Challenges

True operates a huge network of retail shops and service centers for its telecom services across Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia. It has over 400 physical stores selling True’s services and products together with many call centers to support over 24.5 million customers. The company has grown tremendously since its foundation in 1990, and in 2014 it became clear the support process that was implemented since inception no longer met the more high touch and real time requirements of modern consumers. Something had to be done about inefficient internal communication, especially between HQ and remote teams. Without change, True would face continual assurance control issues, inefficient sharing of data across multiple distributed call centers, and ineffective communication between layers of staff.

Solution

In 2014, True approached Eko because they needed a communication solution that can help all their teams to communicate effectively, regardless of whether staff are remote, in a retail shop, or are within company headquarters. Together with Eko, True’s HR and Innovation departments launched a project designed to ensure every one of True’s 23,000 employees are connected in one mobile-first application.

A key ingredient of True’s new communication system is Eko’s Group chats. Topics (named threaded conversations within chats) provide fast, efficient and organized communication within specific teams or between regional managers and HQ with the ability to send daily e-reports and other important information seamlessly. Additionally, Eko’s secure infrastructure ensures peace of mind in the security of True communication, given the amount of sensitive internal data that is sent over their communication platform.

Use Case 1

Decreasing organisational barriers

Since the initial launch of Eko in 2014, more than 10,000 Group chats have been created in order to connect coworkers within specific teams, projects, or locations. These large groups have worked particularly well for True’s retail store managers. With Group chats, executives can quickly get messages out to a specific group of people in a store or a region, as well giving store employees and managers a channel to interact with one another and share their experiences.

As a result, True store managers feel much more connected to True’s Bangkok headquarters, managers would regularly share learnings and updates from around the country, and executives in Bangkok would often chime in with their own experiences and stay connected to their staff on the ground. Adopting Eko has greatly reduced the friction of ensuring that important information and news are propagated to the correct teams, as well as opened up a whole new channel for knowledge sharing and discussions.

Use Case 2

Improving quality assurance control

One of True’s retail chains is True Coffee, which consists of more than 400 retail shop nationwide built on an unique concept that combines mobile technology retail services with a traditional coffeehouse chain that serves freshly baked goods as well as brewed coffee and beverages. Managing these remotely located stores was a big challenge for True. The True Coffee stores serve as True’s brand ambassadors in its region, and True executives wanted to do everything possible to consistently ensure that every store is top notch, from the design of the storefront to the quality of its services. So far, True has been using email to send & receive regular status updates from all the True Coffee stores. However, as the number of True Coffee shops increased, it became clear that True needed something with much more organizational functionalities than email.

True is now in the process of moving all their True Coffee shop’s reporting process to Eko. Once deployed, True Coffee store managers can easily update all related details about store quality, attach the necessary photo, video, or quality reports, and send it to True’s Bangkok headquarters through Topics created specifically for store quality assurance. Anyone interested in True’s daily quality assurance update can simply open the correct Group chat within Eko, and scroll through the list of every store with their latest daily report. Having Eko ensures that all the store reports and updates are nicely organized in the Topics separated by store. Additionally, Eko will ensure these updates are all delivered to the relevant people in real time.

Results

As a constantly growing and evolving business, True needs to have a flexible and reliable communication platform between all layers of staff and executives. With Eko’s secure, modern and mobile-first solution, True has created a much more efficient communication system and transformed their internal collaboration and external customer service process.

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“Eko is the single most important tool that helped  to digitize our organization and the way we do business.”

Adipat Chaichanasakul
Director of HR Development & Innovation at True