Gamification in service training for empathy

Gamification in service training for empathy

Pande, T.

Vermeeren, A. (mentor)
Tabeau, K. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2016-03-24

‘How can front-line staff and their leaders be motivated intrinsically/ extrinsically to steer a behavioural change that facilitates empathic customer understanding among front-line staff and creates meaningful interactions with customers?’ – this is the underlying question behind the work done towards this report. By leveraging digital tools, KLM seeks to enhance employee efficiency, in addition to delivering uniform service through behaviour training. There is however a hesitation in anticipating new change. This is because a majority of employees at KLM have been a part of the company for over 20 years and have been acclimatised to traditional methods of working. New adoption of tools will require new type of motivation. In this regard, through gamification, there lies an opportunity to create a single platform where employees can be triggered to interact with various colleagues, co-learn and be intrinsically motivated to achieve their goals. A behavioural change roadmap was developed at the beginning of the project to prioritise the nature of the motivations based on the organisational changes in the time line. This was used to create a concrete direction on how behaviour change can be achieved objectively. It consisted of a series of steps including triggering, follow-up and sustaining motivations of employees. The two departments in focus for this project are the front line staff of Passenger Services, comprising of ticketing, check-in, service, gate agents, team leaders and the front-line staff of In-flight Services, comprising of cabin attendants, pursers and pilots. To understand the user and comprehend the recurring problems faced by them, a thorough user research was performed. As a result three concepts are proposed in the project, a (board based) game called ‘In Situ’, a digital app for service training called ‘KLAPP’ and a collaborative tool within the operational apps (mini-app) called ‘Co-lab’ The end result of the project 'In Situ’ was chosen. This game that triggers front-line staff to be more customer driven by empathising on a wide range of customer problems and exchanging personal experiences on the job. This is based on three focus areas - service, sales and safety. ‘In Situ’ has a second version that focus on building empathy between leaders and employees.

behaviour change
gamification
KLM

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:61f87575-fe7b-4d53-bea0-2004a02fe8cb

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Pande, T.