HP Inc. - Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year

Company: HP, Inc., Boise, ID
Company Description: HP is a cutting-edge, leading technology brand with a steadfast mission to continuously innovate and reinvent for the digital world. The global brand reimagines technology with a vision of creating experiences that elevate how individuals and businesses live, work and play. The company dominates the world stage in personal computes, printers, software and solutions for consumers and businesses.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year - Technology Industries

Nomination Title: HP Virtual Reality Kit: A Simulated Environment for Best-in-Class Training

HP Inc. is a cutting-edge, leading technology brand with a steadfast mission to continuously innovate and reinvent for the digital world. The global brand reimagines technology with a vision of creating experiences that elevate how individuals and businesses live, work and play. With a team of the world’s most forward-thinking innovators constantly working towards HP’s next revolutionary product, the company continues to dominate the world stage in personal computers, printers, software and solutions that consumers and businesses of all sizes have come to rely on.

Since the company’s 1939 beginnings in a Palo Alto, CA garage, to its current position as a leading enterprise technology company, HP has passed one successful milestone after another. From going public and expanding globally in the 1950’s, to shipping its 10 millionth laser jet printer in 1993, the company has leveraged its solid foundation to become a $28.9 billion-dollar annual business today. While continuing to innovate, HP’s Global Training Team is reinventing how its field technicians are trained in an effort to provide the highest level of customer service possible. This nomination focuses on the company’s Virtual Reality Kit, a training program that leverages virtual reality technology to prepare its field technicians.

Often associated with gaming, virtual reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. HP has taken this cutting-edge technology and adapted it to the corporate environment for best-in-class service technician training. The company’s VR Kit simulates a modern office environment with HP products, which technicians use to build their skills and interact with HP copiers and computers as they would in the field. Once in the VR environment, the left-hand controller is the service manual, while the right hand becomes the tools needed. Technicians are guided through tasks, and upon completion, learning checks must be answered correctly before advancing. To date, HP has developed more than 50 VR tasks that cover the top service issues encountered in the field.

HP’s VR Kit is experiential learning at its highest level — a training process that is far more effective than watching another technician perform a task or watching a step-by-step video. HP technicians are “learning by doing” which is critical in retaining step-by-step information.

This innovative training opportunity offers many benefits to HP, among them being the ability for technicians to train more frequently, train at their own pace, and become acquainted with new HP products in the virtual realm before encountering them in a real-life scenario in the presence of a customer. For HP’s valued customers, the VR training means technicians repairing or replacing parts are well-versed in the service needed, leading to successful service calls and reducing down time due to equipment issues.

The first video provided demonstrates how technicians can troubleshoot by viewing the inner workings of a printer in virtual reality. You will see how they can toggle between error messages on the tablet and interact with the various printer components, as well as how they follow guided steps to resolve the issue once identified.

The second video demonstrates desktop hardware service fundamentals, with the goal being to raise the technical proficiency of technicians and teach the different types of modern hardware, how to replace parts, and how to take apart and reassemble a computer. This video shows guided tasks with tips, gamification, service videos for additional support and reference, quizzes and exploration of the hardware and tools.

These videos will also demonstrate the ease-of-use of the VR technology, which was a major consideration since a significant percentage of HP’s trained technicians fall into the 50 to 60-year-old demographic. Statistics point to a low adoption of new technology by this audience, therefore developing something straight-forward without any intimidation factor was critical. Technicians within this age range became the earliest adopters of the VR training –a true testament to how easy it is to use. In addition, the “cool factor” of the VR training is being leveraged to attract the next generation of field technicians. New technicians will experience an unprecedented level of support and confidence as they begin their careers with HP, with virtual reality training making them well-prepared for what they’ll encounter in the field.

HP’s VR training sets them apart from every other player in the industry in terms of both technician support and customer service. HP VR-trained service technicians are more knowledgeable in the field, with the utmost confidence the task before them will be successfully accomplished for the customer. This is true not only for existing HP products, but also for newly-launched products that a service technician has not yet serviced. Because of their VR training, they are effective even if seeing a new HP printer, desktop computer, or other product for the first time. It’s also common for a significant amount of time to lapse since a technician last repaired or replaced a part in a specific HP product, considering the volume of products. The VR Kit serves as a refresher prior to site visits, enabling technicians to provide high-quality repair service to help HP achieve its customer satisfaction goals.

HP’s VR Kit has set a new industry standard for technician training within the printing and computing industry. They are the first company to introduce VR training, with competitors such as Xerox, Kyocera, Apple and Alienware not offering anything similar. The effectiveness has been proven in an experiment, with a group of technicians performing VR tasks and then performing those same tasks on real equipment. A second group was given the opposite scenario – performing the task on real equipment, then proceeding to the VR version. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of receiving VR training first, providing a significant advantage.