Brief:

• Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn have deployed a new mobile messaging platform among their franchise locations to keep employees informed about COVID-19 safety training and on-boarding newly hired employees. The co-branded snack chain is working with Nudge Rewards on the activation, according to an announcement.
• Mobile network Nudge helps to track the operating status of franchisees as they reopen from pandemic lockdowns that vary with local regulations, and communicate with employees at stores, kiosks and pushcart stands, per the release.
• Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn hired Nudge last year to communicate with frontline employees, helping to inform them about the latest announcements.

Insight:

Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn are among the national retail chains that are now reopening as many cities and states ease stay-at-home orders. Helping to get far-flung franchisees back in business presents communications challenges, including the training of new employees and implementation of safeguards against the novel coronavirus. By enlisting Nudge Rewards as a messaging platform, Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn aim to keep frontline teams up-to-date with announcements sent directly to a smartphone app.

It’s not clear how many Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn locations were affected by the pandemic and will be able to reopen, given the variety of locations that include kiosks at amusement parks and other areas with high foot traffic. Outdoor locations may be more immune to restrictions on restaurants, such as limits on indoor seating capacity. Amid the changes to policies and public warnings, communicating with workers through their mobile devices has become more imperative for brands.

Other mobile tech services providers like Nudge are seeing growing interest as brands look not only to keep consumers safe, but also ensure business operations maintain COVID-19 safety procedures and unified communications amid a patchwork reopening. Scandit, an enterprise-focused developer of augmented reality (AR) and computer vision solutions, last month raised $80 million in Series C funding. Scandit said demands for its contactless mobile solutions, which include app-based bar code scanning, text recognition, object recognition and AR, are climbing due to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly as areas like click-and-collect surge.