Kevin Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, took the stage at the 2017 annual shareholder meeting. During the part of the presentation when he talked about company initiatives, Johnson raised a question Starbucks has been working on. "How can we better connect with our store managers, and how can we help store managers create community amongst each other?" The answer to both of these questions lies in the decision to implement Workplace by Facebook at Starbucks in January 2017. 

According to Johnson, an incredible thing happened just a few months after launch. One morning in particular, a manager posted in Workplace that in their store, they had been selling about 20 beverages a day of a drink that is not on the official menu. It was a beverage that was "featured on Instagram." Customers see this beverage on Instagram, go into a Starbucks, and ask the barista to make it. 20 drinks per day. Other store managers saw this post and commented that they too were selling similar numbers of this beverage. 

First of all, you can already see how store managers are building a community with each other, and using the Workplace mobile apps to easily communicate with each other, share what they were doing, and learn from each other.

Then the most amazing thing happened. That very evening, according to Johnson, the Starbucks category marketing team saw this conversation. A decision was made that night, and a message from the category marketing team was posted to all store managers, that Starbucks would add this beverage to the official beverage recipes. 

"Something that could have taken weeks, if not months to happen before Workplace, happened in one day," said Johnson.  

Mobility is IN, desks are OUT

Starbucks is not the only company with employees disperse all over and who do not sit at a desk or have a computer. Google estimates that 80% of the global workforce performs physical or deskless work daily (this includes people who have a desk and a computer as a normal part of their job). And according to a report from Business2Community, the global mobile workforce is expected to reach $1.75 billion by 2020 and account for 42% of the global workforce. Clearly the need to connect employees is a growing challenges as more no longer work in a central office. And many do not sit at a desk with a computer as their primary job.

The Starbucks story is a clear example of how mobile messaging apps and help deskless workers build community and participate directly in helping organizations achieve desired outcomes. 

Messaging Is becoming the workplace communication tool of choice

Another trend that is occurring, and faster than you can imagine, is the use of messenger apps dominating the time people spend on  smart phones. According to Comscore, 91% of time spend on mobile phones are spent in messaging apps. That is more than all of the traditional social media apps. People are loving messaging apps. According to research from Facebook IQ:

• 59% of people surveyed message more today than they did two years ago
• 56% expect their messaging to increase in the next two years
• 67% will message with businesses more in the next two years

Messaging apps already dominate time on mobile phones and people are saying they will use mobile apps even more. This trend will not stop in our personal lives. According to Frost & Sullivan, messaging apps are expected to become the primary interaction channel for enterprise users in the coming years. 

Enterprises better be ready. 

This is where chatbots come in

As more people prefer to interact with messaging apps, they will expect to do things at work on their mobile phone. Everyday things like, book time off, submit expense reports, schedule meetings, book travel, and more, all using the messaging app. And the best part of this is that chatbots can be designed to respond to these inquires and provide the right answer in an automoated way before many chatbots invite a real person from HR or facilities or travel or finance or legal to answer the questions.  

In the not so distance future, whatever employees can do on a request form using a web browser, can be done in a messagner app with a chatbot. 

Workplace by Facebook is taking hold in the enterprise

In just it's first official year available to the public, Workplace by Facebook has gained a lot of traction in the enterprise, with 30,000 companies signing upand one million groups created. All of the trends are pointing to people being on the move and needing to use mobile apps to both get their jobs done and make a contribution to the organizations and collaborate with others. 

This convergence of collabration and automation around the messenging app is why we have teamed up with Talk Social to Me to create a Workplace by Facebook accelerated adoption program that combines our joint expertise in building custom Workplace apps and user adoption consulting to drive rapid employee engagement and business value for Workplace customers. Talk Social to Me has deep roots in the enterprise collaboration and social networking fields and ServiceRocket has developed numerous apps, bots, and automations for Workplace customers. 

Where you see chatbots and people collaiding in Workplace by Facebook, you will find us, working with Talk Social to Me to help customers engage employees and achieve desired outcomes. 

Learn More

To learn more about the first accelerated adoption program for Workplace by Facebook customers, offered jointly by Talk Social to Me and ServiceRocket, click here.   

[Infographic] When Work Bots, Chat Apps, and People Collide