CIO Bulletin

Theatro: Innovation for the forgotten hourly worker

Today’s business world needs a new approach, fresh leadership, and an increased focus on the employees at the heart of every company.

The world has changed dramatically in the last few years. Businesses need to change with it. It’s becoming more important than ever to support your frontline employees. Better support for your frontline workers means greater agility for your organization.

Frontline workers are critical to productivity and your business’s reputation. They provide key services that enable your business and society in general to function.

Disconnection kills productivity. Yet today, frontline teams are stuck with fragmented technology like noisy walkie-talkies and outdated intercom systems, and are disconnected from each other and the enterprise. Theatro was designed specifically to connect your teams, saving you time and money. Their voice-powered Mobile Communication Platform is specifically built for the frontline.

Chris Todd, President and CEO, will further walk us through the journey of Theatro

Q. What does Theatro stand for, and what are its focus areas?

Theatro is passionate about connecting frontline workers. We believe that the Frontline workforce should be fully connected, informed, and confident to effectively interact and serve customers. We provide a revolutionary Mobile Communication Platform As-a-Service that allows ALL Frontline workers to stay connected to each other, experts, managers, and critical enterprise systems in real-time. No one is left out of the loop, and everyone has access to information to successfully do their job.

Q. ‘You’re guides to a fully connected Frontline workforce.’ How do you interpret this further?

Our team is comprised of industry leaders and retail solution experts with backgrounds on the frontline, who understand the exact challenges faced by retailers today when running an efficient and effective operation. Our team collaborates with customers to uncover their biggest operational and communication challenges, which are often caused by disconnection and subpar technology, and we work with them to create a vision and strategy to unlock the full potential of their teams.

Q. How does Theatro unlock the value of frontline teams? Brief us about the services you offer?

We empower frontline teams to be ‘Heads Up & Hands-Free’ by offering a suite of Voice Applications that improve communication and connect teams to each other and to the critical enterprise systems they need to do their jobs successfully. Our As-a-Service solution brings together the advantages of an Internet of Things (IoT) voice-controlled mobile computer and new Workforce Optimized Apps to extend digital transformation to the frontline, allowing organizations to automate processes and workflows which improve worker productivity, business performance and the customer experience.

A monthly Theatro subscription also includes all aspects of device management, from repairs and replenishment to user support and software enhancements. And by eliminating the need to buy and maintain expensive devices to connect and reach teams, organizations are enabled to rapidly accelerate digital transformation all the way to the frontline without delaying the benefits of software and hardware innovation.

As part of Theatro’s As-a-Service offering, every frontline team member receives their own user profile and is outfitted with a Theatro Communicator that leverages existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to connect end-users to the platform.

Q. Can you tell us about your world’s first voice-controlled Mobile Communications Platform? How does it help frontline workers stay connected?

Theatro was founded on the simple idea that frontline team members need to be connected to each other and their critical enterprise systems to maximize business success. That’s why we created the world’s first voice-controlled Mobile Communication Platform for brick-and-mortar retail, hospitality, casinos, C-Stores, and more. With an open cloud-based platform, Theatro can develop, deploy, and maintain new applications quickly to meet customer specific needs and keep frontline team members connected to the information they need to be successful.

Q. Brief us about your global expansion with Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES)? How will it create memorable customer experiences?

AAFES serves a customer base of over 39 million armed forces community members and their families worldwide with tax-free shopping and military-exclusive pricing, doing so for over 125 years. AAFES is dedicated to its mission, serving shoppers regardless of location or risk and donating 100% of the earnings back to the military community.

Having successfully deployed Theatro in 14 locations in North America in 2019, Theatro has now extended its partnership with AAFES to a total of 28 locations globally, connecting frontline teams throughout North America, Europe and the Pacific. In addition to creating a connected frontline workforce that is empowered to deliver personalized and memorable customer experiences, Theatro is helping customers to:

Improve productivity – With employee collaboration and quick access to experts to give customer the answers they need
Decrease customer wait time – Through closed-loop digital workflows for customer assistance requests
Enable team alignment –Consistent messaging from store leadership enables team members to serve customers with up-to-date information every single day
Boost team morale –Team members become more engaged with opportunities to celebrate big wins or invoke friendly competition to meet sales goals and other key metrics

Q. How skilled is the Theatro team of experts? And how do they bring value to the company?

Theatro has gathered a dynamic team of retail experts, technology leaders with a passion for empowering frontline teams to deliver amazing customer experiences. Our team understands the operational and communication challenges faced by our retail customers – because they have been Store Managers, Operational Leaders and Associates at one time. In addition, our team is heavily focused on partnering and collaborating with customers continuously in order to help them automate processes, workflows and tighten communications across their teams to drive their business.

Q. Will your company be expanding, bringing on any new solutions that we should be aware of?

Theatro innovations are grounded in partnership with our customers to solve their biggest challenges at the frontline. 2020 and 2021 were focused on supporting retailers in meeting changing customer demands, shopping behaviors, labor constraints, and health and safety processes brought on by the pandemic. Innovations from these challenges have included Curbside solutions from fulfillment to delivery, Find an Expert, Remote Product Check, Automated Sales Updates, Enhanced Huddle, among many more. This year Theatro’s focus continues to be on partnering with customers to uncover additional areas of the retail experience that can be automated with digital workflows and streamlined to improve the in-store experience for both employees and customers.

Two areas our customers and retailers continue to be challenged with are labor shortages and how to effectively connect their entire workforce. Without a question, the labor shortage continues to drive the increasing cost of staffing to meet the demands of both in-store and curbside services. As for their second challenge, retailers continue to look for ways to connect their entire teams to drive enhanced communication and to be able to deliver an elevated customer experience.

Meet the legend

Chris Todd is responsible for leading Theatro’s overall direction, strategy, and growth. Chris is a “roll up your sleeves” type leader who is passionate about the strategy of a business. Chris believes that most every idea can be a winner…it’s all about figuring out the strategy angles to drive success! As a co-founder, Chris has been instrumental in guiding Theatro from an early innovative concept into a fast-paced growth company.