from HP to call center agents.
• TOP ISSUES: Categorical and product-specific technical support documentation for top issues.
• QUICK REFERENCE (web CARD): Product features, specifications, warranties, upgrades and accessory & supply information. This "cheat sheet" replaced written sticky notes and other agent-created specification documents - designed solely from agent requests and is the TOP HIT job aid.
• ONLINE LABS & ACTIVITIES: Online labs are accessible at all times and respond with scoring and tutoring information.
• REUSABLE LEARNING OBJECTS: Meta-tagged, instructional material

EASE OF NAVIGATION & INDEXES

Web SOURCE has five key navigation components:

1. The web SOURCE entry
2. The Categories menu
3. The Banner menu
4. The web GUIDE
5. The web INDEX

1. The web SOURCE entry: At HP's web SOURCE entry, agents may choose to access several types of information from the Categories menu based on the type of task they must accomplish. These choices include:

1. the type of product they support (such as printers, PCs, scanners, bundled products, etc.), auxiliary products (such as bundled products, services), or supplies (such as media, cartridges)
2. workflow processes
3. training for agent desktop tools, new agent employees, and foundational technologies
4. alert messages

HP's web SOURCE entry: the Category menu options

2. Categories menu: Once an agent has entered HP's web SOURCE site, the Categories menu offers additional support and training options based on navigational destination. The Categories menu is divided into three levels of granularity, allowing agents to choose the most appropriate type of training or support information. The three levels of Categories menu navigation include:

1. global options - from any page anywhere in HP's web SOURCE, agents have access to the Categories menu global options and can move from one option to another at any time
2. category-specific options - this portion of the Categories menu displays the training or support options available to agents only after they have chosen a category from the global options. These options pertain only to the category as a whole and are not product-specific. In this example, the "top issues" option is related to all Pavilion PCs. The "top issues" option may expand when more information is needed to identify or target relevant top issues - such as "Internet" issues for Pavilion PCs.
3. product-specific options - this portion of the Categories menu displays all product-specific options available to agents only after they have chosen a specific product/model number (see training & support options menu detail below). In this example, the "top issues" option is related only to a specific Pavilion PC model number. The "top issues" option may expand when more information is needed to identify or target relevant top issues - such as "Internet" issues for the HP Pavilion PC 7870.

3. The Banner menu - The Banner menu is accessible from any page anywhere within HP's web SOURCE. This menu provides links to:

1. HP's web SOURCE home page
2. the HP Customer Care web site
3. an application that allows agents to find top issues by entering the specific product information themselves
4. search access for the technical documentation database
5. a feedback form that allows many different types of feedback to be given (such as tool, content, hyperlink, satisfaction, suggestions, general experience feedback, etc.) and routed to the appropriate department

The Banner menu detail

4. web GUIDE - After entering HP's web SOURCE by choosing a product category from the home page agents:

1. see the most recent alert messages that are relevant to that product category - by clicking on the title the agent can view the alert message and link to other documentation that supports the alert message
2. are prompted to choose a product series
3. are prompted to choose a specific model from the chosen series - when the model number is in bold text, both online troubleshooting and training material is available for that model (see web GUIDE detail below), all other models have online troubleshooting documentation available

web GUIDE details

5. The web INDEX - The web INDEX provides both categorical and alphabetical listings of all available online training topics. These targeted topics are stored as reusable learning objects in a central repository. They are designed to allow technical support agents to easily read and comprehend the information very quickly - even while helping a customer solve a problem.

The workflow process of creating online messages is captured in this feature and is inherent in the user interface. As an author - or any other "role" - the user can simply choose from the available tasks in the left menu and resume work at the next required step in the workflow process.

The "top issues" feature allows agents to immediately access the product issues customers most often contact HP about, at both:

• the product category level (printers, scanners, PCs, etc.)
• the product model level (hp deskjet 990c, hp scanjet 7400, hp pavilion pc 6835, etc.)

Product features, specifications, warranties, upgrades and accessory & supply information. This "cheat sheet" replaced written sticky notes and other agent-created specification documents - designed solely from agent requests and is the TOP HIT job aid on HP's web SOURCE.

On-line labs are structured like open book tests. Instead of testing the agents on their memorization of material, the labs respond to agents and demonstrate how to navigate to the correct information on the system. We are seeking to enforce agent's ability to quickly and consistently find the most appropriate information to identify and solve customer problems.

• a central repository with meta-tagged learning objects
• product information databases

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