Taming the Angry Customer:

Christmas ISN’T Ruined

Brief

Every month, Tim Slade launches an eLearning challenge complete with a problem, SME insights, and resources. His October 2025 challenge: “De-escalating Angry Customers,” really struck a chord with me - especially when he framed it as “The Sims meets eLearning.”

The brief was simple: Create an interactive, decision-based customer service scenario focused on resolving and de-escalating conflict, using We Are Learning as the authoring tool. After course completion, learners should feel confident identifying problems, showing empathy, staying calm, and resolving customer issues collaboratively.

Target Learner

  • Airline staff working in customer service 

    (fictional airline Air New Kiwiland)


  • Storyboarded, designed, and developed the full learning experience

My Role

  • Google Docs (storyboarding )

  • Canva (graphics: logo setting setting enhancement, video, job aid)

  • Pixabay (sound effects)

  • AI/ChatGPT (script and job aid refinement, logo and setting creation)

  • We Are Learning (build)

Tools Used

Timeline

  • Week 1: Storyboarding, scripting, and generating settings and environment concepts

  • Week 2: Designing the CALM framework, infographics, intro video, and other visual assets

  • Week 3: Building and testing the branching scenario in We Are Learning.

  • Week 4: Testing, and refining the branching scenario in We Are Learning. Submission October 30.

  • Many customer service interactions escalate quickly due to emotional responses rather than the issue itself. Staff often receive procedural training but practice in emotional awareness, empathy, and communication under pressure can be neglected. The challenge was to design an experience where learners could practise calm de-escalation (not just read about it) in a realistic, story-based environment. By the end of the course, learners should feel confident identifying problems, showing empathy, staying calm, and resolving customer issues collaboratively.

  • Because We Are Learning is a storytelling platform, I knew I needed consistent, relatable characters to anchor the experience and provide familiarity throughout the training. The five characters each represent a different customer dispute scenario within an airport context, demonstrating how to handle conflict while following company policy.

    Learners can choose which scenario to experience, allowing them to explore different challenges and see how their decisions influence the outcome. This structure keeps the training personal, relevant, and engaging while reinforcing the key principles of calm, empathetic communication.

    The module supports the rollout of a new CALM framework - a fictional policy designed to help staff de-escalate conflict with empathy and professionalism. It was created to serve both new employees, as part of their onboarding, and existing staff, as a refresher to reinforce consistent company practice.

Design and Development

  • Storyboard & Structure

I began by creating a design document outlining the training objectives, then moved on to storyboard the learner journey. My process usually starts as a messy mind map on paper before being shaped more intentionally in Google Docs, where I focus on clarity and empathy within branching dialogue. This stage helped me visualise flow, decision logic, and tone consistency across all five scenarios.

Design Document
Storyboard

  • Visual Direction

To establish a cohesive look and feel, I developed an Air New Kiwiland visual identity board featuring consistent typography, brand colours, and tone.

Evolving the setting turned out to be more complex than expected. Generating concepts through AI using ChatGPT was both fascinating and unpredictable. Frustratingly, prompts often needed reworking to capture cultural and seasonal relevance without misinterpretation. Simple commands like “move to the left of the desk” or “keep the setting the same but add ‘this’ logo” frequently produced unexpected results, revealing just how nuanced AI interpretation can be.

Setting Evolution: Initial Design Attempts

  • The first iteration

  • Logo to the centre of the desk

  • Logo misplacement

  • 3D version - more in tune with We Are Learning

  • External Scene

  • Alternative head office scene

  • Early baggage carousel

  • Building in We Are Learning

Where the magic happened…

Reflection

This project became a heck of a lot bigger than I ever intended it to, as the ideas started to flow during the storyboarding stage. I was also full-time teaching at this time, so all work was completed during evenings and weekends.

Overall, I really enjoyed putting it together. We Are Learning is a fun and ridiculously easy tool to navigate, and the effects are incredible. The layout reminded me of many video-editing tools — adjusting on a timeline and adding in external media such as images and diagrams. The option to add video is currently restricted to the poster node, and I would have liked the option to add it within the dialogue node.

The AI open-response feature is definitely a game changer in the growing AI trend across most workplaces. I think the idea is great, but I found many flaws in this feature at the moment. Even with detailed prompts, it’s currently too easy for the learner to be taken off on a complete tangent that isn’t part of the set story. In theory, it’s a great feature for interactivity though.

The most frustrating thing about this tool was that it was so unforgiving. I could not find an “undo” button. If you accidentally delete a node (which I did a couple of times), it’s gone for good! It would also be awesome to see more varied cultural representation. I chose a British accent for all my characters as this was the closest to New Zealand. I also wanted to go a bit harder on the te reo Māori, but it tended to come out phonetically incorrect, which was a shame.

Ultimately though, I really enjoyed putting this together — from the Air New Zealand inspo through to the playful Kiwi vibes.

EXPERIENCE THIS PROJECT