Samsonite engages more than 85% of its workforce

As a market leader in travel products, Samsonite is known for its stylish and high-quality suitcases, backpacks, handbags and accessories.

Samsonite focuses more and more on ‘customer experience’ and wants to guarantee the same experience in every shop. This requires training and an efficient LMS.

The Challenge

At the start of the L&D project, Samsonite set up a series of its own training sessions and then made them available to the store staff using a portal. However, the portal did not seem to meet the rapidly growing needs. The programs were too static, meaning that new training material could not be added afterwards. The reporting section was also unsatisfactory. As a result, Samsonite was looking for an LMS that could:

• Have different learning paths to be developed per function, per brand
• Offer comprehensive reporting capabilities
• Set up the portal with all the multilingual content
• Bring news items/communications to the attention of the public

The Solution

“At the start of the project it was not entirely clear to us what exactly we were looking for in an LMS. Our needs only really took shape after our first experiences within the L&D world. During our search, another party referred us to The Courseware Company. They showed us an example of Hunkemöller and we were immediately impressed. We wanted to make the switch to another system quickly. That’s why we were looking for a standard LMS such as Totara Learn. In addition, it is nice to have the supplier nearby.”

Multilingualism was also very important to Samsonite. The LMS and all available content needed to be available in 10 languages. In the end, Samsonite chose Totara Lear because of the many functions available in the system and the possibility of multilingualism. 

“The implementation went well. The weekly calls were very efficient. We appreciate the fact that during these calls we received clear answers to our questions; this enabled us to proceed quickly. We only underestimated the time we spent on it ourselves. The Courseware Company implemented the LMS and we set it up ourselves. We have placed more than 580 video courses in the LMS. This is an advantage now, because we know exactly how it works.

“The co-operation with The Courseware Company is very good. Throughout the implementation period, we had follow-up meetings on a weekly basis. This was really reassuring for us.” – Ann Stradiot, L&D Manager, Samsonite

The Results: The Coach

The result is a modern, multilingual learning platform called The Coach.

Everyone in the retail stores has their own account, but recently Samsonite has also started offering programmes for all their wholesale accounts. That’s more than 2,000 accounts in Russia, South Africa and Europe.

“In early December 2018 we went live with the new version of The Coach in Totara Learn. Since then, the number of active accounts has increased, from 65% in December to 85% today.”

In The Coach, each user is assigned a personal study path, based on his or her position and the brands sold in the store. During the onboarding course, employees can get to know Samsonite through different modules. Existing employees can follow in-depth modules about the service and products.

“Our consultant always thought along with us and was ready to help us. We really appreciated this! She’s got our back. And she’s still on our speed dial.”

What’s next

Samsonite’s goal is to increase the number of active users to 100%. They would like alltheir employees to actively log into The Coach. That’s the first step – in the first five seconds they determine whether the learning platform has something interesting to offer. If their employees like it, then they will keep coming back.

In order to make the learning platform as fun and interactive as possible, we will also develop more quizzes in gomo and Articulate in the future that place more emphasis on ‘doing’. We also hope that the new modules will again attract people to log into The Coach.