About Isuzu UTE
Isuzu UTE Australia was founded in 2008 and specializes in SUVs and diesel engines. Based in Brisbane, Queensland, the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation.
Andrew Greene, senior product analyst, talked to us about how he managed to create an engaging online training program for salespeople and service technicians at Isuzu Australia.
Before implementing TalentLMS, employees would only get onsite training. But, it didn’t seem to be enough. As a growing company, the only cost-effective way to offer additional training is through an online platform, according to Andrew.
But which platform? Andrew describes the thought process behind picking the right learning management system. And it all starts with understanding the end-users and their needs.
The challenge: Knowing your audience
Surely, logging into a training platform might be a natural thing for a tech-savvy millennial. But this is not necessarily the profile of a salesperson at a large automobile dealership.
Andrew admits that their employees vary: from the ones who live and breathe tech to those who are more old-school and less computer literate. That’s why one of his priorities was to find an easy-to-use platform.
Regardless of their familiarity with tech, employees, and particularly salespeople, are constantly busy at work. How easy is it to ask them to log into a platform from a computer or even their mobile phone and watch a course when they’re used to face-to-face communication? And do that while they have sales quotas to reach, too. Not that easy.
Andrew wanted to create training programs that wouldn’t add just another burden to people’s day-to-day.
“Salespeople have a very short attention span. We find that they’re doing a lot of things in the dealership at one time. And for them to sit down to an extremely long module, let’s say 15 or 20 minutes, they won’t do that.”
So, Andrew was on the lookout for an intuitive training platform that’d let him build digestible, engaging courses for his sales teams. That’s when he tried TalentLMS.
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Introducing TalentLMS: What changed?
After testing the platform internally, Andrew and his team decided to roll out a training program for salespeople first, and service technicians next. Finding a scalable training solution was critical.
”Because we have a fairly large dealership network we needed to have a system that was able to incorporate a large number of users. And it had to be cost-effective, too.”
Currently, more than 1,500 employees get their training through TalentLMS. And, according to Andrew, the transition to online training has been smooth.
”After employees complete a course, we send out a survey asking how they found that course, and if they could recommend any changes. Really, there’s been no recommendation as such on the platform. It’s been very positive.”
Employees are not just giving good feedback about the platform or training per se. They’re also expressing their satisfaction with the company. Andrew shares that they’re consistently getting 4.5 or 5 out of 5 when they run employee satisfaction surveys.
But the real impact of online training through TalentLMS shows on the job. Sales have increased and employees are more confident selling vehicles because they know the products better.
[Salespeople] feel now more in touch with the brand because they’re receiving this training on a regular basis. For us, it’s been very helpful.
ANDREW GREENE | SENIOR PRODUCT ANALYST
The result: An engaging learning experience for Isuzu salespeople
Rolling out an online training program to a non-tech audience for the first time can be challenging. Andrew shares how he’s using TalentLMS to achieve his training goal:
The right tools:
For Andrew, it’s a success that people, no matter whether they’re tech-savvy or not, have no issue using TalentLMS for their training. The only technical hiccup they’ve experienced? The common password mix-up here and there.
“That’s the level of support that we provide for them, nothing really more than that.”
Short, digestible modules:
To make sure that salespeople remain engaged, Andrew and his team built courses that last no longer than 10 minutes. And this is exactly what people needed, as an internal survey showed.
“We asked whether the 10-min modules were too long or too short. 93% [of employees] said that it was about right.”
Interactive content:
Besides length, the content itself matters, Andrew says. He’s experimenting with videos since they’re more eye-catching and is planning to add more of those in the future.
“We were also able to embed quizzes behind the videos and it was very well-received.”
Incentives:
Sometimes employees might need some motivation to complete their training, Andrew admits. Gamification features he’s found in TalentLMS have helped in this direction. For example, he shares how employees who complete a course on time get extra points for their sales excellence program.
Feedback and improvements:
Post-training surveys have helped Andrew gauge employees’ perceptions about courses. Then, he uses this feedback to adjust training and ensure it caters to employee and company needs.
After all, training should not be a box that you want to tick. For training to be meaningful, it needs to have a purpose. And for Andrew, this purpose, and his ultimate goal, is to keep his salespeople engaged, not enforce training on them.
