Training call center agents to help customers fix problems with complex products or services is difficult enough, but it's not impossible if they're shown step by step how to operate, diagnose, and correct issues. When that complex service is a custom travel booking, training agents to be knowledgeable about everything from local customs to unforeseen circumstances becomes more challenging.

Grand Circle Corporation, which sells both leisure and adventure travel packages to its 50-and-over customer base, turned its agents into ambassadors for its travel destinations, without taking each one around the world to experience the trips firsthand. The company implemented a training program solution from BrainShark, which enables on-demand agent training sessions using rich media and a question-and-answer section to ensure comprehension.

"Our product is an emotional buy; we're selling travel, which is not something like life insurance," says John Utter, corporate training administrator for Grand Circle. "People have looked forward to our trips for their entire lives, and we want our associates to talk about what it feels like to stand at the top of Machu Picchu, or watch penguins from a boat in Antarctica. Using images and video, it translates those emotions and brings it to life for them, which means they can talk more intelligently to our customers."

Each of Grand Circle's 200 agents (split about two-to-one, customer service and sales) has a personal "learning locker" that she can access any time she has downtime, during breaks, or at home. The locker stores any learning module they're required to complete, and serves as a record of what they've finished. Managers have access to agents' lockers and can track their teams' progress. The modules can be anything from information about a new tour being added to Grand Circle's 120 offerings, to cross-training that allows phone agents to learn email.

"It makes our associates accountable for what they have to learn, and they can see at any time what they're responsible for," Utter says. "We don't get into how many times they take the module to complete it; we just say that they need 100 percent to pass and consider it complete."

Because agents can access the training modules anytime, as opposed to attending the live training sessions Utter used to run that pulled agents away from the phones, productivity has increased dramatically. Utter estimates that in the first seven months of 2009 the company saved nearly $500,000 thanks to shorter hold times, fewer dropped calls, and less training hours. Sales are up as well. "Our conversion rates for calls that come into sales are at 47 percent," Utter says.

Next Grand Circle plans to use the same technology in its marketing efforts. "More than 75 percent of our customers are repeat business, so they log into their account section and indicate where they're interested in going next," Utter says. "Rather than follow up with an email, we'll be sending a three- to four-minute module that shows them video and images from their requested destination and answers questions they might have, along with a call to action. The presentation really whets their appetite and brings the trips to life."