In this article, we will provide an overview of how to engage your end-users with Retorio. Engaging with your end-users will help you to increase acceptance among Retorio users.
Key facts on user engagement for AI coaching
End-user engagement is key for a successful learning program. Activation rates and completion rates are typical metrics to monitor:
- Activation rates: Share of users that have signed in to the platform after invitation.
- Completion rates: Share of users that have completed a learning program, a training, or a scenario.
For traditional learning management systems, activation rates range between 30-50% and completion rates between 10-30%. With Retorio, participation rates range from 75% in leadership trainings and 93% in retail sales settings. Reasons for this include:
- Perceived usefulness of real-life, on-the-job scenarios
- Self-explaining usability
- Direct feedback and improvement potential
Besides practicability of the use case, a well thought-through engagement concept is key to deliver a successful program with high participation rates.
We provide you insights on activation as well as completion of learning scenarios in your Retorio account has activation and completion metrics at your fingertips.
Drivers for end-user engagement
Drivers for user-engagement can vary based on industry, job family, company culture, and individual urgency.
When planning your engagement strategy, here are some points that you should take into consideration:
- Ensure relevance to everyday life situations
Make sure that the training scenarios mirror the participant's everyday life as much as possible. Only then, users gain value from the program and will be more likely to come back for additional trainings.
TIPP: Select a testing group with a similar set of experiences as the actual user group. This way, the testing group can provide valuable feedback in terms of relevance to everyday life situations prior to rolling out scenarios. - Announce Retorio on multiple channels
Introduce Retorio as your new partner for learning & development early on, ideally using multiple channels. This can happen in different sequences, such as email announcements, meeting formats, or asynchronous introduction of the scenarios in newsletters. - Set ambitious, but realistic timelines
A clear plan on timelines and deadlines is important to manage expectations. Try to balance timelines: Setting them too short will put pressure on end-users, which will result in negative associations towards Retorio. Giving too much time might dilute the focus on Retorio. - Launch additional scenarios based on feedback
Don't miss the opportunity to check in with your end-users and proactively ask them for ideas on additional scenarios. Based on this feedback, you can launch additional scenarios for your user group and, thereby, keeping them engaged.
Best practices
The following overview is based on examples implemented by Retorio clients and have been proved as valuable engagement drivers.
Prior to learning program
Final end-user testing (4 weeks before go-live)
Make sure you have all scenarios ready in your account. As final quality assurance, we recommend that two to three end-users test the scenarios and validate the everyday-life practicability. Adjust content, if necessary.
Leader announcement (3 weeks before go-live)
Give the participant's leaders early access to all relevant information, such as objectives, structure, and content of the program. In order to have all the questions answered, we recommend a synchronous session.
Document all questions and answers and make them available in your internal knowledge management to avoid administrative overhead by answering duplicated questions.
Internal announcement (2-3 weeks before go-live)
Give your participants a first nudge about Retorio. When drafting this message, take the following guiding questions into account:
- What is Retorio and how is it different from traditional learning platforms?
- What are benefits of using Retorio, i.e. practicability, real-life scenarios, flexibility?
- What are the next steps and what can they expect?
- Who is the project team that participants can reach out to?
By announcing Retorio early on, you place the name and the objective of the program and participants will know about it. We have learned that 2-3 weeks prior to roll out is a suitable time for such a message.
Product usability handbook (1 week before go-live)
Start a second campaign by addressing end-users and share a user handbook. This serves as valuable asset on training your end-users on how to use Retorio and learn from the feedback provided.
Upon request, your Customer Success Manager can share a pre-drafted handbook, which you can adjust based on your needs.
Ambassador group
A pre-selected group of ambassadors can drive acceptance among their fellow end-users. Schedule a separate meeting with this group and include them into the project on a deeper level, such as sharing objectives and business value. The following criteria should be met for effective ambassador:
- Constantly performing in their role on a high level
- Great network within the organization, especially on a peer level
- Passion for innovative solutions that deliver tangible business results
Ambassadors can function as your partners in crime and direct link to your end-users by passing on feedback, gathering ideas for new scenarios, and providing improvement potential.
Kick-off end-users
The kick-off is one of the key events of your learning program. Try to avoid traditional approaches, such as online meetings, a dry run-through of the program and timelines, a short demo of Retorio. Participants will tend to disconnect and the engagement may be limited.
Instead, try creative ways on how to spark excitement. This can include:
- An onsite or hybrid kick-off, if possible
- Addressing personal relevance & clear value proposition
- Engagement talk by a charismatic senior leader, including his/her first feedback results
- An introduction of Retorio and its mission
- Enough time to address open questions
- Additional blocked time for participants to log in and perform first role-plays
Your Customer Success team is happy to be part of this meeting and support you in making it a success.
During the learning program
It is important to find ways on how to engage your end-users during the program. Here are some effective ways to do so.
Calendar blockers
Send calendar blockers that link to specific scenarios within the platform. This will help your participants to manage their time effectively. Especially, if you have designed your learning program in a chronological sequence, working with direct links to scenarios will help to respect this order.
Leverage gamification & incentives
Incorporate game-like elements to make the experience even more entertaining. One example for this could be sharing a weekly update about the engagement, including a leader board showing the highest adopters. If your budget and culture allows it, you can also think about incentivizing your highest adopters as additional motivation.
Halftime check-in
Scheduling a half-time check-in a few weeks into the program can re-engage your end-users. Make sure to block enough time for questions as well as their feedback.
1:1 interviews
Either with your ambassador group or randomly selected users, schedule some interviews and proactively ask about their experience. Their perceived value about the current program is a crucial indicator for the next iterations.
Optimize user experience
Based on the input from your end-users, you can launch new content. This will re-engage users, especially, the one's that already out-performed existing scenarios. Furthermore, end-users will have the feeling that they are being heard. Plus, it will have the benefit that end-users feel they can actively shape the development of Retorio content.
After the learning program
Your learnings from the current program will give you great indications for additional use cases within your organization. A thorough evaluation is essential to gain all relevant insights.
Post-training survey
A quantitative assessment of end-user satisfaction and training impact will help you to report data-driven insights to your executive sponsors.
Your Customer Success Manager will help you to create a survey based on best practices.
Experience exchange
Align with your most engaged users and ask for their feedback about Retorio and the learning program. Next to a quantitative assessment, a direct conversation is especially important in early stages of your Retorio journey. Make sure to use your power users when planning additional learning programs to continuously improve the experience.
Further remarks to consider
- Set clear goals: Define specific engagement metrics, such as activation, completion, and repetition rates. This will help you to assess the success of the program.
- Measure and analyze: Throughout the live-phase, continuously monitor engagement metrics to identify the current progress. This will help you to plan additional engagement measures, if needed.
- Voluntary vs. mandatory training: Although, mandatory trainings lead to great usage metrics, it also fosters resentment towards the training itself. Opting for a voluntary training with appropriate incentives will take a bit more time to reach great usage, but it will build innate motivation in your learner. Therefore, ensuring higher long-term acceptance and long-term development.