Case Study: Transforming Onboarding for a
Leading Hospitality Client
Executive Summary
A top hospitality client partnered with TrainingPros to revamp its contact center onboarding program, ensuring new hires were well-prepared to deliver exceptional customer service. Through the strategic use of TrainingPros’ instructional design consultants, the program evolved into a structured, performance-driven learning journey that set clear expectations, reinforced key behaviors, and aligned training with measurable business outcomes. The result? The successful onboarding of over 300 new hires, improved performance metrics, and a significant boost in revenue.
The Challenge
The hospitality client needed to scale its workforce rapidly while maintaining service excellence. Existing onboarding practices lacked consistency, leading to varied performance levels among new hires. Without a structured approach to reinforcement, coaching effectiveness was difficult to measure, impacting long-term retention and customer satisfaction. The hospitality company sought a solution that:
- Established a structured, scalable onboarding process
- Reinforced learning through ongoing coaching and feedback
- Linked training outcomes to key performance indicators
- Enhanced guest interactions through a customer-centric framework
The Solution
TrainingPros’ instructional design consultants collaborated closely with the client’s leadership to design and develop a high-impact onboarding program that emphasized continuous learning, performance coaching, and customer experience alignment.
- Research & Analysis – Consultants conducted an in-depth needs analysis, including interviews, observations, and data reviews, to understand the core behaviors that drive positive guest experiences.
- Critical Service Moments – Drawing insights from how guests want to feel when engaging with the brand, the instructional design consultants helped integrate a methodology into training, ensuring the customer service associates could recognize and respond to critical service moments.
- Experiential Learning & Coaching Integration – To support adult learning principles, the instructional design team embedded hands-on practice and immediate feedback into the program. This included:
- Monthly training sessions focused on guest experience assurance.
- A structured coaching framework, ensuring reinforcement of key skills.
- Real-time performance feedback mechanisms.
- Data Indicator Methodology – The program adopted a data-driven approach to evaluate training effectiveness. Instructional design consultants helped structure lead indicators (e.g., coaching sessions completed) and lag indicators (e.g., conversion rates) to continuously assess and refine training impact.
- Coaching Conversations Model – A new coaching framework was designed and implemented, mirroring the guest journey. TrainingPros’ consultants developed supporting materials, job aids, and practice scenarios to ensure consistency in coaching execution.
- Sustained Development & Support – Our instructional design consultants worked with management to create post-training support structures, including:
- Bi-weekly 360-degree Coaching sessions
- Calibration exercises for Team Leads to refine coaching skills
- Longitudinal tracking to measure engagement and retention
The Result
By implementing this structured onboarding and coaching approach, the hospitality client successfully:
- Onboarded more than 300 customer service associates.
- Increased guest engagement.
- Improved conversion performance by 3.5% year-over-year.
- Boosted contact center revenue contributions by $8 million.
Conclusion
TrainingPros’ instructional design consultants played a pivotal role in transforming the hospitality client’s onboarding program. By leveraging expertise in adult learning, performance coaching, and experience-driven design, the new approach not only streamlined the onboarding process but also aligned training outcomes with measurable business impact.
Elements of a Learning Journey for Instructional Designers
Resources Provided
Resources Provided
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