Scale VR customer service training to 46,000 retail workers

We value the relationships we have with Start Beyond and Strivr, who are helping us provide our team members with engaging learning experiences through Virtual Reality (VR). This partnership and investment into VR enables high-quality and consistent training to be undertaken by our cohort of Woolworths Supermarkets team members, totalling tens of thousands, and in a more timely manner.

Our team members have been empowered by utilising these VR training modules which are conducted in a controlled, yet realistic environment and cover a variety of topics from general customer service to de-escalating difficult situations. Ensuring our store teams feel safe and skilled is a core focus of ours, as it helps build their confidence.

Through VR training, the benefit is that our team members can practice the best way to act and respond in what can be challenging and possibly confronting situations. We would rather our team experience this via VR, which acts like a ‘flight simulator", rather than being put into situations for the first time in real life.

We’re constantly reviewing opportunities that will best prepare our team members for the variety of situations, and we’re thankful to have partnered with Start Beyond and Strivr to help bring this to life

‍The Challenge:

How could Woolworths scale up training for over 100,000 team members nationwide, whilst reducing training time and increasing capabilities on the supermarket floor?

The Solution:‍

Following on from success of VR training in the US from retailers like Walmart and Bank of America, Woolworths have partnered with Start Beyond and STRIVR to bring to life Australia's largest, at scale, VR training program; accessed in over 1,000 supermarket stores nationwide.  

Covering a wide variety of on-the-shop-floor VR simulations, the training program has been accessed by over 46,000 team members to date, and has dramatically reduced training time and costs comparable to face to face training. The most recent module, Customer Acts of Violence and Aggression, has been particularly impactful, providing team members with a safe but realistic simulation of dangerous scenarios involving violent and aggressive customers.

" The benefit is that our team members can practice the best way to act and respond in what can be challenging and possibly confronting situations. We would rather our team experience this via VR... than being put into situations for the first time in real life." - Rebecca Todd, People Director, Woolworths Supermarkets

The VR modules have uplifted skills across customer service, safety and leadership, and inspired workers with the confidence required to work successfully in a frontline retail role.

14 modules have been produced thus far in a continually expanding library of content, covering topics including:

Customer Acts of Violence & Aggression - Staying safe in situations with hostile customers

Quality Assessment of Fresh Produce - Identifying the various stages of product quality

The Self Checkout Area - Managing customers in peak hour trade

Customer Service - Improving customer care for increased VOC

Customer Fulfilment Warehouses - Picking and packing procedure for online orders

Drawing from a decade of experience in VR training and simulation, Start Beyond work closely with Woolworths on every VR training module from inception through to completion, including:

• Concepting and immersive learning design with Woolworths subject matter experts
• Large scale VR shoots with film industry professional crew and actors
• VR post production and interactive experience builds

The VR training content is seamlessly accessed across 2,000 headsets in supermarkets nationwide, built on Strivr's robust VR infrastructure which includes hardware, security, deployment, analytics and content tools.

Within the first two years since launch, the program has been a great success and usage metrics have surpassed expectations:

• >153,000 VR experiences completed by 46,000 team members
• >12,000 hrs of in-headset training undertaken
• >90% completion rates