Restaurant owners and operators are taking notice of the potential of mobile communication. They recognize that most of their employees are mobile-centric, while a significant portion are millennial, and the importance of using methods most familiar to their employees to ensure engagement.
Red e App’s founder and CEO, Jonathan Erwin, published a guest blog post to FastCasual.com on this very timely topic, Using mobile to retain staff, improve customer service.
There is one element [of high turnover] that [restaurant] employers have the power to change: the level of employee engagement. In the limited-service sector, there’s typically a disconnect between frontline workers and the corporate office with all communication flowing through the chain of command.
Frontline employees, who interact directly with customers and are thus the most important link in the chain, typically don’t have access to email on the job, so the only exposure they get to corporate communication is what they hear from their managers and regional directors. HR and Operations executives who are looking to build a positive workplace culture and communicate with employees about vital issues generally have to rely on store or restaurant meetings and break-room posters.
Not only is it difficult to achieve consistent messaging across multiple locations when relying on these types of distribution platforms, it’s virtually impossible to measure employee participation and gauge the level of information retention. The good news is that mobile communication devices that restaurant industry employees already use can now give companies a way to connect with their frontline employees and generate the metrics restaurants need to evaluate their programs.
Since the demographic in the service sector skews younger, most employees are already accustomed to using mobile phones and tablets to keep in touch with family and friends. Many educational institutions have adopted mobile apps to stay connected with students, and when they use the right approach, it can be extraordinarily effective.
As witnessed by our restaurant customers and prospects, Red e App is solving the complexity of engaging employees with high turnover, steeped in hierarchy, and geographically dispersed locations.
Read the complete article at FastCasual.com.
Amee Kent
Red e App Marketing Director
