Aiming to reduce transportation costs by 6 percent, non-emergency medical transportation solutions company MTM, Inc.’s Training function closely partnered with executives and stakeholders to launch Set it Best!, a four-month sales training program.
Program Details
As Kirkpatrick Gold certified professionals, MTM Training began the project with a detailed analysis using the Kirkpatrick intake process. Using this process created a strong partnership with the contact center operations team and established clear goals and expectations. This helped the teams identify six key sales behaviors that were necessary to achieve the goal:
- Denying trips
- Assuming the mode
- Active listening
- Using persuasive language
- Overcoming objection
- Setting with the most appropriate mode of transportation
In total, MTM Training developed 16 courses with two learning tracks: Front-Line Staff and Leadership. Each leadership module included six role-play scenarios that were stacked with previous courses. By the end of the program, more than 800 employees were using 36 role-play scenarios in bi-monthly coaching sessions. Kirkpatrick Level 3 required that specific drivers were built in at the initial intake before development of the program began. These drivers included full-circle coaching (a coach-the-coach approach) and reward and recognition through social media celebrations and incentives (both monetary and non-monetary).
The program launched on April 15, 2018, with MTM Training meeting its commitments and expected deadlines; however, the communication of the required drivers was missing. The expectations at the start of the initiative (which were detailed in the Kirkpatrick intake process) were that consistent and ongoing communication was the responsibility of the contact center team and it was a necessary driver to reinforce the behaviors learned in the training event. Seeing this gap, MTM Training partnered again with the operations team to create a communication plan to enforce the required drivers of full-circle coaching, contests, and incentives.
The initial launch of the initiative began showing pockets of success: In June, a reduction in transportation costs fluctuated between 13.37 and 4.72 percent. These results were promising, but a more consistent decline in the cost was expected. To create a more consistent drop, MTM Training engaged trainers at every office location to add additional rewards and monitor behaviors. Trainers were given a bank of tokens to give out when they heard or witnessed a learned behavior from the program being used. These tokens then were redeemed for prizes. In addition to these behaviors, trainers were given more autonomy to pull Customer Care Representatives off the phone to role-play scenarios in real time. The MTM Marketing department also was engaged to promote the program on the company’s social media pages. Employees began seeing their celebrations on the MTM Facebook page, among other social media outlets.
Results
As a result of this training program, MTM saw an increase of denials resulting in significant savings, and an increase in bus and GMR Transportation utilization of 5 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively. Direct application of the behaviors learned through the program have exceeded the financial goal of reducing transportation costs by more than 6 percent to date with a current 25 percent reduction in total cost per mile. It also has resulted in a 13 percent increase in net revenue.
