Find out how Puttshack bridged the communication and engagement gap with their frontline employees and achieved a 98% adoption rate with PuttApp, their custom employee app!
Puttshack is a leading entertainment venue that combines tech-driven mini-golf with a lively food and beverage experience. With multiple locations globally, Puttshack offers a fun and interactive environment for customers.
Their mission is to create lasting memories for people of all generations through a shared, world-class entertainment experience with the purpose of bringing everybody into play.
With employees distributed across 4 locations in the UK, (and 14 more in the US with plans of further expansion), internal communication and keeping employee engagement soaring is not always easy. In 2022, Puttshack ran their annual engagement survey in the UK, which revealed two major areas of concern: communication and culture.
The results highlighted an improvement in communication was needed to fully live up to their purpose of bringing everyone into play. Their communication strategies were falling short, leading to several key challenges:
“As a tech-infused business, it only felt right to innovate the way that we communicate with our associates! We needed a platform that was easy to use, that could be tailored to our brand and matched our purpose to bring everyone into play.”
Jade Casey, Head of People at Puttshack UK
With these challenges in mind, it became crystal clear that Puttshack needed a fresh, centralized communication system to bring all employees—frontline and management—into the loop.
Puttshack picked Speakap as their one-stop communication platform. All with the goal to improve communication from top to bottom - whether behind the scenes or on the frontline.
“We wanted the ability to communicate not just as a group, but within teams, departments, venues, and also individually. Speakap offers us a way to make sure that every one of our associates, no matter where they are, always feels included in the conversation.”
Jade Casey, Head of People at Puttshack UK
At first, some associates thought the platform was a bit “Big Brother” and worried it would be a way for the business to control their communication. We get it—new tech can feel a little invasive. But with some solid training and a focus on the platform’s real goal (making communication easier and creating a safe space), Puttshack showed the team that this was about making their lives better, not monitoring their every move.
Sure, WhatsApp is quick and familiar, but let’s be real—it wasn’t built for professional, company-wide communication. Puttshack showed the team how Speakap could do way more, with all the bells and whistles needed to keep everyone properly informed and on the same page.
Some managers weren’t quite sure what to post at first, but Jade swooped in with a pre-planned news calendar featuring daily, weekly, and monthly content ideas. With a bit of guidance, managers started sharing more and keeping their teams in the loop—engagement started to climb.
Leadership needed to show the way, and HQ didn’t waste time. They started posting regular updates to demonstrate how it’s done, proving that this was the new standard for business communication. Once the ball was rolling, the whole team got more active on the platform.
Now, PuttApp is baked right into the onboarding process. New hires are activated on the platform within their first 48 hours—no delays. It’s now Puttshack UK’s main communication channel, and they make sure every team member knows exactly how to use it to stay connected and informed from day one.
Just like nailing the perfect mini-golf putt, Puttshack’s app rollout with Speakap was nothing short of a hole-in-one. Nearly 100% of their workforce is now active and engaged on the platform, and the results? Well, they speak for themselves.
With Speakap, Puttshack has been able to: