Our client engaged us to develop a training to improve the performance of its collection associates. An eLearning solution was a perfect fit for this project, for several reasons:

• Associates work in many different locations.
• Turnover is high, so there is a sustained demand for new hire training.
• Many of the concepts are basic call etiquette and techniques, which can be depicted with audio simulations.

SweetRush’s mandate was to make the training effective and engaging. We started by identifying best practices used by the top performers among the collection associates. These best practices were analyzed and refined, and became the basis of the training. (You can read more about the instructional design approach and results for this project in the Inspired Instructional Design section.)

Since associates spend the large part of their day on the phone, we decided audio simulations would be the best mechanism for demonstrating the concepts of effective collections interactions. In the audio simulations, a few characters are introduced: Mark and Cindy, who are collections associates, and James and Susan, who are customers with overdue payments – and attitude. Through a series of simulated calls, associates listen to examples of effective and ineffective interactions. Following each call, a script screen breaks down each line of the conversation and introduces concepts such as using the required greeting, bridging, probing, proposing a solution and verifying information.

A full call was recorded for each simulation; the audio was then compressed and saved in smaller chunks in order to leverage the same call to explain concepts for opening the call, during the call and closing the call. Learners become familiar and comfortable with the characters during the course of the two-hour training.

Click on the button below for a brief sample audio simulation from this project.

The use of audio simulations is a relatively simple, inexpensive and yet effective means of communicating behavior concepts, especially when depicting soft skills. At SweetRush we have our own audio studio and do our own editing. We also record and process audio in multiple languages.