Beekeeper Improves Employee Communication for Dentsply Sirona Manufacturing

With a global team of more than 16,000 employees across 40+ countries, Dentsply Sirona is the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies. Demonstrating a commitment to innovation and education, the company’s 600 engineers and scientists continually test and deliver new products.

Manufacturing a range of dental and oral health products, the company also fabricates specialty products in orthodontics, endodontics, and implants.

Customer-centric in everything they do, the company believes the path to exceptional customer experience starts with empowering their dispersed workforce with the best resources, latest dental industry news and trends–and that digital solutions are an integral part of this.

Addressing Employee Communication and Operations Management Hurdles

Before implementing Beekeeper, employee communication between the North American Endodontics administrative, manufacturing plant, and sales teams happened on an ad hoc basis via text or email. There was no employee communication between external and internal sales teams to broadcast their experiences to everyone on the North American Endodontics team.

They needed an internal communication platform to connect their main North American Endodontic group based in Tulsa, OK, manufacturing plant in Johnson City, TN, and approximately 230 internal and external sales reps spread out across the US (about 599 employees in total). This operations management solution needed to:

1. Streamline employee communication between these three core groups, regardless of role and location
2. Facilitate better employee engagement between teams
3. Ensure that operational communications reach plant floor workers consistently

Connecting Geographically Dispersed Teams and Operations

Dentsply Sirona’s North American Endodontics SBU launched the mobile team communication app, Beekeeper, in November 2016, taking full advantage of Beekeeper’s customer success strategy and building content to roll-out ahead of time. In addition to getting leadership on board, the roll-out team created a cross-functional power user group, with representatives from each area within the company: marketing, finance, inside sales, HR, manufacturing and distribution groups, and outside sales.

Hosting a launch party in both the Johnson City and Tulsa locations, the team encouraged employees to download the Beekeeper team communication app and gave them access to laptops to get set up and logged in. They held contests in the first six-week period to incentivize participation and content generation.

“With its socially familiar tools and display, it’s easy for employees to quickly engage with Beekeeper – and it’s actually been a vital tool in sharing ‘wins,’ tips, and market intelligence quickly across many functional areas that are geographically spread out.”
– John Crouch, Global Clinical Affairs Digital Content Manager, Dentsply Sirona Endodontics

Posting Videos on Team Communication App to Reinforce Core Values

In Customer Journey videos shared through Beekeeper, management shares research that demonstrates how the customer experience Dentsply Sirona provides differentiates the company from competitors. The videos provide an easy mechanism for sharing leadership priorities, long-term strategic visions, and emphasize how everyone plays a role in the customer journey. Each concludes with a call-to-action to share customer stories on the team communication app by posting a video, photo, or story using labels such as,“customer experience.” Using labels allows for easy sorting based on categories to track content engagement.

Digital Signage Pairs with Plant Bulletin Boards and Newsletters

At their North American Endodontics manufacturing plant, digital signage on TV monitors supplements posting announcements, updates, and safety reminders on bulletin boards as the main form of communication. There are multiple screens both on the floor and in the breakroom, with content pulled from Beekeeper that displays on the monitors. In addition to newsletters, the company pushes out marketing research, advertising campaigns, and other corporate communications through streams. Beekeeper has become a welcome employee communication and employee engagement platform.

Download the complete Dentsply Sirona Endodontics case study to improve employee communication across dispersed manufacturing business teams.