Our clients rely on us as their secret weapon. When they engage us to analyze and resolve their performance improvement challenges, we tap our collective of highly specialized industry professionals. Every need is unique, and so should be each solution.

This ongoing series highlights the unique roles and skills that set Solutions Arts’ teams apart from our competition. No matter the project size, one thing remains constant: our clients' mission critical business initiatives are safe in our professionals’ capable hands.
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Interview with Solutions Arts’ team member, Brian Prosser, Business Presentation Producer

Question: What do you call what you do?
BP: I’m a business presentation producer. I draw from my skills in photography, computer graphics, and multi-image presentation and production to create messaging that learners can synthesize and recall easily.

PowerPoint (PPT) gets a bad rap. It can be a great tool when used to target a client’s message effectively. We’re all familiar with creating PPT presentations on the fly or using in-house resources. Does it get the message across? Probably. Could it do it better? Most certainly. And, that’s where I come in. I work with Solutions Arts (SA) instructional designers (IDs) to drive learning content through images and presentation. This increases learner engagement and retention.

Question: What drew you to this kind of work? How long have you been in the industry?
BP: I’ve been working in the industry in some form or another for over 30 years.

I studied photography and, when I first learned about  multi-image production (multiple projector slide shows), I decided to include it with my existing degree program. Combining the two represented a great marriage of photography and presentation. As a result, I earned my BS in photography with a minor in multi-image.

Through the years, I’ve added to my skill set. For example, I learned when and how to use special effects and computer graphics appropriately. I also specialize in digital editing, creating Ken Burns style video presentations and have used this skill for clients like small theatres that want to create trivia questions and produce ads for the cinema advertising industry.

I’ve been in the field and witnessed many technology standards transform from the Autographix machines back in the ‘80’s and using Aldus Persuasion to PPT as the industry standard today. Creating effective and visually appealing presentations no longer involves very expensive computers and computer programs. Any business, no matter its size or budget, can access affordable technology to develop presentations.

Question: What are your job-related strengths? What sets you apart from the competition?
Brian Prosser (BP): Many people use PPT as a shell to house Photoshopped art. I use all aspects of PPT from animation to linking and branching and all the rich features and functionality the program offers.

​Question: Do people often refer to you as a ‘designer’?
BP: Yes, but I don’t refer to myself as one. PPT is a different kind of design. As a business presentation producer, I take an existing deck that our IDs lay out with content, make it pop, and drive the message.

Instead of a designer, I’m a good mix of technician and designer; usually a project has one or the other.

Question: How do you define a good project? What are the hallmarks of a good project?
BP: I really enjoy working on projects that combine several robust features not commonly used. PPT animation features have been misused for so long that people seldom feel comfortable using the feature. When an opportunity arises for me to use it, I like doing so as it harkens back to some of the positives of traditional presentations. It’s also kind of neat to pull from my multi-image days and overlay that on my animation skills.

Question: What makes your job easier/more difficult?
BP: Support is always good; vague or no support is always difficult.

There’s nothing worse than having to do something over and over again because someone isn’t able to explain what they want, or they provide vague feedback. I want them to be direct and explain why it isn’t working for them. I encourage them to help me better understand the point they’re trying to get across.

Question: What best practices do you implement consistently?
BP:

• Communicate effectively with the client, especially if a new client.
• Send comps, and talk back and forth before creating the entire presentation.
• Demonstrate follow-through.
• Commit to and meet deadlines.
• Voice concerns when a deadline is unreasonable.
• Avoid, at all costs, putting myself in a situation where I cannot come through for the client.

Question: What would you like clients to know? Why should clients care about their PPTs?
BP: Care about their PPT – it’s their face to the world.

It should be engaging and interesting. Be open to using more of PPTs rich features and functionality like animation. It can help illustrate a point they’re trying to get across.


About Solutions Arts
Solutions Arts is a performance improvement, custom learning and development organization rooted in proven organizational development and learning standards and practices. Our collective of freelance industry professionals possesses over 50 years of combined experience and a wealth of learning and development theory, practice, and technology at our clients’ disposal. SA delivers results on time, on budget, and with flair offering clients creative and proven solutions to address business challenges.

Research tells us that “customer service can make or break your business”[1]. Most of us agree, good customer service is really important to a successful business. But how do we really know if we have good customer service, and how can we fix it if it’s bad?

Let’s review how customer service typically is quantified.

1.  Surveys. A really good use of surveys is to query your customers after an encounter with customer service. Granted, people who are angry with your service are more likely to respond, but it can be a great way to gain a snapshot of users’ experience and translate that into actionable data and results. Key Takeaway: Customer service surveys help you get a view of your company from your customers’ perspective. [2]
2. Problem tracking. Whether you track problems through customer service requests or service requests, you can get a really good quality control check of customer service by looking at your top problems, especially problems that take more than one contact to resolve. Lots of repeat calls for the same problem? Poor customer service. Key Takeaway: Leverage existing data to uncover patterns in customer service gaps.
3. Reviews. Customers will sometimes not bother using your system to report problems, especially if they have already contacted the company about a problem in the past, so you have to look at social media to try to glean insights into your company. Your potential new customers are looking at reviews, so it certainly seems like a good idea for you to do the same. Key Takeaway: Monitor social media comments. Doing so may provide insight into improving customer service moving forward, offer opportunities for service recovery, and inform you on what your teams are doing right.

You’ve gathered and reviewed the data, and there’s bad news: you’ve got bad customer service. What are some key causes for poorly rated customer service?

1. Product development that is disconnected from the customer. Is your website hard to use? Do products have the wrong mix of features? Do customers have to describe their problem to multiple people to get a resolution? These are all examples of products and systems designed for the ease of the developer, instead of resulting in a delightful customer experience.
2. Treating customer service as a cost center. Many companies look at customer service as a “necessary evil”. The staff have to fight for resources, are not included in communications of new product launches or key company initiatives, and in general are not considered important team members.[3]
3. Customer service team members lack the correct training and empowerment to fix customer problems.

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How does it get fixed? The first two require a mindset change and fixing broken processes. These two problem areas are often well addressed through process improvement initiatives that can identify and resolve the problem at its root. The last problem, training, is often identified as a problem but rarely fixed with the right approach. Let’s look at what’s required to fix this problem for those that are serious about improving customer service.

1.  Clearly identify the root problems with a needs analysis. Find out exactly what is driving the poor quality of the customer service experience. It could be lack of familiarity with resources, poor conflict resolution skills, obstacles in the system, poor initial hiring selection, or a lack of other skills that block the customer service staff from delivering great results. The needs assessment will bring that to light.
2. Design active scenario training that equips people with live-fire training. This is not the place to have people page through an online course. Customer service staff need to be able to query customers, access resources, and resolve conflict simultaneously. Role playing and scenario-based learning represent two of the best ways to teach and develop those skills.
3. Follow up all training with evaluation of results to ensure the right training was used, and to identify areas of concern for advanced training. It is only through follow up evaluation that a determination of return on investment can be done and the success or failure of training judged. Always include an evaluation strategy in whatever training intervention is implemented.

​A demonstrated strategy and commitment to improve customer service can offer many additional benefits above and beyond customers’ experiences and perspectives. It can boost employee morale, help create more engaged employees, and increase your company’s desirability as a workplace. All of these strengthen the bottom line.[4]


[1] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/trish-herriman/how-customer-service-can-_b_7216422.html

[2] http://www.icmi.com/Resources/Customer-Experience/2011/03/The-Value-of-Customer-Satisfaction-Surveys

[3] Causes of Poor Customer Service

[4] https://explorance.com/2013/09/4-key-benefits-customer-service-training-programs/