Digital
Getting the message out with Ziik for Subway
With around 170 restaurants all over the country and over 1,000 people working with Subway in Sweden, the franchise chain needed a bulletproof system for getting important messages out. Today, Ziik keeps everyone in the know and helps onboard new franchisees and sandwich artists. Ali Gharaee, Business Development Agent and regional operator explains why Ziik was the right flavor for Subway Sweden.
About
The
Subway
Problem
What Sets Us Apart
Subway Sweden is part of a global chain of sandwich restaurants. A franchise operation, Subway Sweden has some 170 restaurants operated by franchisees. Subway Sweden is divided into four regions, each with a regional operator in charge. All four regions use Ziik for timely communication and information sharing.
Challenges before Ziik
“One of the main reasons we were looking for a system like Ziik was that we wanted to reach all our franchisees and sandwich artists with important messages at once. We used to send out e-mails to franchisees who then had to pass the information on, but one of the issues with SMS or e-mails was that you don’t get read receipts. You don’t know if the franchisees have received them, you don’t know if they’ve read them or downloaded the attachments. And in our industry, you sometimes have information that you really need to know has been received by everyone, like updates on food safety or the COVID-19 situation.”
Requirements for a new solution
Ziik had quickly convinced Food Folk Nordic that, as a communication tool, it was the right platform for its McDonald’s restaurants. But before running the pilot, the aspects of IT and IT security also had to be addressed.
“It was very important that the technical solution of the platform was also on the right level from an IT point of view. For a company of our size and exposure, it’s important to only introduce solutions to our staff that are safe and future-proof,” says Jesse Lindsberg.
“Ziik is a young product, so it needed to be scrutinized by our IT department to make sure it was on the right level.”
After having passed every test, Ziik was ready to be deployed.
Results
Very easy to use
The thing about Ziik is that it looks and works like some of the popular social media platforms. That means everybody already knows how to use it when they pick it up for the first time. I have never met anyone who couldn’t use it. The only problems we have is people forgetting their passwords. People haven’t been reluctant about using it at all. Before, people used different social media to set up group chats. Now they can just use Ziik.
Very mobile
Most of the staff working in Subway restaurants are around 20-21 years old, so they are very app savvy. It’s easy for them to get started with the Ziik app. In fact, they expect these kinds of modern communication systems to be available when they go to work somewhere. I prefer to use the desktop version myself, though. I talk to a lot of people during the day through the chat function on Ziik. And it’s just easier for me to use a keyboard for typing that much. But one of our sandwich artists could probably out-type me using a mobile!
Works out of the box
Franchisees expect a franchise system like ours to have a communication system that works out of the box. That is the essence of franchising – you pay for a concept where everything is in place, you only have to operate it. Ziik works like that. I’ve shown it to some of my operator colleagues with Subway in other countries, and they are also very impressed.
Everything you need to know in one place
A franchise operation like ours runs on manuals, or Operation Routines, as we call them. We have them all stored under Handbooks in Ziik, along with all the latest regulations. We keep everything stored in Ziik – at least a couple of gigabytes worth of information. All the manuals you need to run a franchise or work a shift in a restaurant you can find in here.