Bridging Knowledge Gaps with Learning Experience

Corporate training has gained a bad reputation for being boring, slow, and ineffective. The Brooks Group Learning eXperience (LX) team has the power to change this paradigm.

This type of instructional design aims to develop applicable learning solutions that deliver content to learners in a format that engages them. Organizations can use it to disseminate many different types of information to their workforce in an appealing and memorable way while also achieving greater visibility into individual and group comprehension.  

Creating a Multimedia Learning Experience 

The Brooks Group LX team is focused on driving engagement among learners. In contrast to typical instruction methods that rely on long paragraphs of dry text to deliver information, programs founded in instructional design employ a multimedia approach to foster organic interest in the subject matter. Some common forms of content that can be used to do this include: 

• Videos 

• E-zines 

• Quizzes and tests 

• Podcasts 

• Infographics 

• Games 

• Interactive activities 

All of these mediums can be incorporated into customized courses that address company-specific learning objectives. They can also be used to build blended learning experiences that bring digital elements into traditional on-site instructional settings. Organizations can even create self-paced microlearning modules that give learners a few minutes of compressed instruction whenever they have the time to spare – an increasingly popular educational model in today’s busy world. 

Quantifying Learning Through Analytics 

Good instructional design offers more than a superior learning experience - it also provides full transparency into learners' comprehension and achievements.  

Companies can access detailed statistical reports that reveal how many employees completed their assigned tasks, as well as how well they performed both on their own and compared to their peers. These figures can help managers identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members and their crew as a whole.

With this information, leadership can build teams with a diverse array of competencies for optimal performance. They can also assign additional review and training exercises to help shore up specific employees’ weakest knowledge areas.  

Instruction for All Stages of Professional Life 

Learning experiences can be used to create e-learning initiatives to meet a number of organizational goals, including: 

• Onboarding. New employees need significant learning to properly orient themselves in their new role. Learning experience allows you to design courses that deliver the necessary information in an expedient and easily digestible manner, creating a smoother onboarding experience that can easily be deployed in onboarding training programs even for virtual hires. 

• Role-based training. Learning experience can be utilized for creating training programs to help hone both hard and soft skills. With fast-paced dynamic courses available to teach sales skills, customer service strategies, market knowledge, and more, your team will always have access to the latest information needed to drive better performance.  

• Refresher training. Quick interactive course modules allow learners to easily review information they already know. Completing this training refreshes their knowledge, delivers updated information to keep them abreast of changes in the field, and provides documented proof of their competency. 

Learning experience design can also be employed to complement new product launches by giving users an easy interactive way to learn what the product can do and how to use it.  

Imagining A Better Future for Corporate Training

Learning experience design is revolutionizing the process of knowledge acquisition and retention in corporate settings. With more engaging courses tailored to busy modern learners, account managers and other professionals have a fun and easy way to fill in the gaps in their knowledge base and improve their performance on the job.

The Brooks Group is a leading healthcare consulting firm offering custom instructional design services through our Learning eXperience division. Contact us today to have our design experts design fun and engaging learning experiences for your workforce.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/bridging-knowledge-gaps-with-learning-experience/

Using Voice of the Customer Research to Evaluate Your Account Managers

With all the tasks on a typical account manager's plate, it is easy to forget that account management is a customer service position at its core.

Voice of the Customer (VOC) market research by The Brooks Group is a customer-driven feedback process that enables account managers to be evaluated on a customized set of metrics approved by the Organization’s leadership team relative to their competitors. The Brooks Group routinely conducts this research as part of our healthcare management consulting offerings. Our findings have revealed healthcare organizations’ priorities with regards to the account managers who serve them and underscored the importance of giving weight to the customer feedback during the AM evaluation process.  

Why Consult the Customer? 

Every account manager has room for improvement in some areas. However, many struggle to identify their weaknesses without additional insight from external observers. Feedback is essential for this purpose, and customer feedback is especially useful. 

Account Managers' ultimate responsibility is to their customers. To maintain and grow their accounts, they must first satisfy those customers' needs. A customer's evaluation of an AM not only reflects how well that AM is doing now, but also outlines some ways they could secure more business from that account or improve their services when targeting similar accounts in the future. Consistent feedback can even prompt changes on an organizational level by shedding light on what customers really want from their account managers.  

Top Customer Priorities 

Our 2021 VOC surveys revealed some of the most valued measures of account manager success according to representatives of real healthcare organizations. Respondents are typically asked to rank AMs or other field-facing employees on a custom set of metrics approved by leadership. Some of these measures can include:

1. Acts with the highest standards of ethics and integrity (you trust him/her to do the right thing). 

2. Responds quickly to your requests or concerns. 

3. Demonstrates that he/she is a true advocate for your patients' needs. 

All of these measures were cited as areas that deserved significant investment to help AMs improve.  

Some other general areas of focus in the rest of the listed measures included: 

• Knowledge of new developments and trends within the industry. 

• Proactive services that anticipate customers' needs before they are brought up. 

• The ability to provide targeted suggestions based on customers' goals and patients' needs. 

How to Learn from Your Customers 

Your customers likely have a lot to say about your account managers’ services, but they may not be ready or willing to divulge their feedback face-to-face. Many people find it difficult to give a meaningful answer while on the spot, especially if what they want to say is not entirely positive.  

Instead, it is often more useful to have an independent third party distribute a survey that allows them to provide that feedback in written form. This allows your customers to take their time crafting a thorough response. It also gives them the added benefit of anonymity due to response aggregation. In short, it is the best way to ensure that the feedback you get is detailed, truthful, and applicable to your organization's goals. 

Get the Ultimate Customer Insight with the Brooks Group 

VOC research adds an invaluable dimension to your account manager evaluation process. By finding out what your customers really think about each of your account managers' services, you can evaluate their performance from a new perspective and discover new pathways to improving customer satisfaction.  It also helps companies in planning the right account management training for AM's that will help close the identified skill gap.

The Brooks Group is a leading provider of healthcare executive services including healthcare market research, onboarding training for new employees, and healthcare executive leadership training. Our VOC surveys have given many healthcare firms unparalleled insight into their account management teams' performance using custom metrics approved by the highest-ranking executives.

Contact us today to learn more about our VOC research and how we can help you better align your organization’s account management programs with the needs of real-world customers.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/using-voice-of-the-customer-research-to-evaluate-your-account-managers/