Taylor Phillips recently joined the Red e App team as our Chief Business Officer. This is big news for us, but probably doesn’t mean anything to you, so let me tell you why it’s so exciting.
Taylor is a born and bred champion of the non-desk worker. His impressive list of business accomplishments spans across manufacturing (General Electric), retail (Petco and Circuit City), and tech (SquareTrade). In these positions, he worked in diverse departments including operations, financial services, and field services.
Taylor identifies with the challenges non-desk workers and leaders face — from disconnection to operations. He understands the ROI that Red e App can provide to the organization via improved efficiencies, retention and product quality.
These experiences have given him the conviction that Red e App is a solution that can improve global organizations, across industries and companies. He joined us to make that dream a reality.
You don’t just have to take my word for it that Taylor could have used the structured connection of Red e App to improve efficiencies in all of his previous jobs, though. I asked Taylor a set of questions to make it more clear how his previous experience has shown him the impact Red e App can make.
Although the questions are the same, the use cases across industries vary.
General Electric
What was your role at GE?
I held various roles in manufacturing production and quality. Results started coming in when I learned that I worked for my team, and my job was to help them do their job. We made big strides after I realized that.
How many non-desk employees did you work with or manage?
As many as 125 on two shifts.
How did you communicate?
Mostly face-to-face conversation. I spent a lot of time walking around and throwing together quick huddles. Sometimes I would even have to post a handwritten note on a refrigerator going down the assembly line. We had to make sure we pulled it off.
What are some of your proudest accomplishments at GE?
We had a massive effort called “Save the Park” named for Appliance Park. Some of the key initiatives we worked on with the union are the reason the facility is still in Louisville, KY today. We also set a record for consecutive production achievement. We got a lot of great work done but we could have accomplished so much more if I didn’t have to use an assembly line to communicate.
How could Red e App have made you more efficient?
With Red e App, our production would have created more output and been far more consistent. We could have increased the scale with simple things like more regular updates and the ability to gather data faster. Employees would have felt even more valued and informed about our progress. When I had two shifts with 125 employees, it was nearly impossible to keep up with communication. GE Appliances now uses Red e App to connect to thousands of employees.
Petco
What was your role at Petco?
I developed and implemented Services for ‘Pet Parents’. This included services such as dog training, vaccinations, and pet photography.
How many non-desk employees did you work with or manage?
1,400 dog trainers and hundreds of staff selling and performing services.
How did you communicate?
Very carefully… meaning it took a lot of work to craft and distribute a compelling message. We could only communicate slowly and at an infrequent cadence. All communications had to be sent to the store manager for dissemination. This was not ideal because store managers were already strained, as they had to run their store, hire/fire, set schedules, manage the store budget, and in addition to dog trainers, supervise cashiers, food experts, adoption/bird/small animal experts, groomers, etc. There are a lot of job roles in the pet industry.
What are some of your proudest accomplishments at Petco?
We did a complete overhaul of the dog training business at Petco. Our efforts significantly increased the number of pet parents that shopped our stores. It was a fun process but it came with frustrations. The hardest part was communicating with the dog trainers.
How could Red e App have made you more efficient?
With Red e App, our animal behavior expert could have sent weekly updates directly to all dog trainers, and cut out the middle man (i.e., the overworked store managers). In addition to dog trainers, scheduling updates to cashiers in the weeks prior to a photography session would have lightened the managers’ loads. Broad communications such as new product offerings and store highlights could be sent to all employees, having a direct impact on store sales.
SquareTrade
What was your role at SquareTrade?
I managed the mobile phone protection department. Our service was sold via third-party retailers.
How many non-desk employees did you work with or manage?
Thousands, from retailers like Sam’s Club and Costco.
How did you communicate?
It was incredibly complicated. In summary:
- We had multiple retail customers
- They had thousands of employees with day to day jobs and distractions
- Compound that by hundreds of suppliers
As you can imagine, it quickly becomes very challenging to get a consistent and clear message across to the intended audience with so many layers. We spent a lot of money creating launch kits with prizes and online contests to incentivize the sales reps. Even with that investment, it was hard to measure if they were reading or comprehending our communications.
What are some of your proudest accomplishments at SquareTrade?
We insured more people than Geico with well under 1% of their marketing budget.
How could Red e App have made you more efficient?
With Red e App, I could have routed key information about our product, training, and customer success stories to the appropriate employees at a specific retailer. For example, we could have messaged all of the mobile phone kiosk specialists about the value of our low deductible with the ability for them to reply and ask questions. These actions would drive up our offer rate (sales) by removing the unnecessary middle man.
In summary
Leaders need to take action and address the cost of poor employee communications. We are all guilty of this, particularly in industries with a high percentage of non-desk workers. It is something that can be fixed for pennies on the dollar in ROI, and technology and smartphones solve the communication gap. Let’s work on this together.
Want to talk to Taylor? Send Taylor an email. He responds quickly (trust me I know from experience).
Learn more about how we can help YOUR industry? View our case studies.
