5 big frontline problems solved by Axonify Communications

Frontline teams need more than newsletters, emails and breakroom posters to stay connected. Traditional communication tactics—like pre-shift huddles, texting groups and feedback binders—have been the go-to for years. They offer a way to share updates, highlight best practices and foster a sense of community. But when it comes to real engagement, operational alignment and culture building, they often fall short.

There’s no easy way to measure what’s working. Some teams get left out. And even when the message is relevant, it doesn’t always reach people in the moment it matters most.

That’s why we built Channels, a new capability within Axonify Communications. Channels makes it easy for frontline teams to share updates, celebrate wins, ask questions and give feedback—right in the flow of work. With support for 60+ languages and features designed to drive interaction, it helps your people stay connected to each other and your business.

Here are 5 common frontline communication problems and how Channels is built to solve them.

Problem #1: Valuable knowledge gets stuck instead of shared 

This disconnect means valuable insights get lost, hindering process improvement and customer experience.

For example, an associate might discover that customers don’t have their receipts and are frequently returning a certain t-shirt that has been on sale for the last week. The system, by default, refunds the sale price despite most customers having purchased the t-shirt at full cost. Customers are therefore receiving a lower store credit value and are surprised by this.

So, how can this associate easily share that learning with the rest of the frontline, so everyone can better support customers in the moment? 

A Channel within Axonify can be set-up that includes all cashier team members and this associate can post this knowledge and discovery to the Channel:

• Social media-like feel: Channels’ familiar social media interface empowers your frontline to easily share knowledge and engage with each other through posting, commenting, diverse reactions and scrolling, making participation second nature and building a living knowledge base. 

• Gamified experience: Reward points for posting and commenting make sharing feel fun and meaningful, fueling a culture of continuous learning and teamwork. 

Problem #2: Feedback doesn’t reach people who can act on it

When feedback gets stuck at the frontline, you miss opportunities—and risk losing revenue.

For example, an associate might overhear customer conversations on the floor that the competition is offering the same cut of beef roast for a lesser price per pound; customers therefore, aren’t purchasing the cuts at your stores. Your pricing team analysts might find out too late about this and your product goes unsold leading to loss.

So, how can that real-time feedback make its way to decision-makers fast enough to take action? 

A Channel within Axonify can be set up that includes all floor associates and is themed around promotion feedback. Associates can then offer their insights to the Channel about how the promotion is performing and can be monitored by leadership and pricing teams:

• Image and video sharing: Posts and comments can include a video and up to 6 images to provide context that helps leadership make faster, better decisions. Give your frontline a voice: Operational and cultural feedback is most powerful when it’s coming straight from the people closest to the work. Channels make that easy.

Problem #3: Frontline workers feel disconnected from each other and the business

This lack of connection can lead to feelings of isolation, which hurts retention, motivation and performance..

It’s easy for frontline workers to feel distant from the wider organization when they’re dispersed across different departments, shifts and locations. Without a simple way to connect with colleagues, frontline team members may miss out on the sense of belonging and shared purpose that drives motivation and engagement.  

When people can easily engage with more colleagues than just the ones they happen to interact with during their shift, they feel more connected to the business as a whole, understand how their role contributes to the bigger picture and gain a greater sense of meaning in their work.

So, how can you build that sense of community and connection across every shift and location? 

• Tagging: Frontline workers can tag each other to show appreciation, send kudos and celebrate wins, creating a culture of recognition that everyone can see. 
• Personalized notifications: Tailored notifications and homepage alerts ensure that your frontline stays updated with any relevant Channel activity without getting overwhelmed. 
• Barrier-free access to each other: Axonify fits into the flow of work on the devices your frontline already uses, with a built-in centralized hub that makes it convenient to share knowledge, provide feedback and connect with one another.

Problem #4: Conversations outside approved tools are invisible and inconsistent 

Group chats on texting apps or WhatsApp might feel fast and easy, but they’re hard to support, scale or track. 

Your workforce may already be talking about important frontline themes—like floor feedback, operational updates and shoutouts—but those valuable conversations are happening outside your business ecosystem, without any visibility or structure.

So, how can you bring those conversations into a space that supports and elevates them?

Channels are highly configurable to keep conversations controlled, on theme and available to everyone for an equal opportunity to participate.

• Barrier-free access to information: Detailed Channel descriptions ensure that all Channel members understand the intent of the forum, and links can also be added that take members directly to a resource repository where supplementary information can be viewed, all within the same platform.
• Channel settings: A profanity filter, gamification and notification settings, visibility settings, and member rules can all be configured to ensure Channels provide the best experience for your frontline and most helpful insights for you.
• Translations: Your frontline’s experience can be automatically translated to over 60 languages to ensure that everyone on your frontline has an equal opportunity to contribute.

Problem #5: It’s hard to connect communication efforts to business impact 

Traditional tactics like printed posters or static updates don’t offer visibility into what’s working or what’s not.

For example, posting a weekly shoutout or best practices sheet in the breakroom might seem helpful, but there’s no way to know who saw it, what resonated or what changed.

So, how do you gather data from group engagement and use it to guide better strategies?

Channels give leaders real-time visibility into how frontline teams engage in discussions, share feedback and collaborate—ensuring they have the insights needed to refine strategies that build a stronger workforce and reach operational excellence.Meaningful reporting and takeaways: Get insight into themes and trends based on impressions, viewership and reach trends, post, reactions, comment and engagement rates data so that your communication strategy can be proactive and data-driven.

A solution built for the modern frontline

Axonify Communications, with its new Channels feature, is a powerful tool that can stand alone to transform your frontline communications. It addresses critical challenges in engaging with frontline workers, from sharing knowledge, updates and feedback to building community and gaining actionable insights.    

Whether you need a focused solution to revamp your communication strategy or aim to connect it with broader frontline workflows, Axonify Communications offers the flexibility to meet your needs.

As part of the wider Axonify platform, Communications seamlessly integrates with Axonify Learning and Task Management, offering a complete solution for the entire frontline workflow. This winning combination allows for a unified approach to empowering your frontline, where communication fuels learning and jobs to be done, driving performance and culture.