Watts grows customer engagement with new incentivized learning platform

Watts is a leader in water technology products, committed to improving the comfort, safety, and quality of life for people around the world. Their mission is to provide high-quality products, systems, and solutions for the conveyance, conservation, control, and safe use of water.

The Challenge

Drive a learning culture that can grow with the brand

Watts has always supported strong learning programs for employees and customers. Their various Watts® Works℠ Learning Centers provide a venue for in-person trainings through lunch and learns, and educational videos. However, they needed a system that would help deliver and track centralized online training to further engage employees and customers in learning.

Their previous customer training LMS was non-intuitive and left a lot to be desired. It was difficult for users to access content and it presented a variety of challenges for employees and partners looking to grow their knowledge. As a result, online course activity and employee engagement strategies were not where they should have been, especially for an organization that values learning and growth.

The Watts learning team conducted interviews with stakeholders throughout the business and it became clear that they needed a new LMS with stronger LXP-like e-learning capabilities and access to the industry’s latest features and functionality.

The Solution

A new LMS with a “learn and earn” component

Watts’ e-learning Program Manager Rebecca Braunert-Plunkett partnered with Kineo to implement a new custom LMS based on Totara Learn. It features a sleek, branded interface and an auto-audience assignment feature that helps users to register quickly as internal employees or as an extended enterprise partner.  It would also give them a definitive source of knowledge that users can access at their own convenience. As the process was set in motion, the Motrain gamification plugin was added into the mix. This integration was a driving force for improving learner engagement, allowing users to earn tokens for completing courses and creating a foundation for the Watts “Learn and Earn” program.

The digital tokens used in this gamified learning program can be collected and redeemed within the LMS for unique, Watts-branded lifestyle merchandise. Users complete courses, save up, and then can browse an online store, featuring items from blankets to tools to clothing. Motrain also seamlessly integrated the logistics component of the fulfillment process with the existing supplier used by Watts.

The Totara implementation also gave Braunert-Plunkett and her team a variety of customizable options to control and adjust the focus of learning. With administrator access, they can set parameters around the token values of each course and modify how much learning is required before users are eligible to redeem the tokens for merchandise. This flexibility, along with the featured content or “What’s Hot?” section of the LMS, gives them the freedom to incentivize certain courses within their network and promote learning courses around larger company initiatives.

The Results

Customer engagement skyrockets with a customizable solution

Through the implementation of their Totara Learn platform and Motrain’s gamification plugin, the number of course completions skyrocketed within the Watts network. Tracked course completions increased from around 1,000 in 2018 to more than 28,000 in the first 90 days of their new LMS launch.

Watts also tracked over 2,300 external self-registrations and participation continues to grow as new courses are being added with ease. The team was able to add as many as 18 product courses in less than a week’s time. All of this gives them the freedom to grow their eLearning initiatives with an engaged audience.

Other key results…

• 121 total available courses
• 30,676 external enrollments
• 688 merchandise redemptions through Motrain

“Through the Watts Learn and Earn gamification functions set up on our Totara site with the help of Kineo and the Motrain extension, we’ve realized that rewards are the door opener. However, once users notice how intuitive and easy the system is to navigate, suddenly, redeeming tokens for merchandise becomes secondary to the overall learning experience.”