Renault Trucks France:
A New Digital Communication System to Unite the Sales Network

Renault Trucks France decided to strengthen the link with its entire sales network by developing a new digital communication platform. With “Tous,” a streamlined and accessible digital tool, employees are informed of announcements relevant to them, engaged by sharing their enthusiasm for the brand, and empowered to become influential by increasing the brand’s influence at events.

Renault Trucks France unifies its entire sales network around an open and dynamic digital communication solution

Renault Trucks is a brand of the AB Volvo group, which develops, assembles, and sells industrial and commercial vehicles. Renault Trucks France is responsible for the brand’s distribution and services in France.
Representing 40% of the group’s overall activity, Renault Trucks France has 3 regional hubs, as well as 310 locations. Together with the 4 industrial sites, there are more than 4,000 employees working together as part of the Renault Trucks team.

A new communication strategy to fit the dynamics of electric mobility

The industrial and commercial vehicle market is currently benefiting from a unique dynamic: in addition to an intense recovery following the Covid-19 crisis, electric mobility is an innovation that is also transforming the global truck market.

With its E-tech offerings, comprising a range of electric vehicles and comprehensive support for its customers (research, diagnosis, solution, and implementation), Renault Trucks is positioning itself as a key player in decarbonization and the energy transition.

In this growing field, which is particularly promising but also highly competitive, the support of the sales network is a determining factor. It is essential that all those involved in sales, service, and maintenance are informed and trained as quickly as possible in order to gain a competitive advantage.

At Renault Trucks France, communication with the network suffered because of tools that were not adapted to the reality of the employees in the field. Sales representatives, branch managers, and technicians spend most of their time working with what they are passionate about: trucks. In the field or on the road, few of them have access to a fixed computer station.

Existing communication not effective enough

However, Renault Trucks’ communication was essentially based on web devices:

Intranets

The various intranets (group and France), the business applications, and the media center offered quality content, but only a minority of the 4,000 employees were able to connect regularly. They found dense information that was sometimes far removed from their needs and concerns.

Emails

Emails sent to all employees were often lost in inboxes, never to be read.

Town Hall meetings

Occasional Town Hall meetings, which were essential for important announcements about strategy, products, and events, represented topdown, centralized communication that was not very representative of the field.

As for the quarterly paper magazine, while it offered qualitative coverage of substantive subjects, it did not allow for real-time monitoring of market news, commentary, or the relaying of real-time actions in the field.

It became crucial to switch to a communication system designed for cell phones: reactive, visual, targeted, and accessible.

Florian Perrot Marketing Director Renault Trucks

Gathering and engaging the network around a dynamic communication solution

With heterogeneous and underused communication channels, the information was often one-sided and not very relevant.

According to Fabien Marie, Digital Marketing Manager:

Communication was not contributing to effectively sharing the new positioning and innovations of Renault Trucks. There was a risk of losing brand awareness within the network.

Moreover, the lack of accurate data concerning the consultation of published information or participation in events was another obstacle to improving communication with the network.

For Florian Perrot, Marketing Director at Renault Trucks France: “It became crucial to switch to a communication system designed for cell phones: reactive, visual, targeted, and accessible.”

A strategy based on 4 pillars and a unique platform

It is in this context that Renault Trucks France decided to strengthen the link with its sales network, by developing a new digital communication platform. Driven by the will of top management, the initiative aimed to consolidate 4 distinct pillars of communication within the network:

• Being informed and no longer missing out on relevant information
• Being engaged and giving all employees the means to share their enthusiasm for the brand
• Being influential and increasing the brand’s influence during events or special commercial campaigns
• Streamlining tools and simplifying information access

To carry out this ambitious project over the long term, Renault Trucks France chose Sociabble: a choice dictated by the platform’s services, but also by the know-how and support offered by the various Sociabble teams.

Florian Perrot remembers: “From the preliminary discussions with the sales team, we felt that Sociabble was able to help us enter a new phase in our communication with the network. We recognized an ally for a common mission.”

We felt that Sociabble was able to help us enter a new phase of our communication with the network. We recognized an ally for a common mission.

Florian Perrot Marketing Director Renault Trucks

Deployed in just a few weeks, Tous, the platform designed by Renault Trucks France together with Sociabble, has rapidly become the central hub for information exchange within the sales network. From the mobile application or on the web, everyone can find the relevant information they need on Tous, in real-time.

