A look back at Ocasta in 2023

Written By Hayley Biggs

As 2023 comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to look back at the achievements the Ocasta team has made over the year. In the past 12 months, we’ve continued our mission of amplifying the performance of frontline teams while having a little fun along the way 🥳. Let’s take a look at our most significant highlights.

Feature-packed updates for Ocasta Engage 

Our commitment to ease of use and frontline performance improvement was showcased through a series of exciting updates to Ocasta Engage. These features were created with one goal: supercharge know-how in your frontline teams 💪. Let’s take a look at the main ones below:

Prevent costly knowledge gaps with ‘Test Mode’ 

 
 

If you’re not testing your employees' knowledge, it means you have no tangible measure of how well your frontline team has grasped the training information you’re sending them. This can lead to significant learning gaps, which can be costly and, in some cases, risky.

Previously, on Ocasta Engage, you could create microlearning courses designed to train employees but not test them. Now, with the app’s new ‘Test Mode’, you can measure your team’s knowledge and quickly assess their level of capability. This is helpful to support compliance during onboarding or when you need confidence a critical process is understood. See how you can improve know-how in your frontline teams with test mode. 

Never miss an internal event again with the frontline calendar 🗓️

 
 

Your frontline employees are busy fulfilling the demands of your customers, which makes staying up to date with the latest events challenging. Sending another internal comms message for your latest business event won’t suffice because it gets lost in the sea of information, and employees forget to note what’s happening in their calendar. 

That’s precisely why we launched the frontline calendar in June. Now everyone has a clear view of all upcoming events, whether it's your new product launches, summer sales, social events or engagement campaigns. 

The internal calendar ensures that important events are never missed or overlooked again. See how the calendar can support your frontline team. 

Stop wasting time recreating target options for your comms with new ‘Audiences’ 👭

Targeting your content for specific locations, regions, and people is crucial to ensure maximum engagement of your internal comms. However, having to recreate those targeting options for every post drains productivity. Now, internal comms managers can save time by saving their targeting options under an audience. 

Whether you're launching initiatives in waves or managing teams of champions for different product ranges, Audiences allow you to target these groups directly.

See the complete complete overview of audiences. 

And a whole host of new features; check them out below;

Exciting updates for Ocasta Review 

Throughout 2023, we’ve expanded Ocasta Review, making it more easily accessible for all users whilst optimising the platform to make it as easy to use as possible for the fast-paced world of retail 🚀. Take a look at the exciting new updates below.

Don't let an unstable network connection slow you down ❌

 
 

Regardless of your location or the network connection quality, completing your report is an easy experience. The app seamlessly transitions into offline mode when no network is detected. This means that even when there isn't an active or stable network connection, you can effortlessly continue working on reviews, ensuring uninterrupted productivity.

No more missed photos with the new photo upload option 📸 

 
 

Previously, users could only provide feedback on issues or observations they encountered in the moment, excluding the option to share and comment on images captured at an earlier time or those collected from other sources. 

Now, users can also upload a photo from their camera roll, which means they have the flexibility to share and review a broader range of moments captured at any time. 

Stop confusion with image markup and annotations ✍️

 
 

Before, users faced challenges in expressing specific details about their images. The absence of this feature made it difficult for them to articulate their points clearly. With the current ability to draw and annotate photos, users find it easy to provide detailed and clear explanations.

Stop wasting time manually searching for reports with the new search feature on Android and iOS 🔎

 
 

Previously, on iOS and Android, Review users had to scroll through a list to find the submitted report they wanted. Now, they can jump straight to a report of interest with the new search feature. 

Prevent task overwhelm and confusion with the new and improved Review homepage on Android and iOS 🤩

 
 

Retail workers often have a lot on their plate, and it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything that needs to be done. By summarising the Review activity on the homepage, we’ve given them a quick overview of their current workload so they can quickly identify what requires their attention.

At a glance, they can see how many reviews they have in progress and how many they have completed. All tasks they have been assigned are displayed in order of due date so they can prioritise those that should be done first, and they can now mark tasks as completed from the homepage, which helps keep everything organised and up to date.

And lots more new features have a look at them below;

Ocasta Engage and Review earns industry recognition 🏆

58 badges of excellence for Ocasta Engage from G2

We know Ocasta Engage is a breeze to set up and has industry-leading engagement rates, but it’s always nice to be recognised. G2, the global software review company, awarded us 58 badges in 2023 to acknowledge our commitment to excellence. 

We were voted top in our category for providing the best support to our customers, the easiest to do business with, the most straightforward app to set up, the fastest platform to implement, the most straightforward app to use and the highest adoption rate amongst users. See the full article here. 

It’s great to hear that our users are happy because we know the more straightforward and accessible a SaaS platform is, the more likely employees will engage with it. Just look at Virgin Media O2, who’ve achieved a 98% engagement rate with Ocasta Engage.

“We’ve never had performance like this with any of our comms platforms.”

Jody Myers - Head of Business Planning, Engagement & Communications

Winners for the Learning Impact Award with Victoria’s Secret and Ocasta Review 🎖️

We attended the Learning Awards in February, and our collaboration with Victoria’s Secret crowned us silver winners for the Learning Impact Award. 

The award recognised companies that have successfully implemented a training initiative resulting in measurable business outcomes. Our entry highlighted how Review played an essential role in enhancing customer service and driving sales for Victoria’s Secret. For more details, you can read the entire article here.

Customer results 📈

A big highlight from 2023 was finally launching our case study of results from our work with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). 

The showcase is a testament to the real tangible performance results that Ocasta Engage can bring to the frontline workforce, with VMO2 driving 98% engagement and four times more recognition, along with 94% of all comms being read with the platform's help. 

Celebrated team success 🎉

Recognising that a balance between work and play is needed to carry on performing at our best, we took a break from the daily responsibilities of work and escaped to Alton Towers. Swapping our laptops for roller coasters, we indulged in a day of fun to recharge and reconnect. 

So here's a big shoutout to everyone at Ocasta who made the trip one to remember in 2023.

Welcomed new team members 👋

In 2023, we welcomed Mariya and Alamsher to the team. 

What’s coming up in 2024 👊

Reflecting on 2023, we're incredibly grateful for our team and customers who have been integral to our success.

Next year, you can expect thoughtful AI, internationalisation, smarter analytics and insight, task management, and content formats! 

Hayley Biggs
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