QuickTips and the City of London

The Challenge

Sometimes employees need a little extra push when it comes to finding an incentive to utilize advanced enterprise training tools. Getting the most out of a software program requires active engagement and regular communication between staff members.

The City of London, Ontario, recently witnessed the benefits of adding an extra nudge of communication into its existing computer-based training strategy. The organization was already a happy customer of BrainStorm QuickHelp on-demand videos that integrate directly into Microsoft Office programs. However, Christie Cogghe, the city’s internal service desk manager, said it was hard to find a reliable way to share occasional tips with the entire organization without overwhelming inboxes and workloads. For a while, many of the benefits of QuickHelp went underutilized, which meant employees were missing out on valuable software training and, ultimately, greater productivity. In fact, on a monthly basis, the QuickHelp videos were only getting 50 views at best despite the fact that the City of London, Ontario, employs roughly 2,500 employees.

QuickTips, a unique feature of QuickHelp that allows organizations to share helpful software tips with their users via email, presented a solution. But because of the large volume of emails employees typically received on a daily basis, Cogghe said she was hesitant to proactively communicate the tips in any other way beyond posting them to a company intranet.

“We were sending out quite a few other pieces of communication and content to the business,” Cogghe explained. “When we first signed up for QuickHelp, it wasn’t a good time for us to start sending something on a monthly basis.”

The BrainStorm Solution

Employees who have busy schedules will rarely take the time to access videos or tips on an intranet. However, when the same content is shared directly to their inboxes, it’s much easier to engage. It turned out the best solution was to be more proactive in communicating the value of City of London’s software, including QuickHelp, and send out the QuickTips.

Cogghe said she now works closely with BrainStorm staff to compile monthly emails that include tips that help users make full use of enterprise technology. Not only are the emails a simple way to add extra value to the QuickHelp video resources, but they also drive engagement. Internal use of QuickHelp has since skyrocketed. Cogghe explained that it was simply a matter of finding the most effective way to broadcast these tips to employees every month.

“We were able to send out the QuickHelp QuickTips via email without feeling that we were inundating our users with too many emails,” she said. “This way, it’s not too pushy to send it out every month.”

The Results

Based on QuickHelp viewing metrics alone, Cogghe noticed an immediate improvement in overall usage of training resources within the organization. In fact, within the first month, video views dwarfed what had been measured for the entire year before the company started utilizing the QuickTips emails. Before the change in strategy, users had registered 200 views over several months. But in the city's first month of taking advantage of the periodic emails, views skyrocketed to nearly 500.

Cogghe added that she has also noticed a higher level of engagement from her employees on an anecdotal basis. In general, the nature of QuickTips and the associated videos are more convenient for staff members.

“Most people don’t have the patience to read a whole wall of text or watch a long video,” she said. “The little bite-sized pieces of info seem to do the trick.”

Regular communication is crucial for maximizing the benefits of tools such as QuickHelp or software programs in general. With a higher level of engagement, companies can even reduce the need for more formal and time-consuming training resources.

“I would surmise our training needs with in-house training are a little bit less,” Cogghe said. “People can watch something in a couple of minutes.”

For more information on QuickTips, please contact your account manager. If you are unfamiliar with QuickHelp, please visit BrainStormInc.com/Solutions.