A strategy in need of renovation

The majority of Homebase’s 5,600-strong workforce are front-line. As Homebase’s previous LMS was not mobile-enabled, busy team members were pulled off the shop floor to use the store’s designated computer – wasting their own time and keeping customers waiting.

Plus, the interface was clunky and difficult to navigate with onboarding compliance courses which left learners feeling uninspired. For an industry as fast-paced as retail, in a shop as popular as Homebase, this slower way of doing things just wasn’t going to cut it.

The L&D project team knew that Homebase’s platform should be as fluid and adaptable as its workforce. It was time for their digital learning strategy to get a makeover.

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A fresh coat of paint

The team at Homebase were drawn towards Thrive thanks to its ease of navigation and mobile app. They knew it was non-negotiable that their learning platform could be used on the go, a must-have for their majority deskless workforce. The overwhelming feedback was that Thrive was extremely easy to navigate, and looked great on both desktop and mobile.

The team loved that it put the power back in the hands of the learners, and took training out of the manager’s office. Plus, managers could finally check individual learner analytics and data within the platform – something their previous LMS was sorely lacking.

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A design for success

The success of Thrive is easily quantified thanks to Homebase’s continuous collection of customer feedback. Every time a customer shops with Homebase, there is a link to complete a satisfaction survey on the back of the receipt.

What the team has found from this data since launching Thrive has been eye-opening: The stores that have more team members trained to the ‘expert’ level within Thrive consistently gain 35% higher satisfaction scores than those who don’t. This made it clear that the more knowledgeable the customer service teams are, the higher the rating the customer tends to give for that visit. Not only does this knowledge increase customer satisfaction, but it even increases the average customer spend.

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