The Starting Point

When I joined AudienceView in August 2018, the support operation had no formal training programme. New agents were onboarded through tribal knowledge — shadowing senior team members, reading whatever documentation existed, learning by doing. No structured curriculum, no assessment, no formal definition of what capable looked like at any level of the role.

The consequences: inconsistent onboarding, significant variation in agent quality, no career path for retention, and no promotion framework. When the Vendini acquisition arrived in 2019, the integration team needed a training framework that could absorb a second organisation — which we were able to provide because we’d already built one.

"There’s no such thing as tribal knowledge that scales. When your operation doubles through a merger, whatever lives only in people’s heads disappears."

The Curriculum Design

AudienceView University was structured into three certification levels, each with defined content, assessment criteria, and progression requirements.

Level 1
Foundation — Product Basics & Support Process
Core product knowledge, support process fundamentals, ticketing system proficiency, communication standards, and escalation protocols. Required for all agents within their first 90 days. Assessment: written exam + observed ticket handling.
Level 2
Practitioner — Advanced Product & Complex Case Handling
Advanced product modules, complex case handling, OLA application, and cross-functional coordination. Required for agents handling P1/P2 cases independently. Assessment: case study portfolio + manager evaluation.
Level 3
Expert — Mentorship, Knowledge Base & Escalation Authority
Full product expertise, mentoring junior agents, contributing to the knowledge base, and serving as escalation authority. L3 agents were the source of institutional knowledge made explicit. Assessment: peer review + KB contribution + mentor assessment.

The Knowledge Base Connection

AudienceView University and the customer-facing knowledge base were built as connected systems. Every L3 certification required a minimum number of knowledge base articles authored or reviewed. As agents progressed, the KB grew. As the KB grew, new agents had better self-study material. The curriculum and KB reinforced each other.

During the Vendini merger: New team members went through the L1 curriculum on an accelerated track. The knowledge base gave them reference material from day one. The integration didn’t create a training gap because the infrastructure to address one already existed.

Programme Outcomes

100%
Team at L1 certification
60%
Team at L2+
↓
Time to productivity — onboarding
Merger
Framework adopted for Vendini

What We Learned

Define “capable” before you build it. The most valuable step was defining what L1, L2, and L3 actually meant in specific, observable behaviours — not aspirational terms.

Career paths retain people. Before AudienceView University, there was no visible path. After, there was. The conversation changed from “when will I get promoted?” to “I need three more KB articles for my L3 assessment.”

Build it before you need it at scale. We built the framework in a stable period and used it under M&A pressure. Organisations that struggle with integration training are building the framework and executing the integration at the same time.

Training DesignCurriculum DevelopmentL1/L2/L3 CertificationKnowledge BaseOnboardingM&A Readiness