Company: CompuCredit

The Company
CompuCredit is an information and technology-driven provider and direct marketer of branded credit cards and related fee-based products and services that are offered to prospective customers on an unsecured basis. The company has built special computer models to help determine the credit risks involved with prospects who may never have had a credit card before, thereby catering to a greatly under-served public. The publicly held company has more than two million credit card users worldwide.

The Challenge
Training for CompuCredit customer service representatives is critical, according to Dari Damazo, operations manager of training. These reps are the customers' points of contact for all information relating to the company's products and services.

"The nature of our business means that information changes quickly and frequently," says Damazo. "To deliver timely information to customers, we must ensure that our service reps receive timely information regarding policy and procedures, changes, or new products and services. They must also be trained in how to present this information."

In the past, this was easier said than done. Previously, CompuCredit relied exclusively on classroom training, with frequent lectures. Classroom time could run anywhere from one to four hours, taking reps away from valuable work time. It was also difficult, once out of class, for reps to locate key issues easily or quickly.

The company determined that online learning could save both time and money, but it needed the right authoring tool.

"Most of the authoring tools we looked at were too complex and too expensive," says Damazo. "We wanted something that subject matter experts with no programming experience could use. When we discovered ReadyGo WCB and Server-Side Testing, we knew we had exactly what we needed."

The ReadyGo WCB Solution

By using ReadyGo WCB to create 'courselets' of 15 minutes to half an hour, CompuCredit has significantly reduced training time for many courses. While some classroom training is still required, much can be accomplished via the courselets, particularly product updates and new products.

Damazo says that ReadyGo WCB is so easy to use, that she can hand it off to someone who isn't schooled in HTML or even in training. Users simply type in English, and the authoring tool automatically translates to HTML. The pedagogy is built in, ensuring a well-structured course that works.

"We can ask different types of questions, and there are a lot of features such as 'Tips' and 'Its a Fact' that add flexibility in course design," says Damazo. "We can even add audio and video quickly and easily."

The Server-Side Testing module tracks student progress through the tests and records and archives their scores. Damazo indicates that initial results show that the service reps' retention of the course matter is excellent. The company will soon begin issuing a variety of reports using Server-Side Testing.

"ReadyGo WCB and Server-Side Testing are proving to be valuable tools, and are transforming CompuCredit's training process."