During exploratory conversations, the client emphasized that confronting angry guests was one of the most challenging aspects of running a hotel. Not only is it a draining and demotivating experience for receptionists and other hotel employees, but it also leads to unhappy guests and subsequent bad reviews.
Through a series of focused conversations, we worked to refine the problem. The focus was initially on the situations that often lead to tensions; we concluded that many of those, such as intermittent internet and lack of hot water, are infrastructural problems that require maintenance solutions. The hotel already had action plans to deal with these issues.
We therefore shifted our focus to the receptionists and what was preferable for them to do when conflict-inducing situations occurred. Through conversations with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), we confirmed that some receptionists are better prepared to successfully deal with these situations. We discovered what makes them different is their use of conflict de-escalation techniques. These require a set of skills that receptionists do not necessarily learn during their standard training. Those who possess these skills often develop them through years of experience on the job.
We then arrived at a performance problem that could be addressed with a training solution. Receptionists often don’t have the necessary skills to de-escalate conflict situations with guests.
I used Action Mapping to help SMEs define an overall goal for the training, and to identify high priority actions that receptionists should take to de-escalate conflict situations.
We focused on decreasing tense interactions with guests and increasing positive interactions. The client also agreed to implement a more robust business goal to measure the success of the training based on guest reviews.
Action mapping also helped us identify five high priority actions that would have the most impact on the goal. Although there are many best practices on conflict de-escalation, the SMEs and I kept our focus on the particular context of their hotel, the conflict-inducing situations that most commonly occur, and the actions that are realistic to implement.
At this stage it had become clear that receptionists needed opportunities to practice making decisions in conflict-inducing situations, but without the risks involved in the real-life context.
I proposed a scenario-based eLearning training to allow receptionists to practice making the same choices they have to make in their jobs and to explore the consequences. I focused both on encouraging actions with the greatest impact on conflict de-escalation, and on discouraging the use of actions leading to the most common errors.
The client also wanted a solution that tracked completions, and was easy to host and update in the future. I proposed developing the eLearning training using Articulate Rise 360 for simpler hosting and a more fluid web-based experience. I would also include xAPI to track training completion and JavaScript to allow trainees to print a completion certificate.
Once the action map was completed, I created an interactive text-based storyboard in Twine. I included all mentor dialogs, as well as scenarios with decision options and consequences. This storyboard allowed SMEs to experience the full story unfolding by simulating the scenarios, making their own choices, and observing the consequences. This provided me with more specific feedback to quickly refine the storyboard before moving to the development phase.
The full eLearning training consists of ten scenarios, each with three decision options, and each option with its consequence. To make the experience more realistic, I wrote the scenarios to unfold throughout a week at the hotel during a famous international city festival. I also introduced a mentor who provides on-demand support to the learner. The scenarios are based on what the SMEs identified as the most common and difficult conflict-inducing situations, including dirty and noisy rooms, and intermittent internet.
After a few iterations of the storyboard, I set to implement all my design ideas to create a fully functioning eLearning training.
Since development in Articulate Rise 360 is more agile, I begun prototyping soon after creating a style guide. I refined the eLearning assets through multiple iterations of prototyping while collecting feedback from the SMEs and project sponsors.
Graphics & Visual Mockups
The first step in the development process was to create a visual personality for the eLearning training. This stage was particularly important for this project since the client wanted the eLearning assets to reflect the image and branding of the hotel. I created a style guide that included the brand colours and some unique photos of the hotel facilities that the client provided.
I developed most graphics in Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, and the mockups in Affinity Publisher. I also used the Adobe suite on occasion.
Characters
A big challenge when facing angry guests is that their body language can further intimidate a receptionist trying to de-escalate the situation. Learning to pay attention to aggressive body language is an important skill to successfully manage conflict. Thus, it was important to select character graphics that matched the profiles of the most common guests at the hotel and that emphasized their physical cues of anger.
I used Affinity Designer and vector graphics to customize a mentor character and eight different guests.
User Experience (UX)
eLearning developers often choose Rise 360 because of the more agile development it lends itself to. This ease of use, however, also imposes design challenges, especially in terms of user interaction options. My aim was to make use of all the capabilities of Rise 360 to make it work for my client's needs, without compromising on user experience.
I pushed myself to use Rise 360 blocks in innovative ways that I had not seen before. I used a Continue Divider as a decision button to ask learners what actions they would like to take, a Button Stack to present possible actions, and an Interactive Label Graphic for the mentor to offer on-demand support. All in all, the result is an accessible and fluid user experience that looks different from the more standard Rise 360 solutions.
JavaScript & xAPI
I used JavaScript to allow learners to print a pdf certificate at the completion of the training. I also used xAPI to store completion and learners’ information in my Learning Record Store (LRS).
Once learners complete the training, they are directed to a data entry screen where they can enter their name and email address to print a completion certificate. This event and information are recorded in the LRS, and the date and learner’s name are automatically inserted into the pdf certificate. The learner can then choose to download or print a copy of the certificate.
I developed the data entry screen separately in Articulate Storyline 360 to be able to implement the JavaScript pdf certificate solution and to better customize the xAPI statement.