GP Strategies created a fully accessible and scalable learning experience comprised of a custom-designed gaming portal with scoring, badges, leaderboards, and administrative functionality for a global banking client. Each “season” takes learners to a series of “tours,” where they play mini-games to reinforce their knowledge of international banking for premier clients. The storytelling themes and visual design also emphasize knowledge of world cultures as well as the bank’s commitment to sustainability.
The learning solution was so well received that there are plans to roll it out to other areas of the business saving the bank almost $1M on the creation of new portals.
Challenge
Imagine this scenario: A banking contact center employee receives a call from a client in Hong Kong. The employee took a training course about cross-border banking a month ago but hasn’t practiced or applied some of that knowledge since. Can the contact center employee accurately recall enough of their cross-border banking knowledge to service the client effectively? Further, does the employee have enough general knowledge about Hong Kong to contextualize the client’s situation?
In 2021, the bank announced the sale of its US retail network, pivoting its US presence to clients with wealth and international banking needs. Before this change, contact center employees fielded questions related to domestic banking and transactional needs, which was comfortable because there was less complexity and the employees’ banking needs were similar to those of the customers they serviced. After the change, they primarily received questions from international clients whose experiences were perhaps harder to relate to. These conversations involved more complexity, cross-border considerations, and international money movement. In addition to knowledge of cross-border banking, contact center employees needed to broaden their general knowledge of geography and international cultures to work with clients from around the world. The contact centers that service US clients were located in the US, Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines.
This international bank needed just-in-time knowledge reinforcement for contact center employees so they could be prepared to handle a multitude of different scenarios every day. The company conceived of the program as continuous practice with just enough of a competitive gaming component that employees would encourage their teammates to play. This intrinsic motivation was a major part of the bank’s request to GP Strategies. All other learning experiences were mandatory, but the program was to be driven by engagement rather than requirement. Scheduling employees to take time away from clients to complete training is sometimes a logistic challenge, but the program allowed them to reinforce skills and knowledge in 15-minute increments.
Solution
The solution is a web-based game portal where teams composed of a manager and their reports compete with other teams through gameplay. It inspires friendly competition, with managers earning bonus points when they play. A player dashboard shows the badges and points each team has earned, along with the team’s overall score.
The solution was built around a “season” with four “tours.” These concepts were inspired by wealthy patrons on an around-the-world tour. This fit nicely with the business need for call center teams to have greater international awareness and insight into the lifestyle and activities of their clientele. Each tour was set in an international location, with Easter Island, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Monaco as the tour stops in season 1. Each tour had three games focusing on international awareness and iconic experiences for that location. The games provided players with the opportunity to earn badges for completion or high scores. The badges were styled as Instagram posts to help the learner track their world tour experiences. Administrators could lock and unlock tours to ensure the teams complete a tour before they level up to the next tour.
– Tour 1 –
Season 1, tour 1 of the program consisted of three games. In the first, five-minute game, the learner found clues that led them to 14 cities across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia—all major financial centers in their regions. The clues concerned representative landmarks, entertainment, and food, providing learners with general knowledge about cultures around the world. This game also featured an illustrated map as the background and an animated plane depicting the learner’s travels from place to place, adding geographical context to the cultural information in the clues.
The second game comprised three micro-games, called missions. Totaling around six minutes in playtime, these missions reinforced learners’ knowledge of the bank’s procedures for moving money internationally. The missions used a mix of scenario-based and categorization questions to reinforce money-movement knowledge and apply it situationally. By providing correct answers, the learner earned a private jet to take them to Easter Island.
Finally, the third game was the culmination of tour 1, a more intensive and immersive nine-minute game in which the learner selected a horse avatar and answered questions about authentication to navigate a branching path across Easter Island. Correct answers to the authentication questions earned learners a more scenic route across the island and the opportunity to capture the sights in stylized social media posts, earning likes along the way.
Learners could play through the entire tour in 20 to 30 minutes, or two weeks of spaced designated training time. Moreover, with the portal’s bookmarking capabilities, learners could complete the games in separate sittings, allowing for self-paced learning.
– Tour 2 –
Tour 2 was set in San Francisco and included three more games. The first of these games took the player on an around-the-world journey identifying currency and earning bank notes. The player earned badges based on high scores. The second game facilitated the unique experience of a submarine ride to collect artifacts from a shipwreck. Players used their knowledge of mobile app deposits to activate the treasure-tracking device, which located the artifacts.
The third game’s content was infused with the bank’s commitment to sustainability. The player’s correct answers about domestic wire transfers allowed up to six passengers to board an eco-friendly trolley. The player traveled to San Francisco landmarks and earned points and badges based on the number of boarded customers.
– Tour 3 –
Tour 3 took the learners to Tokyo, reflecting the bank’s large presence in Asia. The first game in this section took players on an air balloon world tour exploring international celebrations. The second game provided the player with the opportunity to activate a viewfinder and locate iconic sights. The third game took players on a bullet train ride, stopping along the way for the opportunity to collect culturally significant souvenirs by answering questions correctly. Tour 3 games awarded badges and points based on the player’s engagement and success.
– Tour 4 –
Tour 4 was set in Monaco. The games here simulated some of Monte Carlo’s most iconic experiences. The first game took place at the Monte Carlo casino, giving players the opportunity to raise money at a charity ball to protect marine life—again, emphasizing the bank’s commitment to sustainability. The questions focused on international financial terms. In the second game, players joined the pit crew of a Formula One driver in the Monaco Grand Prix. Correct and incorrect answers changed the position of the driver in the race. Finally, the third game allowed players to compete as sailors in the annual Monaco Regatta. Throughout the games, learners earned points and badges to help their teams climb the leaderboards.
Designed to leave space for subsequent tours and seasons, these games sit within the gaming portal. For learners, the portal provided a Home page for gameplay, a Leaderboard page for the social and competitive aspects of the program, an About page, and a personalized Dashboard.
For administrators, the portal provided back-end information such as the number of active users and filterable leaderboards to help admins keep track of how teams were engaging with the content. The portal encouraged leaders to get involved along with their teams—and help guide team members through a change-management program that met learners at the point of need and generated excitement about applying their knowledge in a gamified setting.
To ensure the accessibility of the program, the course incorporated the following features:
- Optimization for both desktop and mobile.
- High-contrast colors.
- Screen-reader-enabled functionality.
- Images tagged with alternative text for users with visual impairments.
- Inclusive language (such as “select” rather than “click” to include learners who do not use a mouse).
- Language written for learners at approximately a sixth- to seventh-grade (US) reading level.
Results
Call center leaders now look to leverage the program game portal as an immediate reinforcement and remediation tool in tandem with the policy and procedures portal that the call center team uses every day. Learning and call center leadership recognize that when a gap arises, the program creates memorable experiences to make the knowledge “stick.” With the program, call center teams reduce training time since many of the other trainings are of a longer form, requiring more time for the managers to schedule and the teams to take. This time savings allows the call center team to engage with clients more. Additionally, the team is beginning to show greater confidence in fielding the wider variety of call topics. The bank is hopeful this will result in increased customer satisfaction over the long term.
As this learning solution has been so well received, the bank plans to roll it out elsewhere in the business, including:
Wealth Center employees, saving 95%—or $332,500—on the creation of another portal
For other audiences, saving 85%—or $645,000—compared to creating a new portal
