Xpodigital provides custom digital signage for national hotel chains, such as Hilton and Marriott, as well as high-bandwidth, no-fail internet for large conventions and live streaming events.

“If you need 50,000 people online and live streaming at once, you need us there,” explained Rich O’Brien, the Director of Business Development at Xpodigital.

In mid-2019, the business started expanding quickly. And the leadership team wanted to build face-to-face relationships with their partners, so they started hiring a remote workforce. And it was up to Rich to get these new hires up to speed.

Training for complex systems

The business relies on a complex set of programs to make everything they do happen. A CRM, quoting software, and a content management system included. So a lot of the training focuses on system knowledge.

But with most of the complex systems integrating together, the training was confusing and convoluted. And as a result, it often took at least 3 weeks to complete.

“When I brought new hires into the Orlando home office to start training, I quickly saw it wasn’t the best use of my time,” Rich shared.

This approach wasn’t working - especially amid a rapid expansion into new markets. And Rich realized he needed a more efficient way to get new hires up to speed.

Unremarkable and inconsistent experience

Xpodigital relied heavily on PowerPoint decks, Excel sheets, and SOPs to train new employees.

“It worked, but it was boring. And it took a long time to retain and capture the information because it was siloed into different segments of the business,” Rich explained.

The training wasn’t cataloged anywhere. Meaning, everyone’s experience was just a little bit different. And this made it incredibly difficult for Rich to train new hires consistently.

But consistency was critical for serving clients and pulling accurate reports. So, Rich set out to find a more effective solution.

Looking to standardize and streamline

Rich first heard about Trainual thanks to our viral Office ad. And he admits that he first looked into the app behind the ad because he's slightly obsessed with the show.

But what he found was a standardized and streamlined solution to his problem. One that would house all his company's knowledge in one, centralized place.

Meaning, with Trainual, Rich could finally break down the training into digestible segments. And his employees could finally have a consistent experience across the board with one comprehensive training tool.

Quick and easy setup with Trainual

With new hires about to start onboarding, Rich had a tight timeline to migrate his existing documentation into Trainual. But he says the deadline wasn’t difficult to meet.

And with their Trainual built-out, Rich can now get his team started on their training from anywhere.

As soon as someone is hired, Rich adds them to the Trainual, assigns their content, and sets a deadline to make sure it gets done. And that all happens before any flight is booked to Orlando.

The first time Rich did this, he saw a huge difference. “By the time we bring them to the home office, [the new hires] know 90% of the stuff we do. We just have to fill in the gaps and then reinforce what they’ve learned in Trainual,” he explained.

Before, new hires were lucky to learn anything on their first day of training. Now, they come prepared with the systems knowledge, so they can focus on the big picture instead.

Cutting training time in half

Thanks to the preparation Trainual provides trainees, Rich says they’ve cut their training time in half. What used to take 3 weeks to complete now only takes one and a half.

That's because Trainual has nearly eliminated procedural questions that used to take hours to answer and re-explain. And it allows the Xpodigital team to see at a glance if someone isn’t getting something. That way, they can get ahead of it during training, before they head out into the field.

“If there’s someone on the team who needs extra reinforcement, we can re-assign that section to the person directly instead of wasting time re-educating everyone," Rich explained.

Providing engaging and consistent content

Compared to the old training documents, the user-friendly flow and funny GIFs make Trainual much more engaging. So new hires are more likely to stay immersed in the complex material from Day 1.

Plus, the content is finally consistent across the board. Meaning, everyone has the same experience and is on the same page. And Xpodigital is already seeing the results.

And even if any of their processes or systems change, Rich can update Trainual in seconds and roll it out in real-time. That way, everyone is on the same page and ready to use the complex systems the right way.