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Circle K: Filling baskets and winning awards

Circle K, with 15,000 European employees across 9 territories, achieved success using Attensi Impact, surpassing KPIs for customer basket size and staff retention.

92%of employees like this form of training
95%of employees prefer it over e-learning
85%of employees report improvement after training
97%of store managers like this type of training

"It has helped us increase merchandise sales and basket size while reducing employee turnover. Plus, 97% of store managers like this type of training and say it makes onboarding easier and ensures more consistent behavior."

Kristian Planke Styrmo
Kristian Planke StyrmoDirector People Development | Circle K Europe

Filling baskets and winning awards

As one of the world’s leading convenience and fuel retail businesses, Circle K is only too familiar with consistent good customer service. Across Europe, the company employs over 15,000 people in more than 1,500 stores, in 9 territories – the kind of logistics that present considerable challenges for staff training.

With different cultures, languages, and individual store managers running their own business to consider, making sure customer service remains courteous, swift, and consistent is no easy task. So, when Circle K launched an ambitious growth strategy centered around its staff, the European People Development team seized the opportunity to take training to the next level.

The solution: ‘Train to Win’ with Attensi Impact

The team had previously used both video and traditional e-learning but decided that this new training needed to be mobile-first. Additionally, to consider the campaign a success, the Circle K team set themselves a high bar with 3 key metrics.

The training had to

Make at least 70% of staff feel more confident and better at their daily jobs.
Help employees with upselling, increasing the average customer basket size.
Empower staff to feel mastery of their jobs faster, reducing employee turnover.
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Attensi Impact provided the solution Circle K were looking for. Working closely with the designers and writers at Attensi, the team recreated one of Circle K’s stores as a 3D gamified simulation called ‘Train to Win’.

Playing through their mobile device or tablet, users are tasked with addressing the needs of virtual store customers. These are represented as 3D avatars with motion captured body language and facial expressions to convey their varying moods.

Attensi Impact mobile

The immersive in-game scenarios offer multiple choice dialogues, all voiced by real actors. Correct responses are rewarded with points, and eventual progression to the next stage. Rather than punish wrong decisions, the simulation instead gives feedback and advice on what to try next time, creating a safe environment where failure and experimentation are encouraged.

The ‘Train to Win’ simulation has been adapted per territory, with specific products and procedures for each market. The result is a bespoke gamified simulation, tailor-made and relevant across all 9 European countries.

Award winning results – Best HR technology strategy

Despite their ambitious targets, the results of the campaign exceeded all expectations. Amongst all stores who used the training:

  • 85% of staff reported that they felt the training made them better at their jobs.
  • Average basket sizes saw a significant increase, directly attributable to staff upselling.
  • By contrast, the rate of staff turnover was reduced considerably.

But surpassing these KPIs wasn’t the only cause for celebration at Circle K Europe. In January 2020, the judging panel of the HR Excellence Awards handed the ‘Train to Win’ team the award for Best HR Technology Strategy.

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