Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Julie Winkle Giulioni for Halogen Software’s TalentSpace blog. To read the complete article, check out others, learn more about the firm, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.

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Establishing training and learning priorities is frequently treated as an art. But recent research from Human Capital Management illuminates the science behind this essential leadership function – and the most valuable data comes from customers, both internal and external. In Best Practice: Microlearning Helps Employees Re-Learn Concepts Quickly, the authors report that best-in-class companies are 43% more likely than all others to use customer feedback to determine employee learning needs and priorities. So what can we do to find the intersection of art and science?

Customer-focused training drivers

Shifting to a focus on the customer gives organizations and leaders a new lens and rich repository of data so they can build a more effective training strategy.

For instance, rather than relying exclusively on competency models and standard catalogue offerings, frontline employee learning can be powerfully informed by things like:

o Customer surveys – the formal request for feedback many organizations make after a point of service then collect into regular reports

o Customer compliments and complaints – the informal and organic sharing of customer experiences that may or may not be summarized and shared with employees

o Frequently asked questions – what customers don’t know, fail to understand, or can’t find reveals the gaps in the product itself or the service surrounding it

o Product failures – a product shortfall should be a wake-up call, inspiring training or re-training to improve performance

o Recurring service issues and/or requests – the same wake-up call applies to service shortfalls or gaps

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Julie Winkle Giulioni has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. As co-founder and principal of DesignArounds, Julie leads multi-disciplinary teams that create award-winning electronic and instructor-led training. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Julie is co-author of the Amazon bestseller, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want. To learn more, connect with Julie online or click here.