Coffee Mobile at Next Gen Dragon’s Den
On Next Gen Dragon’s Den, the launching pad for many new on-line entrepreneurs, you will discover an interesting new app that is going viral by helping the ever increasing flexible workforce. Most flexible, part time and front line workers have a smartphone in their pocket. This creates an opportunity for more mobile-first SaaS tools to be developed to increase productivity and efficiency for a brand’s flexible and front-line workforce. In addition, this app for flexible workforce was built specifically to benefit the employee at work are more readily available then one might think, and often cost nothing. The trick is, how do we connect both the brand, and the front line staff member together on the same platform so communications can flow freely while individually providing value for both unique needs? According to Coffee Mobile-Shift Trading App, the answer lies in the feature sets available for these very different use cases, to ensure there is benefit for both users.
O.K. So let’s look at what the different use cases are for the employee, a middle level store manager/district manager and then the top, the brand itself.
The front line customer facing worker needs a mobile first tool. Instagram is mobile first, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Uber, are all mobile first and these are examples of some of the most popular apps in the world with flexible/frontline/part-time workers. Web first products with mobile extensions such as Dayforce, or Kronos are utilized, but don’t get optimal engagement from the end user and don’t provide a great user experience. Flexible workers need communication tools that help them connect with their team at work. Instant messaging that doesn’t involve sharing personal information like their mobile phone number. Shift swapping features to effectively find coverage, swap, and cover shifts with their team(s). Easy access to their schedule that doesn’t involve logging into a website on a web browser, or actually going into their work location to get their schedule. Finally, social tools. Employees can have fun with their coworkers at work. Social tools such as a private company newsfeed with the ability to post photos, comment, ‘like’ and engage with other staff members to improve culture and strengthen the bond between staff improves the work experience. Most importantly, all of these things need to be in one place, not a combination of different applications and fragmented pieces of different products. A mobile app just for work, built with the front line employees needs as the priority.
A district manager who manages several business locations or the general manager has to be able to effectively communicate with each of their staff members, but often with different types of messaging for their different labour classes that report to them. For example; stockers, cashiers, part timers, servers, assistant managers, managers, unique department’s, or key holders may need to be addressed differently or separately. Customizing and organizing these groups is crucial for efficiency, and preferably done on mobile. They also need the ability to address these different classes of staff (or everyone at once) with announcements in the form of mobile push communications. 65% of push notifications sent on a company mobile app are received and read within five minutes of being pushed. Beneficially, they only take a few minutes or so to prepare and sent out using a smartphone. Email, SMS, phone calls, instant messaging apps or the combination of all of these are less efficient and take tons of time to get compliance. Other needs for middle management are distributing schedules, checking for availability, task delegation, distributing training content, receiving employee feedback, and engaging front line staff for culture purposes. A full dashboard with analytics and statistics on their networks activity, providing a web management tool to push out content, and manage their team right from their mobile phone and laptop helps the cause as well.
A national brand needs to connect with the millennial part time employee and their workforce. How is the national brand leveraging the power of their workforce to benefit their business? By engaging staff on mobile, major improvements can be made in the areas of customer experience, employee turnover / employee retention, and directly driving revenue company wide. Whether it’s a brand’s director of operations, HR execs, the marketing department, the VP of Sales or the CEO themselves, the ability to send communications downwards in the form of targeted push notifications is being under leveraged. Email communication can take weeks to get down to the front line and everyone else in between. With the proper platform, one can login to a management dashboard and send targeted push notifications to any combination of labour class and location directly to mobile. A brand may need to distribute a new look book, the new menu, training videos, a new LTO, quizzing, feedback requests, promotions and these types of content may span a spectrum of file types. A quality enterprise product will support distribution to mobile of all file types such as PDF’s, word docs, excel docs and video files and allow for tracking engagement, views, and compliance.
The start of this post mentioned providing the different employee/management layers with a platform that serves a need to each as a necessity for engagement. Each layer has different use cases.Coffee Mobile has been working hard to provide value to each layer. This breakthrough product is already being used by 100’s of locations of The Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle, The Apple Store, Hollister, Club Monaco, Tommy Hilfiger and many other brands in the hospitality, restaurant and retail industries.
Their mobile app for flexible workers/part time staff/and shift focused workers is geared towards shift trading, schedule access, private location newsfeed, chat, and is completely free.
For management, the same mobile app with added administrational and managerial features is also free. An added dashboard management tool for network admins is also available.
Business enterprise tools to engage an entire workforce with the click of a mouse, distribute files and content on mobile via push notifications, and track engagement or compliance using the management dashboard tool comes at an annual – per user – cost.
We at Workhoppers.com;specialized in connecting top companies with local qualified flexible workers, are proud to share the Coffee Mobile now called Shyft’s mission which aims to make work life easier for the flexible and front line workforce, while helping national brands better engage their teams below.#StayJittery
