Part 1: Project Scope

Title: Customer Service for Upset Members

What is the scope of the project (lesson, module, course, program)? The project would be a module for a health insurance company for customer service representatives.

What will you design, which part(s) do you intend to develop? I will design a module with some interactive activities. I plan on developing 2 out of the 3 activities. In one of the activities, the learner will have to determine if the tone of a statement is positive or negative. In another activity, the learner will have to sequence de-escalation strategies in the correct order. Finally, there would be a simulation of handling a call from an upset customer. I would like to develop all three but am not sure if I will have the technical capabilities.

Part 2: Background

Problem Statement/Identified Performance Gap: Members are upset over the price increase in their prescriptions. Some members have canceled their current health insurance and switched to another provider.

Project Objectives (strategic/organizational): This e-learning project is needed to increase retention of members and increase one call resolutions.

Target Audience: The audience for this e-learning course would be for new customer service representatives.

Learning Objectives (participant): remember to use measurable objectives – refer to lesson 3. Learners will be able to identify the correct tone, apply escalation strategies to resolve issues, explain solutions and alternatives, and use appropriate tone.

Outcomes Assessment (measurement of strategic and learning objectives): In one activity, the learner has to determine if tone is appropriate or inappropriate. The learner would have to get a a certain percentage of his answers correct before moving on to the next section. CFP would be used in the design of the questions. In the activity that teaches the learner to use de-escalation strategies (listen, agree, empathy, and offer a solution), they have to determine which stage that statement would correspond to. As an indicator of learning, a certain percentage 90% would have to be achieve by learners. In the simulation, learners could only give 1 wrong response before repeating the activity. The effectiveness of the training would be measured by listening to customer service representative calls. Was the appropriate tone used? Did the rep follow the steps for de-escalation? The employer could give surveys to the members to measure their satisfaction. Also, the company could measure the amount of members who canceled their membership. The company could also measure the amount of people who called back for the same issue.

Part 3: Design Approach

Format: The format of the course will be interactive, asynchronous self paced.

Explanation of Format Choice: The asynchronous format is appropriate because it is a common task that all service representatives would experience. Interactivity was chosen because behavior changes will require practice, learners are diverse in their ability to understand content, and the content is complex to understand.

Flow/Sequence of Lesson/Module/Course/Program: The design would be set up as story telling and role play. The leaner has a human like host who acts as their trainer through the module. This uses the embodiment principle. In the story, the main character is customer service representative who experiences a call with a frustrated customer. In this example, the representative doesn’t know how to handle the customer and the customer decides that he doesn’t want that insurance anymore. The learner is given a counter example to show how poor performance is effecting the customer. Also, it shows how this situation is stressful for the representative. This is to set the context. There is a presentation on tone. Then, there is an activity where the leaner has to categorize the tone of statements. After that there is a presentation on de-escalation strategies. Then, there is an interactive activity where they have to put statements in the correct sequence and category. There is simulation where someone listens to a call and the learner must be the correct responses in a role play situation. There is intrinsic feedback along the way.

Technologies/Approaches: LMS and authoring tool will be used.

Acquisition of Learner Needs/Interest Information: Leaner needs would be addressed as each activity was adjust responses and questions according to the answers that the learner provides. In some cases, additional information is offered. The level of interest would be measured by requiring learners to click on segments before they can move on.

Team: The ideal team would consist of a subject matter expect, recent learners, untrained learners, and management. I would be responsible for designing the content and delivery.

Part 4: Implementation

Context (where, when, how): The course will be offered online for the company system. It would be assigned to new hires. The new hires would take the course on their computer or mobile device.

Approval/Organizational Buy-In: Approval has already been given.

Time/Budget Constraints: The time is based on development and feedback times and will vary. The budget should include interactivity.

Resources Needed/Available: I would need access to current learning materials on the topic and there needs to be an lms.

Relevant Organizational Considerations: There would need to be corporate level officials who can approve the material upon development. I would need to see some approved examples of what the company expected representatives to say.

Technical Support Expectations/Plan: There needs to be technical support for learners who cannot sign into the lms. There needs to be technical support in case of server issues. The company will have to provide the technical support.