New customer expectations and greater customer choice are changing the ways retailers think about their business and employees.

Having unconnected teams dispersed in shops, stores, and depots can make effective communication a challenge. And the retailers who can join their organizations together can develop a significant competitive advantage over those who can’t.

It’s a challenge that FamilyMart is familiar with first-hand. They knew that building links between the customer, the frontline worker, and the decision makers in the head office would be critical to the operational success of the business.

And in order to build those links and connect the organization, they chose Workplace. Here’s why.

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Overcoming the communication delay

The delay in delivering time-sensitive feedback from the frontline to head office was causing problems. Communicating the answers back to the whole organization was causing even more.

In order to build those links and connect the organization they chose Workplace

As Akarin Phureesitr, Head of Corporate Learning & Development, explains. “In the past, it took a long time to coordinate between head office and the frontline. This meant it could take us 2-3 weeks after formulating our ideas to convey them back to the customers.”

In a fast-moving retail environment, Akarin and his team identified this as a serious issue. “We realized we couldn’t respond to customer needs on time and so we couldn’t adapt to the competitive market.”

Connecting frontline workers and improving the customer experience

The answer for FamilyMart was to deploy a set of ‘competitive’ tools they found in Workplace. And the results were impressive.

“Now we use Workplace, all the branches connect with head office as the same office,” says Akarin. Using tools like Workplace Chat enables people to share ideas, information, customer feedback and new opportunities across the entire organization effectively.

Now we use Workplace, all the branches connect with head office as the same office

That’s better for employees and it’s better for FamilyMart customers.

Smarter ways of working

It’s a view also shared by the operational teams at FamilyMart. Phornphol Treenawaporn is project lead in Divisional Operations Helpdesk. He believes the familiar interface and rich media like video calls and even GiFs elevate the user experience and make collaboration easy and quick.

Using groups to share files and videos makes our work more convenient and more efficient

“Using groups to share files and videos,” says Phornphol, “and broadcasting to groups using Live Video makes our work more convenient and more efficient.”

And these tools empower workers in stores to move quickly. When they receive new products they use Workplace to share images of their shelf formats or product displays.

This helps to make sure that everyone is to the same standard. But it can also give people ideas about how to improve and make things better.

Workplace tools empower workers in stores to move quickly

Bots that fix the simple things

FamilyMart is also now using bots to automate and improve processes even further.

Bots like ‘Som Sri’ which helps improves operational accuracy so people can access better sales data and reports. Or ‘Mee Suk’ – the HR bot that shares relevant news and updates to people that help motivate and inform everyone.

Workplace helps us all get closer to each other. Even if we seldom meet each other

In the end, it comes back to that word. Everyone. Tools that bring the everyone in the organization together. That make work more effective and that also improve the customer experience.

As FamilyMart store manager Pitchanan Mejai says. “Workplace helps us all get closer to each other. Even if we seldom meet each other.”

And perhaps that’s a sentiment that will resonate with retailers everywhere.