CaixaBank Consumer Finance's challenge
CaixaBank Consumer Finance, CaixaBank's subsidiary specializing in consumer financing, works with over 11,000 businesses and has financed the purchases and projects of more than five million people. Its staff was spread across cities and regions hundreds of miles apart, and classroom training came at a price: little flexibility, travel costs and hours away from the job.
The second challenge mattered even more: training had to be practical and show up in the business. Sales reps, debt collection agents and advisers needed new negotiation techniques and strategies to meet clients' new demands, and they needed to use them in their day-to-day work.
- Train a workforce spread across regions hundreds of miles apart
- Move away from rigid classroom training with high travel costs
- Strengthen the negotiation skills of sales reps, collection agents and advisers
- Make a real impact on business results
The solution
In January 2016, CaixaBank Consumer Finance launched a game-based learning program built on Merchants, Game Strategies' serious game for negotiation training. And it went big: a communications campaign and a trailer screening styled like a blockbuster movie premiere.
Merchants takes players to medieval Venice to become one of the most successful merchants of their time: negotiating with Machiavelli, sharing in the silk trade or conquering Florence. Behind the story sits a simulator with 6 negotiations where players make their own calls and learn from their mistakes and successes, with zero risk to the business.
Because it was online and multi-platform (PC, tablet or mobile), the training reached every region and each employee could learn at their own pace. Rankings, levels and badges did the rest.
The games they played
CaixaBank Consumer Finance on video
In their own words
The game based learning method is very good. Using a simulator is not the same as moving from screen to screen and answering exam questions. A simulator is much more real.
Competing and playing bring out the best in you. And by bringing out the best in you, you assimilate the information better and then you use it in your day-to-day work.
On the one hand, the competitive part of the simulator calls for maximum concentration. On the other, there are no time constraints: you decide when and how you do it and in what situation.
The results
The training paid off where it counts: in the company's three main business areas, financing, debt collection and investment. New business acquisition grew 40% a year, revenue from the 20 largest deals rose 15% a year and the default rate dropped to 2.46%, the best figure in recent years. On top of that, 25% more sales reps used the company's incentive program.
Internally, the ranking sparked healthy competition for the top spot and the course became a social learning experience. So much so that the company chose to keep using game-based learning for leadership, team management and time management.
Every number
- 40%annual increase in new business acquisition
- 15%annual growth in revenue from its 20 largest deals
- 25%more sales reps using the incentive program
- 2.46%default rate, the best figure in years
- 99%course completion rate
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