Executive Summary
The training and onboarding materials for technical support providers are sometimes focused primarily on the technologies supported, while the soft skills of customer service are developed informally through shadowing and trial-and-error. This process can be lengthy, discouraging to the support provider, and periodically detrimental to the client. This course is designed to orient trainees to the consultation process and essential customer service tools & techniques.
Technical support providers who complete this course will be prepared to communicate effectively via email and Zoom meetings for the purpose of providing remote technical support. Learners will develop personalized email templates, identify one or more scheduling software to use for meetings, and develop a structured plan for peer observations. Learners will also explore a number of customer service skills and techniques for managing the emotional environment of Zoom meetings.
This course should be used to accelerate and enhance informal training via shadowing & peer observation, not replace it entirely. Course participants can complete the activities completely individually and self-assess, but the experience is greatly enhanced by discussion with peers, mentors, or a supervisor who can share team-specific anecdotes and recommendations (e.g., for system-compatible scheduling software). Relying entirely on self-assessment and self-training risks overlooking areas needing improvement, learning a new technique from a colleague, or overly harsh self-criticism.
Type of course
This course includes an asynchronous learning activity, ideally followed by individual feedback from a supervisor or mentor and peer observations with feedback. It will outline the steps in a typical consultation over email and Zoom for troubleshooting an instructional technology issue.
Target audience
The target audience for this course are university support staff new to, or finding themselves in, a technology consultant role.
Learner profile
The typical learner will have a high degree of comfort with technology in general and at least some familiarity with the specific instructional technologies used by the institution. They have at least a bachelor's degree and some additional work experience or graduate level training that gave them personal experience with teaching and designing a course.
Learning gap
The learning gap for these learners is how to conduct the actual consultations with the faculty, staff, or graduate students who are having issues with instructional technology in the courses they are designing or teaching. The gap for the learners should be consistent across most learners, though some may have more experience helping others through troubleshooting technology. This course focuses on the interpersonal skills and best practices for conducting a comprehensively helpful and successful consultation. It also will touch on some of the technical tips & tricks for a consultation specifically over Zoom, rather than in person.
Terminal Objective
Learners will be able to communicate via email and Zoom meetings with clients for the purpose of providing remote technical support in a professional and personable manner, defusing and preventing confusion & frustration in both parties.
Course Learning Objectives
Learners will be able to...
Learning Activities
Acceptable Evidence
It will be largely up to the learners' supervisors/managers to evaluate the evidence of learning, but the deliverables from the training will be...
Assessment Strategies
Since the majority of the deliverables are written, the learners are adults in a professional environment, and the content is unrelated to certifications or external standards, the assessments for this lesson are informal. There are 3 strategies for assessment:
Content Sequencing
Content Sources
Learning Model
This learning activity is being developed under the Rapid eLearning Design model, since there are no SMEs guiding the content. I am still using an ADDIE framework for organizing my design process, since I favor the emphasis ADDIE places on continuous evaluation and iterative improvement.
Learning Theory
This learning activity is for adult learners, so I am primarily using Andragogy to guide my lesson development. The content and activities are immediately applicable to the learner’s daily job responsibilities. The activities heavily emphasize the learner adapting the material to their particular communication style and strengths, especially in the worksheet that helps them develop their email template and client strategy playbook.
There are also elements of Social Constructivism in this lesson. The learning activity is focused on interactions with other people, so the learner will be using social cues to self-assess the success of their communication(s). The activity and deliverables are meant to be guided by and reviewed with the learner’s supervisor and/or team mentor. The specifics of the clients and team atmosphere will largely dictate what will be deemed appropriate or most likely to succeed. The learner will be presented with a number of strategies both in the activity, observations of team members’ consultations, and hopefully anecdotes from their team members about consults that went particularly well or poorly.
Course Standards
Learners are expected to...
