Every team is facing mounting challenges at the moment. In retail, as lockdown eases, stores are letting go of temporary colleagues and facing rising customer demands. In hospitality, as well as meeting food safety requirements teams are having to rapidly adapt to physical distancing. With stretched teams, regular colleague updates are more important than ever.
Common areas, noticeboards and team meetings are places where information can be shared. Some notifications can be sent out digitally. However, with government requirements for physical distancing, these traditional channels are too slow. Team communication shouldn’t compromise health and safety.
VoCoVo’s unique communication system brings teams together across a single channel. Talk is instantly received, information can be shared in real-time. And for some key issues, this is vital:
1. Safety
In retail and hospitality, the threat of losses has spiked in recent months. In 2019, there were 950,000 incidents of theft in the UK. Shoplifting has risen 7% over the past four years. With a likely recession ahead, this number is set to increase.
No colleagues should be expected to cope with security threats alone. The benefit of real-time messaging in these incidents makes it easier for security to be notified, the police to be called, HQ to receive information and the shop floor colleagues to respond quickly, safely and discretely to situations as they evolve. VoCoVo also links our communication to smart shelving, making it quicker than ever to let colleagues know in real-time that a theft is imminent.
2. Product recall
Food safety recalls rose last year by 52%, putting increased pressure on teams to act fast when food alerts come through. This increase could be a result of improving food safety, but with an average twice-weekly occurrence of alerts, a team needs to be able to react fast. The quicker colleagues can react to a product recall, the better for companies, suppliers and for customer safety.
3. Urgent store issues
Today, queuing customers outdoors, providing plexiglass screens and PPE to teams, is a well-known sight. The ‘new normal’ cannot be ignored. Customers are under stress, and so are your colleagues.
Changes to health and safety happen daily during a pandemic. Teams need to communicate quickly and discretely to keep customers calm and avoid incidents escalating. Some of our customers referred to VoCoVo technology during this period as a ‘godsend.’ It kept them working smart, motivated and staying positive in tough situations.
VoCoVo has some of the UK’s most respected high street names as our trusted customers. It’s because our system offers the communication solution your colleagues need.