The North Face EMEA Product Training Case Study

CASE STUDY

The North Face

Learn how The North Face® EMEA used Wranx bite sized training platform, along with incentives, to boost learner engagement by 274%.

OVERVIEW

Type: Product knowledge training

Project duration: 2 weeks

Number of learners: 200

Hours of training delivered: 65 hours

Challenge

The North Face introduced bite-sized learning interventions to onboard and train new employees in order to boost knowledge retention ahead of their busy winter period.

Solution

The North Face needed a platform that was quick, accessible on any device and would help new starters retain product knowledge quickly. They were already using Wranx for product training and seeing success, so it made sense for them to create a similar shorter training module for new starters.

Results

By adding incentives alongside the use of the Wranx platform they were able to improve learner engagement by 274% and substantially increase customer satisfaction rates.

increase in the number of logins

increase in the total number of hours trained

increase in the number of active learners

“Using this platform has had a direct impact on our customers, as a higher level of training has ensured they have an enjoyable experience in store. The uplift in sales is clear, as customers have said that their purchase decisions were influenced by our store colleague’s advanced product knowledge!”

Senior Brand Education Manager - The North Face EMEA

“We’ve had a really positive experience with Wranx. Not only do our employees enjoy completing the short drills, they have been motivated by the gamification features on the app.”

Senior Brand Education Manager - The North Face EMEA

“The Wranx team worked well with me to understand our needs and smoothed out any queries before going live to be sure we were ready, but also made it known they were available to change plans at short notice if needed which was appreciated.”

Elaine Glover, E-commerce Co Sourcing Team Leader - The North Face EMEA

“Having a final quiz at the end of the burst fit the brief I needed – as we were awarding prizes based on performance, but also participation – and the quiz was developed by the team which made it easy to validate winners but also show trends in that those with high participation scored highly in the test at the end.”

Elaine Glover, E-commerce Co Sourcing Team Leader - The North Face EMEA

“It’s really great to see such a positive result and the impact that the competition has made. The Wranx team have been integral in making this a success and I really see the value of repeating these initiative ‘bursts’ to boost engagement.”

Elaine Glover, E-commerce Co Sourcing Team Leader - The North Face EMEA

“The long term goal was absolutely to increase engagement and activity on Wranx for all CSRs and the perfect opportunity is usually the 6-8 week ‘lull’ we have after summer peak and before Black Friday, where we recruit in high volume and can spend quality time coaching, training and filling knowledge gaps for the teams. However, as this year has been extraordinary and we have seen a huge rise in eComm orders and therefore contact, our much anticipated ‘lull’ gives us perhaps 2 weeks instead – so we wanted to make the most of every day where we could.”

Elaine Glover, e-Commerce Co Sourcing Team Leader – The North Face EMEA

Engaging new and existing learners ahead of a busy retail period

The North Face EMEA eCommerce team were looking to onboard and train new employees as well as improve existing learner engagement ahead of their busy winter peak period in November 2020.

The North Face were already utilizing Wranx to help other teams fill knowledge gaps, so knew they could rely on the microlearning platform and their team, to make the training program a success.

The North Face’s main goal was to increase the eCommerce team’s engagement on Wranx, with many of their customer service reps being first-time users and new to their role.

Improving learner engagement and knowledge retention

Wranx analyzes and advises on initiatives to improve business performance and learner engagement, both in the short and long term.

The North Face collaborated with Wranx to launch a successful incentive competition for their eCommerce team. Learners were divided into teams and competed for a chance to win a waterproof jacket each. The North Face effectively communicated the incentive to boost engagement on the platform. Leaders from Porto and Bulgaria collaborated to establish rules, terms, and marketing materials for the launch.

Daily reporting tracked individual and team progress to identify success and areas of improvement.

A streamlined competition that matched the brief

Learners were required to log into Wranx each day and complete short bite-sized ‘daily drills’ consisting of around 10 questions, taking no more than 2-3 minutes to complete. There were three modules in total available to learners: Onboarding: Heritage, Onboarding: Progressive Exploration and Summit Series. The Wranx content team also created an assessment that covered key topics across the three modules to test learner knowledge towards the end of the competition.

Each learner would have their engagement scores averaged to decide if they qualified to take the assessment, and their assessment results were also averaged to decide the top three winners.

The teams that took part were all eCommerce reps, where their day-to-day role includes managing customer emails, phone calls, live chat and social media. Approximately 75% of all CSRs were less than one month tenured due to The North Face’s Winter Peak ramp up, so education of the brand, products and technologies was essential.

Unprecedented learner engagement

Thanks to the competition, there was an increase of 156% in the total number of active users and a 274% increase in the total number of logins. There was also a 483% increase in the total hours trained and a 376% increase in the total number of questions answered.On average, the users who were most engaged with Wranx performed the best in the final assessment.

On average, the users who were most engaged with Wranx performed the best in the final assessment. The teams who finished in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were in the top 26% of all teams in regards to engagement. This emphasises that the higher the participaction level is, the more knowledge is retained, which results in improved assessment scores.

The North Face also noted a rise in customer satisfaction during this period after achieving their highest Net Promoter Score (72.73% in their Sofia site) in review of the eight weeks prior to the competition launch. They also saw an overall rise in NPS for ‘Product’ related queries, going from around 35% to 59% across both sites.