The training and onboarding materials for technical support providers are sometimes focused primarily on the technologies supported, while the soft skills of customer service are developed informally through shadowing and trial-and-error. This process can be lengthy, discouraging to the support provider, and periodically detrimental to the client. This course is designed to orient trainees to the consultation process and essential customer service tools & techniques.
Technical support providers who complete this course will be prepared to communicate effectively via email and Zoom meetings for the purpose of providing remote technical support. Learners will develop personalized email templates, identify one or more scheduling software to use for meetings, and develop a structured plan for peer observations. Learners will also explore a number of customer service skills and techniques for managing the emotional environment of Zoom meetings.
This course should be used to accelerate and enhance informal training via shadowing & peer observation, not replace it entirely. Course participants can complete the activities completely individually and self-assess, but the experience is greatly enhanced by discussion with peers, mentors, or a supervisor who can share team-specific anecdotes and recommendations (e.g., for system-compatible scheduling software). Relying entirely on self-assessment and self-training risks overlooking areas needing improvement, learning a new technique from a colleague, or overly harsh self-criticism.
Type of course
This course includes an asynchronous learning activity, ideally followed by individual feedback from a supervisor or mentor and peer observations with feedback. It will outline the steps in a typical consultation over email and Zoom for troubleshooting an instructional technology issue.
Target audience
The target audience for this course are university support staff new to, or finding themselves in, a technology consultant role.
Learner profile
The typical learner will have a high degree of comfort with technology in general and at least some familiarity with the specific instructional technologies used by the institution. They have at least a bachelor's degree and some additional work experience or graduate level training that gave them personal experience with teaching and designing a course.
Learning gap
The learning gap for these learners is how to conduct the actual consultations with the faculty, staff, or graduate students who are having issues with instructional technology in the courses they are designing or teaching. The gap for the learners should be consistent across most learners, though some may have more experience helping others through troubleshooting technology. This course focuses on the interpersonal skills and best practices for conducting a comprehensively helpful and successful consultation. It also will touch on some of the technical tips & tricks for a consultation specifically over Zoom, rather than in person.
Terminal Objective
Learners will be able to communicate via email and Zoom meetings with clients for the purpose of providing remote technical support in a professional and personable manner, defusing and preventing confusion & frustration in both parties.
Course Learning Objectives
Learners will be able to...
- Craft an initial email to the client that
- introduces themselves as a qualified service provider.
- frames their existing understanding of the request based on the information available.
- prompts the client for necessary information.
- offers a Zoom meeting with appropriate emphasis (e.g., passively if the user wants a meeting, or more assertively if a meeting seems the best course of action).
- uses scheduling software to reduce back-and-forth communication.
- Explain the importance of starting the meeting with small talk to engage the client and build rapport.
- Justify which tools and strategies they will use in meetings to troubleshoot problems without confusing the client or undermining their confidence.
- Develop strategies for managing their emotional responses to difficult clients (e.g., particularly angry or extremely technologically challenged).
- Self-assess their performance and meaningfully observe peer performance in consultations for continuous improvement and learning.
Learning Activities
- The training will provide explanations and examples of each step in the consultation process.
- The activity will include "This or That" style interactives to support exploration of different options.
- The learner will complete a digital worksheet that will support & guide development of their email template, action plans, and client strategy playbook.
Acceptable Evidence
It will be largely up to the learners' supervisors/managers to evaluate the evidence of learning, but the deliverables from the training will be...
- an email template the learner develops.
- the learner's action plan for scheduling meetings (e.g., software plugins, scheduling services, etc.), peer observation of consultations, and their playbook of strategies for difficult clients.
- Peer observations & client feedback from consultations.
Assessment Strategies
Since the majority of the deliverables are written, the learners are adults in a professional environment, and the content is unrelated to certifications or external standards, the assessments for this lesson are informal. There are 3 strategies for assessment:
- Ungraded "this or that" interactive self-assessment activities where learners can respond to hypothetical scenarios.
