Background
PetSmart, Inc. employs over 50,000 associates, owns over 1,600 pet stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, and operates over 200 in-store pet-boarding facilities. The world’s largest specialty retailer of pet services and solutions, PetSmart offers a wide variety of competitively priced pet products, and provides training, grooming, daycare and in-store pet adoption services.
Challenge
Historically, all of PetSmart’s employee training was conducted in-store and face-to-face. But with the company’s continued growth and the mounting cost of sending trainers out into the field, PetSmart recognized the value that eLearning could bring to their organization.
They needed a partner to jumpstart an eLearning program and rapidly build out a content library from the ground-up, despite the limited bandwidth of the hardware available in-store.
Solution
When they were looking for interactive and engaging eLearning for their employees, they found EdgePoint Learning. Their team of eLearning experts supported their initial strategy and planning phases, before rapidly developing the training materials PetSmart needed.
EdgePoint's team developed 50 hours of interactive eLearning modules that covered approximately 30 topics, including customer service, sales, safety, product categories, policy procedure, and new hire orientation.
PetSmart employees quickly embraced the training, appreciative of the opportunity to work at home at their own pace or in-store during their off hours. Further, PetSmart was able to onboard new employees faster than ever before, noting a significant increase in productivity and customer satisfaction numbers. Naturally, this also led to a significant decrease in travel costs.
This success marked the beginning of an eLearning era for PetSmart as they went on to form a co-development relationship with EdgePoint Learning. PetSmart developed and storyboarded instructional content, and EdgePoint Learning transformed that content into engaging eLearning modules.
With EdgePoint's support, PetSmart wasn't only able to realize their goal of developing an entire eLearning program from the ground up; they also found a co-development partner to help with future learning opportunities.