While BERNINA is highly regarded for their training and service, Connie knew that training needed to adapt to modern learners at their busy retail partners. She issued a challenge to improve their training delivery more efficiently train more personnel at their retail locations. It was a two-prong approach, first, she launched an effort to find a technology partner who could customize a solution for their specialty industry, second, she brought in Susan Fears as their top-of-the-line product expert to focus on the initial content. The goal was to start with a B2B program of micro courses for their dealer network. These courses would demonstrate how to sell the BERNINA products to consumers. Education is truly a cornerstone of the company and their training resources were vast, but primarily in written or face-to-face form. Their prior efforts were as effective as possible given the resources at the time, but technology has created new potential for reaching a wider audience at less cost. They were already using some online elements into their blended training program. They offered PowerPoint webinars which could be blended with their live event classes, conferences, and hands-on training. Their existing training was expensive (for BERNINA and their retailers) and they discovered long-term retention was challenging. Most of their retailers had limited staff. Sending one or two to a training conference was hard on their wallets and the staff they left behind. In addition, once the newly trained staff returned to their stores, the challenges of daily operations kept them from training other staff members. On BERNINA’s end, they discovered the cost of large conferences, with dozens of machines being shipped in for hands-on training was cost prohibitive. They questioned the effectiveness of offering training months before the new machines were actually shipped to the retail stores. They needed a way to refresh and remind their retailers of their previous training. Another training approach was really high-end, sending highly qualified trainers out to individual stores. This was easier and less expensive for the retailers, but extremely costly for BERNINA to hit hundreds of sewing centers. Fanders points out that the turnover of retailers’ trained staff reduced the effectiveness of the training and ROI. The most in-depth training alternative was a one-week live training at BERNINA’s headquarters in Chicago. Fears describes this effort as valuable, but extremely detailed.... and a little like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant. Just as technology has created potential new avenues for their training through online mobile learning, technology spurred BERNINA to expedite the launch of new models and features. More frequent innovations in their machine features have resulted in the need to update training more frequently. Armed with solid content, (valuable intellectual property), and a highly qualified training staff - BERNINA was up for the challenge of change.
Read More