The Philadelphia Eagles this season have rolled out a new app-based messaging system that allows employees to improve the fan experience by more efficiently spotting and responding to issues before and during game day.
Game-day staff will use their smartphones instead of walkie-talkies to communicate with each other through the system, which was set to make its debut Sunday at the team’s home opener against the Washington Redskins.
Employees will use the app to flag everything from needed repairs to questions from fans.
This NFL season, most of Lincoln Financial Field’s 3,000 game-day employees will use the messaging system, which operates through an employee portal created within the Eagles’ mobile app. The decision to create the system came after game-day employees asked team executives for a better way to communicate with each other and full-time employees, said Eagles Chief Financial Officer Frank Gumienny.
The Eagles worked with their mobile app developer, YinzCam, and Satisfi Labs to develop the new communications tool. The cost to develop the system was not disclosed.
“Instead of trying to give someone an extra radio, we can control the messaging and communication a little bit better and it allows for the flow of pictures, questions and answers, back and forth between staff,” Gumienny said.
The Eagles did a soft launch of the messaging system with 2,000 employees at a May 2019 monster truck event. Gumienny said that in one incident, an employee spotted a broken seat, took a picture of it and uploaded the image to the system, which alerted facility operations staff to make repairs.
Game-day staff can log a question from a fan into the messaging system, which then collects the time the question was submitted, the answer given by the appropriate staff member and related discussion, Gumienny said.
“At an event [Monster Jam] like that, we could get questions about which drivers are signing autographs, and where they’re signing autographs,” Gumienny said. “Because you could get a little boy who walks in with their parents and they drove hours from somewhere, and he wants to meet Grave Digger, so staff can tell them when and where Grave Digger is signing autographs.”
