A Customer Success Story with An Unexpected Twist
Shalini Merugu
Learning Solutions Director | Learning Design and Technology | Curriculum Development & Instructional Design
The Cast and the Plot
The Main Characters
We were invited by a wealthy nation's government to bid on a major project to establish eLearning for one of their key ministries from the ground up. This wasn't just about courses—it involved setting up infrastructure, technical training, skills development, and building capacity across all levels within the Ministry. With no existing IT infrastructure for eLearning (this was 2010 and they were late adopters), they sought top-tier advisory and implementation services on platforms, technology, course authoring tools, instructional design, and rapid implementation. Their goal was to scale this initiative across multiple centers, showcasing the government's proactive, transformational approach to training their engineering workforce for real impact.
Their Partners: Enter CommLab India
We were a small, spirited, growth-hungry eLearning company dreaming big and determined to not just add more customers but also tremendous value to both new and existing ones.
The Plot, a.k.a, the Scope
Our customer needed us to not only advise them on setting up their training infrastructure and eLearning, but also extensively train their team across roles (ID, GD, LMS admin, PM). These teams would then create online training for their 60,000 workforce. Here's what we advised, trained, and helped them roadmap:
Our preparation was quick- we brought in our L&D experts from every functional team, created ILT decks and workshop materials quickly, ran extensive dry runs, and provided our in-house teams a crash course on cultural sensitization and business etiquette in our customers’ part of the world.
Teaching Them “to Fish”
The overseas team arrived with great enthusiasm, as it was a prestigious project for them. Our audience analysis showed many were new to the training domain. From day one, our office became a super-charged, high-energy learning zone. Mornings were dedicated to training, afternoons to hands-on workshops, and Q&A sessions tailored to different groups. We evaluated their daily outputs—storyboards, project plans, graphic assets—while balancing our day jobs of creating eLearning for other clients, without affecting quality, timelines, or cost.
For a month, we hosted our customer on-site, delivering 30 days of intense, results-packed, rewarding, and sometimes exhausting (for us!) sessions. Our focus was on creating a compelling customer and training experience and equipping them to implement and manage L&D projects independently (not just help them by catching fish but by teaching them to fish as well!). By the time they left, they were proficient in consulting, instructional design, authoring tools, LMS administration, and project management.
Despite their generous budgets, we advised caution and the right short- and long-term decisions around investments in IT technology, LMS, authoring tools, and people. A snapshot of our scope. In a nutshell, this is what we did:
The Twist in the Tale!
If we thought training them on all aspects of L&D from scratch would be the main challenge, we were quickly proven wrong! On day two, we faced an unexpected challenge: our guests couldn’t handle Indian or American food, and the top hotels where they were put up, and from where we hoped to order food couldn’t meet their fastidious tastes. They longed for their native cuisine and requested to eat from our office cafeteria.
Our cafeteria team, accustomed so far only to Indian and continental dishes, sprang into action like culinary ninjas. They experimented with recipes, with each dish rigorously tested before reaching our customers. Some ingredients were hard to source, and several of us took it upon ourselves to find them. One of our marketing heads, skilled in multi-cultural cuisine (although not this customer’s specific cuisine), even guided the cafeteria staff in adapting meals to suit their palate.
I recall leading an ID workshop the previous day, but earlier that day, I had volunteered to pick up some hard-to-find ingredients. As my colleague and I walked into the office, arms full of supplies, a senior participant from the previous day’s session asked me, with a sense of wonder “What exactly is your role here?” A valid question — because we were all doing everything: from skill building and consulting to sourcing ingredients, cooking, and food-tasting—whatever it took to provide an impactful, memorable, results-driven experience! I still remember Ayesha, our COO, hurrying to the cafeteria for final touches and food tasting—truly embodying the phrase “the proof of the pudding is in the eating!”
Building Customer Relationships
Amidst the ID, LMS, GD, PM trainings, consulting, and hospitality, we had engaging cultural exchanges with our guests—rich learning on both sides. RK, our CEO and Ayesha, our COO, were involved hands-on with all that was happening in office. One thing - we weren’t used to customers roaming our workspace, but this team used every break to engage with us, even those not directly involved in their training. So our employees even synchronized their breaks to be available for questions or to help them feel at home. We also made sure our customer’s visit was special, by guiding them to Hyderabad’s best spots for our famous pearls and handicrafts.
Uh…Huh…Where Is This Going?
The point of this story? We had started our journey in 2000 with a hunger to grow and an obsession with customer delight. And every one of us went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure this unusual customer team had the best experience. Did leadership instruct us to do so? No. It is our default setting. Was it always smooth? No. But we sorted out every rough patch through agile action. Did we deliver everything they needed on time? Yes. With high quality? Yes. Did we face unexpected challenges? Yes. Were we fazed? Not at all. Did we take pride in helping this customer succeed? YES, YES, and YES.
That’s still our story today. It’s why our customers keep returning—rapid eLearning solutions, tireless value delivery, working as an extension of their teams, feeling their pain points and taking individual and collective ownership to address them. Unlike many vendors who are experts in tools, we are experts in ID & training who expertly wield technology and tools, including AI ones, to drive success.
Today, of course, we don’t handle such broad customer projects anymore but as established leaders in Rapid eLearning Solutions, our razor-sharp focus is on rapid eLearning, without compromising on robust instructional design to deliver the value our customers need. One of our customers summed us up perfectly: Swiss efficiency + Asian customer obsession + American professionalism.
The ‘Heart’ of The Matter
When the overseas team finally left, me and my colleagues recall lots of hugs from the same group that had initially been stiff and formal (and perhaps just a bit elitist, given they were handpicked by their government to set up the digital learning infrastructure for a key ministry). Once my role in the training was over, I was about to go on a planned leave, so I went around to say bye to their team, and their learning leader, impulsively, pulled out a beautiful shirt she had bought for herself and, despite my protests, insisted I take it. This gesture wasn’t about professional courtesy—It was, I believe, an acknowledgement of our team’s heart and soul dedication to helping their team succeed and bring honor to their country, and in the process, build strong relationships as fellow L&D professionals.
Content Manager at STAEDEAN
1moAn unexpected twist indeed! Keep these articles coming Shalini Merugu. And kudos to the team involved in this customer success story.