Case Study: American Red Cross

Case Study: American Red Cross

The following case study is based on an interview conducted with Brandon Wilch of the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis.

"We wanted the ability to focus our services (online training support and internal IT) through email for our clients (external and internal)" explains Brandon Wilch of the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis. Initially, support email addresses forwarded to various staff's email client. However, this approach broke down. Without being centralized workload wasn't effectively being divided nor could productivity be measured or monitored.

So, could American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis find a tool to address the deficiencies' of using email clients for support, without busting the budget of a cost conscience not-for-profit? While Brandon researched various products, "for the price, all the options available (in HelpSpot)...is amazing". When first introduced to HelpSpot, his staff was blown-away with the flexibility and features available to them. "There was a very short learning curve for our support staff...and so far HelpSpot has been able to meet all our needs." Specifically, here's how.

Using HelpSpot's mail integration feature they've been able to consolidate the various email accounts used for internal and external support into one interface where each request can be centrally managed and worked by staff; eliminating duplication of efforts that occurred when using mail clients alone.

Because Brandon had two sets of customers to serve (internal and external), centralizing wasn't enough; he wanted to create specific departments and group staff within these departments accordingly. Using HelpSpot's category and request assignment features, issues can now be appropriately and efficiently routed to the most qualified staffer. "HelpSpot makes it simple to assign support staff to departments...(with staff now assigned to departments) no longer did our chapter IT staff have to see or worry about online help desk requests".

With structure for classifying (department and issue type) now established, American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis now has the ability to "set goals for response times and monitor our ability to reach those goals".

Beyond pricing and features, Brandon's decision to go with HelpSpot has been secured through his experience with HelpSpot's support staff. From the onset of the help desk selection/implementation process he had concerns over the quality of support he would receive from a provider. Having contact with HelpSpot's support staff both pre- and post-purchase, he's been nothing short of "extremely impressed with the speed and efficiency of the responses" to his inquires. "With the availability of the HelpSpot support staff, we aren't worried if we run into an issue, because we know they will be there to help…using their own product."