Sonder had many ideas about how to improve their member experience with rich, relevant messaging, but lacked a platform capable of bringing these campaigns to life. They needed to free up resources to improve their entire member experience initiative.
With Braze, Sonder was able to turn their vision of global support through the right care at the right time into reality by understanding and acting on their members’ behaviors, preferences, and pain points. This data has fueled the creation of rich member experiences, such as a water safety campaign using geofences to trigger notifications that raise awareness of potential risks among international users visiting the beach in Australia.
Implementing Braze's automated onboarding flow significantly streamlined the process, leading to a 50% increase in activations. This has freed up our resources to focus on other key areas of growth. The strategy has also improved the overall member experience, which led to a 22% increase in Digital Product Usage (DPU) and 43% increase in retention.
Sonder is an employee care platform that helps organizations improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of their employees so they can live well and perform their best. Australian-owned and founded in 2016, Sonder now supports hundreds of thousands of employees across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Sonder’s purpose is to empower people to be their best. They do this by providing employees with around the clock access to the right care at the right time for whatever personal health, safety, or wellbeing challenge they're facing through a unique combination of digital and human care services—all conveniently available via an easy to use mobile app.
Sonder’s app puts employees in control of their personal health and safety through a range of self-care tools, assessments, and resources, along with 24/7 immediate and confidential access to a team of registered health professionals and care specialists such as nurses, psychologists, and support coordinators, via chat and on the phone.
Sonder helps employers get ahead and stay ahead of their workforce health and safety challenges and prove the impact of their wellbeing initiatives to executive and board level decision makers. Business leaders use the platform’s anonymous data and insights to proactively identify, act on, and prevent (often hidden) workplace health, safety, and wellbeing risks and costs before they escalate.
For Sonder, member engagement isn’t just a metric, it’s a bridge that unlocks the full potential of personalized care. Far from a passive transaction, member experiences should be an active partnership with valuable journeys for both their customers and their customers’ employees. They look to bridge the hidden gaps through a cohesive experience that solves the challenges people face—and realized their customer engagement platform was getting in the way.
When choosing Braze, Sonder’s main goal was to find technology that can provide data-driven insights to proactively impact their members’ experiences. According to Sonder, a customer engagement platform should be a dynamic ecosystem where aggregated data from engaged users transforms into actionable insights. By using a rich data tapestry, Sonder empowers their members to make informed decisions about their workforce’s specific needs, leading to improvements in health, safety, and overall well-being.
Additionally, Sonder wanted to enhance the member experience by delivering campaigns based on their channel preferences, much like a personalized concierge service. Previously, they were using different systems for different channels, which led to disjointed experiences. Now, with Braze, they can automate customized messaging, which reduces manual effort and lets them leverage data faster.
Sonder’s product is designed to keep track of alerts throughout the nation. They use real-time feeds from the local news and weather bureau to provide up-to-date information. In Australia, protocols are developed by local governments, and they use this information to inform their own content. For example, going to the beach is a primary pastime in the eastern seaboard of Australia, but the waters can be quite rough with rips and other dangers. The app also includes features like a built-in emergency button, which can be used to send a first-responder the user’s location if needed.
For one of their first campaigns, they looked to use location-based push notifications to increase member safety when visiting Australian beaches. To help inform users of water safety protocols, Sonder used geofencing to trigger push notifications to deliver crucial, personalized safety alerts when they entered a high-risk area. The push notifications contained local safety protocols, current beach conditions, and essential emergency contacts. These alerts ensured users received vital information exactly when they needed it the most.
The team also created bespoke content designed to educate our members with useful water safety tips and emergency contacts, which they believe can help prevent accidents and save lives. They created the content in their content management system (CMS), then used Braze Catalogs to implement member personalization and customization.
Overall, the campaign was designed to leverage the power of geolocation and personalization to provide their members with relevant and engaging content that can help them stay safe while enjoying the beach.
Sonder was able to easily and quickly create this campaign, filling a gap in their communication strategy to bring safety awareness directly into the hands of its users.
Sonder has also found that SMS is an effective channel for engaging their members, especially for two use cases. First, during the activation process of new members, they use a combination of email and SMS to engage with specific members. Initially, they send a series of emails that clearly explain what Sonder is and a download link for the app. If a member has viewed an email but not yet registered, they send an SMS reminder. This helps ensure new members are fully aware of the benefits of the product in their day-to-day.
Secondly, as their product focuses on members’ safety and well-being, they use SMS to inform users of a critical incident at their location. Since many members work in retail or customer-facing roles where incidents are frequent, they use SMS to quickly alert members that Sonder is available to provide help and support during times of need. This ensures their members feel protected and can rely on them when they need it the most.
Sonder's strategic adoption of Braze is a testament to technology's power in transforming employee care. Through targeted campaigns like the geo-targeted safety alerts for Australian beaches, Sonder has not only enhanced its communication strategy but also significantly contributed to the safety and well-being of its employees. The results speak volumes: Increased user engagement, reduced churn, and a rise in Daily Product Usage (DPU).
Effective technology integration: Sonder's success highlights the importance of using the right tech stack. With Braze, they are able to bring all of their creative campaign ideas to life.
Data-driven engagement strategy: The significant increase in Digital Product Usage (DPU) and member retention shows the effectiveness of Sonder's data-driven approach. Tailoring communications based on user location and needs can improve business goals.
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