Equipped with a simplified and secure Single Sign On (SSO) connection, intuitive to use and inspired by the applications of social networks, Tous is quick to launch from any device. Across the various themed channels offered, the content published is now generating significant engagement and commitment at Renault Trucks France.

This enthusiasm comes from both the users who are already comfortable with digital tools, and those who are less familiar with them, alike.

Maximum visibility of the field

With Tous, many activities in the field that were not previously shared with the entire company have found a new source of wider visibility. This content has met with great success because it conveys authenticity, thanks to its usage of the codes and terminology of Renault Trucks’ garages.

In particular, photos of sales, vehicle deliveries, and training and workshop reports generate strong commitment and engagement, and help to strengthen the feeling of belonging to the brand.

Authentic, realistic, and highly representative of Renault Trucks’ employees, the images and messages published on Tous also find a favorable reception on social media. With a simple click, employees can share the content on their own social networks. This is practical when they want to show their pride in belonging to the company, and when they want to simply share their expertise.

This simplicity of usage is also a powerful asset when employees participate in events. For example, at trade fairs, Renault Trucks now regularly takes first place in terms of share of voice, thanks to the content proposed by the marketing team and the posts produced live by employees on site.

Openness, editorialization and interaction

Thematic channels have been designed to quickly identify the main topics. This allows everyone to easily choose the content to consult. But the platform also encourages curiosity: all topics, even those of colleagues from other regions or professions, are available to all. In this way, new synergies are created.

“Tous is a very free space that contributes to breaking down the silos in the network,” Florian Perrot has remarked.

And while employees publish numerous messages every day, the marketing team members at headquarters keep control of the editorial focus thanks to Sociabble’s content distribution features:

Notifications

Sent to all employees or to a specific audience (a region, a job, a business category, a hierarchical level, etc.), notifications attract the attention of employees and bring them to the platform.

Must-reads

The must-read is a feature that forces the user to consult an important publication before being able to continue browsing the platform. On Tous, this feature is regularly associated with content with high information value for the network, such as a government announcement.

Pinning

For content that deserves high visibility, the ability to “freeze” it at the top of the wall for a specific period of time considerably increases exposure to employees, without over-soliciting them.

Newsletters

Edited with just a few clicks and personalized according to the target, the newsletter functionality enables Renault Trucks to send its network the most important content. For example, market trends, head office announcements, and any other content relevant to users’ preferences.

With Tous, Renault Trucks has also introduced a new dimension to its communication with the sales network: interactivity.

Sociabble provides administrators of Tous three levers:

Engagement framework

Tous offers many administration features: for example, awarding points during campaigns and challenges, earning badges, and congratulating employees for their successes. On Tous, many contests and challenges involve sharing the best customer testimonials, the best safety practices in the workshop, etc.

Quizzes

Fun and efficient for measuring the understanding of messages, quizzes allow admins to collect feedback and to adjust the communication accordingly. On Tous, quizzes are often used to assess the employees’ knowledge of Renault Trucks’ electric offerings.

Surveys

Particularly useful when it comes to understanding the expectations or preferences of employees. For example, network members were able to express themselves on Tous regarding their favorite truck model, or give their opinion on the content of the platform or newsletter.

Digital marketing and communication for employees and business

The editorial management and admin features give the Renault Trucks marketing team the means to create a communication and Employee Advocacy platform that really looks like the brand.

For example, the Sociabble dashboard module allows Renault Trucks to consult all the relevant data for their projects in real-time: views, activities, shares, reach and engagement on social networks. All the important data for digital marketing that’s linked to the brand’s content can be consulted in real-time.

The Renault Trucks marketing team also benefits from day-to-day support from Sociabble: on the one hand, with dedicated consultants, who listen to their specific problems; on the other, with access to the online platform, which is full of advice and ready-to-use content. These are two resources Sociabble offers that have helped to drastically speed up the project.

However, Florian Perrot specifies:

Tous is not a marketing tool, it is a platform for employees, where everyone can gain exposure and consult the activities of others. Because it’s as intuitive as a social app, and requires no training, Tous has seen rapid adoption.

Now hosting hundreds of connected and active users on a daily basis, Tous is a success story that strongly contributes to Renault Trucks’ digital transformation. Employees in the Renault Trucks France distribution network are more familiar with the brand and its innovations, and every day they discover the best practices of their colleagues throughout the country.

Tous contribute significantly to the sense of belonging of the teams, which are now more engaged and informed.