Are you looking to become part of the digital age and join the visionaries of tomorrow?
Would you like to establish your own digital empire where your brand is founded on a contemporary business approach that prioritizes a nurturing work environment, high employee satisfaction, and exceptional customer care?
Naturally, good customer service and happy employees are interconnected; new business owners will easily see the strong connection between these important elements of running a business and will understand the broader connections between happy employees, better customer service, and increased customer satisfaction.
Needless to say, happy employees and good customer service go hand in hand; even young entrepreneurs will have come across the very well-established link between these fundamental areas of business management, and will have begun to suspect the wider links between satisfied employees, good customer service, and satisfied customers.
LinkedIn reports that ‘companies that engage their employees outpace their competitors by 2.5 times in revenue growth and have 40 per cent lower turnover’.
We know our stuff at Bonfire Training and we can help nurture these essential qualities of your company.
We offer eLearning in customer service through live and on-demand training, tailored for your virtual, in-person, or hybrid employee hub.
We are sure you will find that as you nurture your customer service center with essential soft skills, your company will create happy healthy employees who will have a strong sense of confidence when it comes to their customer service.
What is eLearning?
eLearning (electronic learning) is a type of online education, training, and
knowledge sharing that is conducted over the Internet.
In our digital age, it is essential for modern businesses to promote a work environment that prioritizes education and training alongside the progression of essential customer service, soft skills, and professional development.
The growth of eLearning has, as many of us know firsthand, been accelerated over recent years by the technological boom of COVID-19 which required incredibly swift technological advancements within companies globally.
This was not a smooth or easy ride for a lot of businesses, particularly those outside of the technology industry or companies that had grown with more traditional operational methods and frameworks.
Businesses needed to evolve and become technologically aware quickly, but without an online solution for all this new training and remote working this would have been impossible.
This is where eLearning took center stage in the context of business technology progression.
Since then, eLearning has become a more prevalent training option for employee and company progression.
Technological Trends in Customer Service eLearning
When we talk about eLearning and its relevance to customer service, we’re talking about technology. It can’t be ignored, particularly given how eLearning has become so prominent in the business world.
As companies embrace the wonders of technology so do their customer service operatives and in turn, their customers.
This is where customer service eLearning comes into its own, providing remote, easy to access support for customer service employees, to fully support their customers with all the new-fangled technology coming into the fray.
Modern Learning: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The top trend for customer service eLearning coincides with the top technological trend of our time, Artificial Intelligence.
Technology can be pretty scary when it’s new, and to be honest the jury’s still out on texting and Instagram, but AI’s role in the future certainly has its benefits.
The applications of Artificial Intelligence to eLearning may be infinite, and it is already making its presence felt in the discourse around new ways to learn in the field of education, development programs and pedagogical programs.
Regardless of whether eLearning is conducted remotely or in person, using AI in the eLearning process means more flexible, more intelligent and more customized learning, which translates into learners being able to improve at an accelerated rate.
One of the most recognizable examples of functional AI within an eLearning context is within the language learning app, Duolingo, which uses chatbots to provide students with natural conversation practice in the language they have decided to learn.
In this context, the chatbot, known affectionately as “Duo” is an AI generated device designed with eLearning specifically in mind.
These virtual tutors can help an organization’s educational initiatives by providing 24/7 support for learners, and assisting multiple students simultaneously. Ordinarily, this would have taken an entire team of educational professionals to accomplish.
We are all familiar with the “chatbot” function incorporated into many websites for initial troubleshooting and customer service interfacing.
It is not hard to imagine how we can then reverse the direction of such AI, which (in the form of Duo) is already being deployed in an outward-facing customer service environment in order to mutually benefit the ongoing learning of its new users, in this case new customer service employees.
Through something similar to a “chatbot” customer service eLearning can:
- Be personalized to each individual learner, adapting to their areas of strengths and weaknesses
- Provide motivational and supportive feedback;
- Analyze each individual’s performance for the benefit of the observers and managers.
With benefits being spread so widely, it’s not surprising that an increasing number of customer service eLearning programs are including AI features like these.
Microlearning: Moving Away From Interactive AI
Since we’re on the subject of the benefits of customer service eLearning it’s also prudent to mention the biggest one of them – cost.
As we learned with new work regimes in the last several years, resulting from COVID-19 online and remote working can be far cheaper in the long run and customer service eLearning is no exception.
Beyond the advantages of interactive and flexible new technologies, what makes customer service eLearning different is its online adaptability.
This means that large scale courses can be chopped up into much smaller chunks, which dramatically helps increase the ease and scope of learning on-the-job.
While onsite in-person training is highly effective, eLearning is a terrific alternative and gets high marks for efficacy and convenience.
When a training course is split into individual 20-minute, targeted micro modules, spread over a morning, they are much more palatable to those who prefer this option to a “classroom” environment.
Programs and courses can commonly include infographics, interactive ebooks, whiteboard animation, podcasts, articles, videos, short games, quizzes, or other interactive media to help engage learners in novel ways, promoting an inclusive working environment.
Mobile Learning: Learning From Anywhere and Everywhere.
In-person training has many advantages, but it isn’t for everyone.
This is where we know microlearning in customer service eLearning comes into its own. If we learned one thing in the last few years it’s that many of us prefer working from home, or being given the option for flexible working.
According to GSMA Intelligence, 83% of North Americans accessed the internet on a mobile device in 2021.
That number is only expected to grow as we move deeper into the mid 21st century and having an increased accessibility to customer service training through work phone or company links may increase your employees’ engagement with their roles and with progression opportunities.
By incorporating customer service eLearning, employees are able to access learning on a mobile device which, when combined with the digestible portions of the eLearning micro activities, may even see them completing their training prior to company deadlines on their commutes!
Ultimately this code of self-reliance and self-discipline might even enable an employee to feel inclined to make the time to accomplish learning and skill-building experiences – and to find ways to make room for upward career opportunities, the skills for which they can be directed towards via customer service eLearning technology.
To keep up with the current trends, it’s important to always be forward-thinking and recognize that the future lies in eLearning.