39. Successfully Launching a Program

The BizLibrary Podcast

On this week’s episode of The BizLibrary Podcast, we welcome Cara Austin to discuss launching a new program. Cara Austin an L&D professional working for ClubFit in New York City, New York.

Cara tells us immediately that her program was planned and phased out in advance. Her first phase was heavy on communication.

First, she met with managers, asked questions about desired outcomes, and then presented a realistic preview of what the program would look like.

Cara emphasized that part of the planning process was considering how training would impact the learners. For instance, in October, when intense budgeting was happening, Cara planned more light-hearted content, like short, microlearning email etiquette content.

For her launch, Cara focused on her organization’s values. Leadership indicated that superior customer service was a priority for the team, so Cara’s first priority was customer service training.

To measure the success of the customer service training, Cara used an already existing customer satisfaction survey, with the goal of never falling below 8/10 on customer-reported customer service. To date, the program has been successful on that metric.

In phase 2, Cara created effective marketing tools to increase engagement in ClubFit’s new training program. In addition to email marketing and signage, Cara created additional marketing tools like lanyards and t-shirts, which she says helped create additional interest in the nascent program.

Finally, Cara looked to increase completion rates and elective training. In this, she aimed to show executives how management uses her training program to the benefit of the company.

As a parting thought, Cara says that program managers should understand that things will go wrong, and despite great planning, trying to achieve everything at once can be too much. Instead, temper your expectations and plan your successes in phases.

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