PowerVote, an attractive system!
The use of interactive voting keypads has resulted in significant changes for numerous companies with regard to their training procedures. Indeed, this is what happened for Stihl, specialised in the manufacture of farming, forestry and gardening machinery.
In September 2008, the company decided to equip itself with the PowerVote system in order to lend greater dynamism to the training courses offered to both its internal sales forces and its distributors responsible for marketing its products. This initiative was set up by the Products and Training department, headed by Wim Marjin Lammers.
Only a few months ago, Wim Marjin Lammers was unaware of the variety and the applications of the interactive voting systems available on the market today. He knew that such devices “perhaps existed, but,” he admits, “I was generally unfamiliar with their functioning and potential”. As opposed to the usual case among professionals, it was not by participating in any conference or meeting that the Director of Stihl’s Products and Training department first discovered interactive voting keypads.
It was simply by searching over the Internet that he learned about this system. To an extent, this discovery modified his view of new technologies applied to in-house training. His company eventually acquired 50 PowerVote voting keypads.
A variety of applications
First and foremost, Stihl uses the PowerVote system for what it calls its “summer camps”. These training sessions are set up to present the company’s internal sales forces with all the new products for the coming seasons. “We used the PowerVote systems to confirm the participants’ knowledge and make the product presentations more enjoyable,” explains Wim Marjin Lammers.
Likewise, the company has used the interactive voting keypads to present new products to its distributors throughout the country, with the goal of making its training sessions more fun and more dynamic. “We simulated a sales situation which the retailers must then put into practice with their store’s clients.” This type of meeting is part of a sort of roadshow that Stihl organises and which consists of twelve meetings gathering together a total of 1,200 participants.
In addition, in its retailer training centre, the company has also made use of the voting keypads developed by PowerVote. The training sessions last two or three days, and about half way through the course a quiz is carried out to test acquired knowledge. In this manner, “the instructors can make sure that the messages being sent are also being understood,” explains Wim Marjin Lammers, “and this, therefore, also allows the instructors to go back over certain points that have not been well understood by the entire group or by an individual”.
At the end of the training course, in order to measure the participants’ rate of satisfaction, Stihl once again relies on the PowerVote system: “It allows us to have precise, direct results for each question, without having to then re-enter the data,” he adds.
“Astounded” by this system
So far, those who have had the opportunity to use the interactive voting keypads during Stihl’s training sessions have, for the most part, greatly appreciated the PowerVote system: “People marvel at the system’s possibilities and its ease of use,” confirms Wim Marjin Lammers. What is more, “for those who design the questionnaires or who must manage the system, it’s also really simple, which is a huge advantage,” adds the Director of Stihl’s Products and Training department.
With regard to student participation, this has increased dramatically, especially during the product presentation sessions for the company’s distributors. It is always difficult, as Wim Marjin Lammers explains, to get the audience actively involved in this type of meeting. However, with the interactive voting keypads, “nearly everyone participates”. In addition, because these devices ensure a certain anonymity, “people say what they really think”.
At Stihl, the use of interactive voting keypads has significantly altered how the company communicates with its internal sales forces and with the distributors marketing its products.
“Previously, we had no dynamic tools at our disposal that allowed us to test their knowledge or to simulate sales situations. However, at the training centre, we naturally had paper-based satisfaction questionnaires, as well as paper-based evaluation questionnaires. For example, we passed out questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the training course, to see if the trainees had progressed in their knowledge of the various products and technologies. These paper-based tests were, nevertheless, much less fun,” as Wim Marjin Lammers admits.
According to Stihl’s Director of Products and Training, one must always keep in mind the concrete needs of each event when using this type of interactive tool. “While they can prove useful for any type of meeting, one shouldn’t overdo it. All the same, one must seek to either entertain or to train.”
Wim Marjin Lammers does not believe that interactive voting keypads should be used “simply because they’re a modern, fun tool”. However, he considers that a moderate use of such devices is the most effective and believes that using them once every meeting is sufficient.
About Stihl
Specialised in the manufacture of farming, forestry and gardening machinery, Stihl was founded in 1926 in Stuttgart, Germany, by the engineer Andreas Stihl, recognised as the inventor of the chainsaw. In 1971, the Stihl group became the world’s largest chainsaw manufacturer, producing 340,000 saws annually. Today, the company employs nearly 10,000 people around the world and sets aside a considerable amount of its investments for the training of its employees and authorized distributors. In 2007, Stihl’s turnover for all five continents exceeded £2 billion.
Tags : audience voting system, industrial manufacturer, Stihl, Training, voting keypads
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