- Prompts for self-reflection during the lesson and iteratively during real-world application, such as "Put yourself in the client's shoes. At what point in dealing with a tech issue would you submit a help ticket? How would you be feeling by the time you were emailed or got to a Zoom meeting?"
- Feedback and assessment by the supervisor/mentor on the:
- Tone of the email template.
- Learner's action plan
- Notes from peer observations and client feedback (formal or informal; verbal, written, or unspoken).
Content Sequencing
- Introduction - course purpose, assumptions, learning objectives, and outline.
- Topic 1 - The steps in a consultation
- What do typical consultations look like?
- How do you decide what path to take with a consult?
- Topic 2 - Crafting the introductory email.
- How to introduce yourself
- How & why Summarize your understanding of the service request topic & status
- How & why to provide multiple paths to resolution
- If you have any clue what they might need, offer an asynchronous resource to maintain their sense of control.
- Ask follow up questions for clarification of the issue.
- Always offer a meeting, in case they want the support. Emphasize whether you recommend a meeting if you think that'd accelerate resolution.
- scheduling software options for different email platforms
- Craft a template email template with your spin on these principles.
- Topic 3 - Conducting a successful Zoom meeting.
- How to start the meeting - establishing trust & understanding their emotional state
- How to troubleshooting on the fly - strategies for when you don't know the answer or get something wrong
- How to manage emotions
- strategies for de-escalation
- strategies for maintaining self-composure
- strategies for maintaining patience
- Topic 4 - Action plan & self-assessment
- What to look for when observing a peer's consultation.
- How to self-assess your performance in a consultation.
- Ways to ask for peer & client feedback.
Content Sources
- Crafting an Email Template
- Bika, N. (2021, September 11). 15 Customer Service Email Templates to Save Time and Effort. Acquire. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://acquire.io/blog/customer-service-email-templates/
- Scheduling Software
- Ravenscraft, E. (2021, December 14). The 8 best meeting scheduler apps and tools in 2021. Zapier. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://zapier.com/blog/best-meeting-scheduler-apps/
- Managing Emotions in Customer Service
- Indeed Editorial Team. (2021, March 25). 13 De-escalation Techniques for Customer Service Professionals. Indeed Career Guide. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/de-escalation-techniques-customer-service
- Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.). Patience: Don’t Let Frustration Get the Better of You. Mind Tools. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_78.htm
- Freshworks Academy. (2018, March 29). 5 simple tips to cultivate EMPATHY in customer service. YouTube. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g55HfoWXhMk
- Golden, M. (2018, January 22). 3 Steps to De-escalating with Customers. YouTube. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o8X3sjoPH0
Learning Model
This learning activity is being developed under the Rapid eLearning Design model, since there are no SMEs guiding the content. I am still using an ADDIE framework for organizing my design process, since I favor the emphasis ADDIE places on continuous evaluation and iterative improvement.
Learning Theory
This learning activity is for adult learners, so I am primarily using Andragogy to guide my lesson development. The content and activities are immediately applicable to the learner’s daily job responsibilities. The activities heavily emphasize the learner adapting the material to their particular communication style and strengths, especially in the worksheet that helps them develop their email template and client strategy playbook.
There are also elements of Social Constructivism in this lesson. The learning activity is focused on interactions with other people, so the learner will be using social cues to self-assess the success of their communication(s). The activity and deliverables are meant to be guided by and reviewed with the learner’s supervisor and/or team mentor. The specifics of the clients and team atmosphere will largely dictate what will be deemed appropriate or most likely to succeed. The learner will be presented with a number of strategies both in the activity, observations of team members’ consultations, and hopefully anecdotes from their team members about consults that went particularly well or poorly.
Course Standards
Learners are expected to...
- honestly reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, communication preferences and comfort zones.
- complete the activities and worksheet fully, or as directed by their supervisor/mentor.
- self-assess and accept constructive feedback from their supervisor/mentor, peers, and clients.
- forgive themselves for struggles and difficult encounters and try to learn from the experience.