To insure quality coffee knowledge and preparation, Illy Café North America implemented a backend mobile sales platform for its associates that will now be extended to its consumer-facing staff.

The solution, developed by Qstream, uses gaming mechanics and increased essential brand and product knowledge among Illy Café North America’s sales staff as well as quality assurance, technical and administrative team members. To participate, the Illy Cafe team responded to scenario-based challenges via their smartphones every few days.

“Mobile is an important channel to leverage because just about every aspect of our lives is going mobile-first, at home and at work,” said Lisa Clark, vice president of marketing at Qstream, Boston. “Laptops are going the way to the do do, email is dying, and we’re doing just about everything from a smart phone or tablet.

“Industry pundits have predicted that in 2015 many corporate departments will become 100 percent mobile, 100 percent of the time,” she said. “It’s particularly true in sales teams.”

Influencer of mobile
Since mobile has a way of influencing today’s consumer behaviors, the implementation of mobile technology at work is encouraging participation for employees.

Using Qstream on any mobile device, users respond to brief question and answer challenges via push notifications, followed by rich-media explanations that reinforce the best responses and strengthen skills.

Built-in gaming mechanics aim to engage users in a competition, which encourages fun and is non-disruptive to work time.

Qstream’s Predictive Insights Engine then sifts and analyzes response data to provide continuous real-time management updates, comparisons and trends on team capabilities, as well as targeted coaching actions that contribute to management’s ability to remediate gaps.

Through Qstream’s dashboards and insights data, Illy was able to identify and address the needs of a strategic market segment by reinforcing key product knowledge needed by its team to be successful.

Mobile behind the scenes
Other companies in the food and beverage industry are using mobile to better the customer experience.

For example, restaurant chain TGI Friday’s is equipping servers with Microsoft tablets to help make the customer experience more streamlined and convenient.

Along with Microsoft’s 8-inch tablets, the new Fridays Service Style technology, powered by Windows 8.1, will allow servers to carry tablets from table to table to take orders and respond promptly to guest requests. If the process performs well, the execution could represent a growing trend in multichannel experiences (see story).

Even fashion marketers are using mobile as a tool on the backend of business.

Leather goods maker Coach launched a new application to streamline reporting and digitize the business from behind the scenes.

The retailer teamed with business intelligence solutions provider MicroStrategy to build the app for internal use. As retail becomes more digitized, Coach decided to explore options to become hands-on with data and offer quicker solutions to better its business (see story).

“Being mobile is just a simpler, more convenient way to get their job done,” Ms. Clark said. “Sales teams must address that, or die.”

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York