Video Q&A with Starbucks: Everbridge for enterprise crisis management (part 2)

Employee safety is a huge concern for organizations of all sizes, but it is particularly difficult for large, global companies with diverse workforces dispersed throughout the world in multiple time zones.  Starbucks is one of these global companies. 

As one of the largest retailers in the world with over 200,000 workers across 21,000 locations in 66 countries, Starbucks has a responsibility to have a comprehensive, robust crisis management strategy in order to reach the right people with the right message when it matters most. They use Everbridge to help them achieve this, ensuring effective crisis management, business continuity and employee safety.

Recently, we spoke with Chris Hartinger, Emergency Manager for Starbucks in our webinar “Creating a Connected Organization through Critical Communications.” In the session, Chris spoke about Starbucks’ mission to ensure the safety of its employees through effective emergency notifications and crisis management, as well as the challenges of encouraging employees to opt-in to receive these important alerts.  Chris also touched upon future plans for instantaneous Point-of-Sales System (POS) notifications, and a potential play in the world of the Internet of Things. 

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the discussion:

Chris spent some time highlighting a key function of the Everbridge notification system that helps Starbucks keep its workers safe by encouraging engagement and status checks: message confirmation.

In this video clip, Chris details some of the communication campaigns and tactics that Starbucks uses to encourage employee participation in their use of Everbridge.

Starbucks is also exploring other possible ways to keep workers safe.  One idea that Chris describes is a notification that reaches retail locations instantaneously on their POS system, with a specific focus on targeting stores situated in a high-risk severe weather area. 

Employee well-being is only one part of Chris’s job, though.  He also has to consider the safety and quality of Starbucks’s products.  Connected physical devices and the Internet of Things offer a unique opportunity for Starbucks in the future to track product shipments and ensure they are not compromised…in real-time. 

To learn more about how Starbucks is using Everbridge, watch the recorded webinar.