As a faith-based company, Atlantic Wireless considers itself more than just a wireless provider. Their culture is about striving toward something bigger. And their mission is to go above and beyond for their communities’ wireless needs. 

Keith Ingram, Director of Sales and Development at Atlantic Wireless, says the original CEO built the company out of his car. And 20 years later, it’s grown into 15 stores across North Carolina and Missouri. 

But despite having a strong vision and mission, Keith said they struggled with a high turnover. “At one time, our turnover was 100%, so we had a lot of people coming in as constant traffic,” he explained. “Then, we realized it was linked to our onboarding and lack of concrete training.”

An outdated training system 

At the time, they were using Google Sheets for onboarding and training. But Keith says they were always struggling with broken links. And more importantly, they had no way of knowing whether or not trainees actually went through the training. 

“With no way to see who completed what, we could only assume that [trainees] were completing all of their modules,” he told us. “We realized later they weren't.”

The outdated training system lacked usability and accountability. And ultimately, it led to ill-equipped employees who didn’t stay long. 

Keith bet that if he could find a system built for onboarding, he could offer a more polished and effective way to train employees. And hopefully, retain them longer, too! (Spoiler: He was right!)

But the company faced one major challenge - every system was too complicated, too layered, or too expensive for a small business. “We tried everyone, we went everywhere, and we could not find the right tool to help us,” Keith shared

Finding Trainual organically

When Keith discovered Trainual, it wasn’t intentional. He actually stumbled across the tool via a friend suggestion on Instagram. But decided to keep researching.

A little later, our CMO, Jonathan Ronzio, popped up on his suggested profiles. And after reading his bio, Keith was instantly intrigued. 

Keith says Trainual looked different than the other tools because it was more user-friendly. And after having zero luck with training tools so far, he was excited to learn more. Soon after, Keith signed up for Trainual and was shocked at how easy it was to get started.

Rolling it out to new team members

Once Kieth migrated the information from Google Sheets to Trianual, he asked his top performers to go through and refresh their company knowledge. Then, he rolled out the new system to each of their 15 stores. 

Now, every new hire goes through Trainual as part of their onboarding. And so far, it’s been a seamless transition. Kieth has had total buy-in from the rest of the company. “On average, we have as many as 20 to 30 people in Trainual at a time,” he explained. 

As for the results, Kieth says they speak for themselves.

No more turnover during training

Before using Trainual, the company was experiencing high turnover. And a lot of people actually quit during training. But now, Atlantic Wireless has eliminated training turnover altogether, thanks to Trianual.

Kieth attributes these results to 2 things: the right knowledge and the right format. He says Trainual provides employees with the information they need to be successful. And it does so in a way that is easy to understand and radically more impactful. 

Now, new hires are fully on board with the company mission, and they look at the opportunity as more than just another job. As a result, trainees can see themselves staying with the company longer. And they’re inspired to build a career with Atlantic Wireless.

Quicker onboarding times with Trainual

Keith says Trainual has also improved their ramp-up times. Because new hires aren’t dealing with unreliable technology, they get the knowledge they need every time they hop into Trainual.

Plus, Keith says employees train quicker because they can do it from anywhere. Whether it’s from their phone, iPad, or laptop, the Trainual app makes remote training easy and accessible.

As a result, Keith says the company has cut its onboarding time in half. It used to take over 2 weeks to ramp up new hires, but now they can complete the training in about 1 week.

More control equals accountability

But by far, the best part of Trainual is the newfound control over his team’s onboarding, Keith told us. 

Before, he could only assume new hires were going through their training and absorbing the information. But now, he can see who has completed the training and how long it takes them to get through the content. And he can even test whether or not they understood it all.

Keith uses the data to pinpoint who needs more help or which subject needs to be updated. This was never possible with Google Sheets. And now that Keith has implemented Trainual, he says he can’t imagine ever going back. 

“I don't see how we could work without Trainual," Keith told us. "It’s become our in-house training program that we’ve dubbed Atlantic Wireless University. And it’s a system we manage every day.”