Of All The Workplace by Meta Alternatives, Townsend Leather Chose Speakap — Here’s Why

Looking for Workplace by Meta alternatives? Learn why Townsend Leather chose Speakap to rebuild connection and improve internal communication.

Manufacturing

Platform migration

Shawn Czadzeck, Communication Designer at Townsend Leather, doesn’t hold back when describing what internal communication looked like before switching platforms.

From bugs and disappearing images to unanswered support tickets, the team knew it was time for a change — and started exploring Workplace by Meta alternatives that actually supported their way of working.

We sat down with Shawn to talk about what life was like on Workplace, why they made the switch to their own branded employee experience The Link (powered by Speakap) and how it’s impacted everything from culture to connection across four buildings.

What made you start looking for Workplace by Meta alternatives?

Our team had grown very accustomed to Workplace. It functioned exactly like Facebook, so it felt familiar. The options for commenting, gifing, emojing, and tagging made the Workplace environment feel like an ongoing conversation. It was the happy outward facing shell that our users were soothed by, but just under that shell was a festering stink-pit or concern and emptiness.

What issues did you face with Workplace before switching?

Being connected to software that seemed to have no regard for security was concerning. Being connected to software that seemed to lack any real humans at the backend was frustrating. Being connected to a software whose owner does not have the best rep, was unsettling. We felt embedded into the software so things continued on, but when we were given an out – we welcomed it.

The biggest gap for us was the utter lack of response or answers whenever we had issues or questions. We would come across bugs often, images wouldn’t load, tagging function was wildly inconsistent, things seemed to disappear… and to report these concerns was layers of digging to even find a channel. When we did submit a ticket of concern we would never hear back. I don’t think we had a single issue responded to.

Among all the Workplace by Meta alternatives, why did you choose Speakap?

So, one of my personal motivations for moving forward with Speakap was how responsive everyone was. From the initial sale pitch to the follow-up conversations all through implementation and to today, everyone I/we have worked with has responded right away, and with valuable insight or action-based motion to get an answer quickly. Even concerns we’ve submitted that I have forgotten all about have been answered and reported back to me on.

Speakap gave us real human response to issues; quick and effective. It gave us a peace of mind knowing their priority of security.

What was the migration from Workplace to Speakap like?

Our migration scenario was likely a unique situation, so it seemed to need a lot of extra attention. We had been with Workplace for so long and had built such a massive wealth of images, posts, and memories – we wanted to try and preserve it all even into a new format/platform.

The Speakap team was responsive in ideas and solutions. I always felt like my concerns mattered as much to them as they did to me.

It felt like a partnership right from the beginning with them looking for solutions even if they weren’t prompted to, they were proactive in making the whole process as great as possible.

How is your team using The Link in day-to-day communication?

Our team loves the chat function. We are spread across 4 buildings, they are all within walking distance of each other, but people are in constant motion and having that immediate anyone/anywhere connection is vital and valued for our team.

Only half of our company uses a computer regularly throughout the day, so the mobile experience is the bees knees for our team. I might be one of the only users who uses The Link on a desktop browser more than on mobile. Our team is in constant motion, so having this invaluable connection and communication tool at our fingertips is delight-bringing as well as time and money saving.

One of the surprising things that has come with The Link is our “quiet posters”. We have a handful of folks who don’t comment or react to posts, people you wouldn’t even know are using the link at all, but then suddenly they post something that matters to them – seemingly out of nowhere. It might be something they did over the weekend and they just feel connected enough to the entire team here that they want to share their joy, or it might be an incredible leather that passed through their area and they feel proud and excited to share the coolness that we create and they get to have a hand in.

We love having this outlet for sharing passions and building new connections because of it. The Link allows our team to see and find each other in ways that might otherwise be uncomfortable or impossible.

How did leadership respond to replacing Workplace with Speakap?

Our president is the biggest champion of The Link, he is intensely critical of it with all the wishes and dreams he has in ways that it can grow and improve, but is also such a fan of having the opportunity to connect with anyone at anytime

Has switching to a Workplace by Meta alternative influenced your culture?

We have been very fortunate to have earned “Top Work Places” and “Best Places to Work” awards for a decade now and the earning of those awards is fully due to individuals each buying into the idea of what Townsend is.

We can tell employees who we are, we can make posters with our company values and give PowerPoints to new employees about what we care about – but that is not what seeps in, that is not what influences minds. What makes people believe the Townsend story themselves, and want to join and contribute to it, is, when they can see it and hear and experience it.

The Link gives us those tangibles. Those impactful moments, frozen in time for introspection and delight. On The Link, a new employee or a veteran of 35 years, can both see the things that we share and highlight and be affected by it.

What we share is what we value, and everyone at Townsend can see how we value each other. We value what we do, we value working together, we value celebrating each other. That constant feed of twinning photos, favorite leathers, special recognitions, funny moments, and peeks into personal lives… all reinforce the ideals of what Townsend is, who we are together, and what we care about.

The choice of words we each use in our posts, the smiling photos, the consistency of repeated ideas – it all clearly defines who we are better than we could do in any other format. Having a single easy to access place, where we can so clearly showcase the true “who” of who we are is irreplaceable.

What’s your experience been like working with the Speakap team?

Working with the Speakap team has been like working with our own team – people who care, take action, and want to see the best of whatever we are working on.

The level of response and attention to every message, concern, random thought, second-hand complaint, or question has been shockingly thorough and action based.

We’ve never received silence. We’ve never received a shrug of the shoulders, everything is met with seriousness and action.

What has changed most since moving away from Workplace?

The Link has been a meaningful time saver for us. No one has to wander and wonder, we can connect right away through chat and we connect emotionally through the feed.

We also have greater tools for sharing and learning. When someone finds an issue or has a frustration, that have an easy and safe outlet for it. It makes for real time learning. Someone sees something that can be improved, they can so easily combine photos and words and push it out to everyone. Everyone is able to read it and digest it in their own time and gain from it.

Putting ideas and images together makes communications stickier. A post about horse being in the wrong spot makes the poster feel better about shouting something out to everyone, but a post about horses being in the wrong spot coupled with a photo of where those horses are makes an impact on the reader – suddenly the issue becomes real and understandable. People see the photo and know where it is, can see the problem themselves, and can understand how to prevent it in the future. As easy communication tool that reaches everyone with images and words is sticky, impactful, and relevant. (horses are large rolling metal racks that we use to transport and store leather hides)

Are there any standout moments that show the platform’s impact?

Walking around Townsend, you hear so often here someone say “yeah I saw that on the link”. People will always deeply value in-person connection, but now, because of The Link, they have details and reason to make those connections.

Our president posts about someone’s Townsend anniversary and people are excited to chime in with a comment or reaction on the post, but then, they also have a reason to seek that person out in real life and say congrats into their face.

So, maybe counter to logic, our focus on digital connection has also increased our in-person connection. People want to connect and feel part of something, The Link gives them an easy way in to do so, it also gives them the substance to go connect in person, follow up on something they saw, laugh together at reliving a comment, high five in person after they thumbs-uped a photo. Connection leads to connection.