An Investigation into the Effect of Job-Aid Design on Customer Troubleshooting Performance

Abstract

This study compared the use of interactive decision guides to traditional process flowcharts. A within-subjects design with two conditions was carried out to determine if there is a statistically significant difference between the job aids on the outcomes of perceived cognitive load, perceived satisfaction, and performance with regard to time-on-task and diagnostic accuracy. Participants consisted of call center agents who work in customer service roles at a large telecommunications company. Participants found the interactive decision guides less cognitively demanding than the traditional process flowcharts. Second, participants' perceptions of satisfaction towards the interactive decision guides were more positive than the traditional process flowcharts. It took participants the same average amount of time in seconds to diagnose problems using the interactive decision guide as it did the traditional process flowchart. Finally, there was no significant relationship between job aid design and diagnostic accuracy.