Bianca Baumann
When I came home from a conference the other day, I called my Lyft and hopped in. I wasn’t sure if I would actually make it home in one piece. It was a scary experience. The driver was changing lanes way too quickly, only looking over her shoulder occasionally, and going at a high speed. If you have ever driven in Toronto, or are familiar with the traffic here, you probably understand the fear for my life.
I did make it, and when Lyft asked me to evaluate the ride, I decided to tell the truth: a two star rating based on the driver’s skills. It took less than 15 minutes before I had an email from Lyft’s customer service, apologizing for the bad experience, and telling me that I was “unpaired” from the driver moving forward. Meaning, I won’t have to worry that this driver will ever be matched with me again in the future. For one, that makes me feel so much safer, and of course, I will continue using Lyft because I know I won’t have to worry about this particular person driving me again (knowing I gave her a bad review, she would probably drive into a ditch just because). What a great way of saying, it’s ok, we know we didn’t get it right this time, but please give us another chance. We know, we can do better.
Of course, that got me thinking about our learners and how we just dump content on them that they don’t need or want. Imagine if we would actually leverage data points to understand what content has been consumed and when, and what content has barely been touched. We could engage our learners and let them know that we “unpaired” them from certain content because we realized they already know all there is to know about a particular topic. We would create an environment in which learners wouldn’t worry about the next training or coaching session, the next digital offering or resource we share, because they will know we only share what really makes a difference to them. What a glorious world that would be!
The good news is, we have enough tools at our disposal to actually make this happen. Leverage data from your learning platform or Google Analytics. Start using your marketing automation tool to deliver training through campaigns, and you will get a whole other set of data you only dreamed about before. Creating positive learning experiences isn’t difficult. We just have to out our minds to it, be open to new ideas and really listen to the learner. It’s about what they need, not what we think they need.
If you want to learn more about how to leverage marketing for your L&D strategy, download my eBook “The Little Black Book of Marketing and L&D”.
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