For over 100 years, Southampton Football Club, part of the English Premier League, has been a beloved institution, with fans who treat the club as part of their identity. The team, the Saints, is a treasured part of the community. Greg Baker, Chief Revenue Officer, reflects on this deep-rooted connection: "I've been a Saints fan for over 40 years. I came to my first game here back in 1985, and the team has always been a big part of my life. Match days are what we exist for, and when we win the energy is palpable."
Until recently, Southampton FC relied on an outdated, on-premises phone system for internal communications and customer service. The system required constant upkeep, taking IT resources away from strategic tasks and making even simple changes, like altering open hours or updating messages, challenging and time-consuming. The outdated phone systems slowed down the operations team but also kept fans from getting the best experience possible.
“Customer experience has got to be at the forefront of pretty much everything we do as a football club,” says Huw Fielding, IT Director at Southampton FC. “You can't make a decision as a business without having customer input, fan input, as we would say. So, the ability to engage with fans at the start, middle, and end of every journey that we make is paramount. Football clubs don't exist without it.”
Rising to the challenge with 8x8
Southampton FC knew it needed a dynamic, flexible, and easy-to-manage solution. While the club is based in Southampton, UK, it operates across two primary sites—St. Mary’s Stadium, Staplewood training ground, and a range of remote and international locations. The club worked with a tech consultancy to evaluate a few different options. “After demoing 8x8,” says Huw. “It was an easy decision for us. We could see that it had lots of features yet using it was simple. The consistent experience across the platform made it easy for our staff to use, and it was clear to the IT team how it would alleviate the difficult and time-consuming problems we had before.”
The migration to 8x8 was a fairly quick process. “8x8 gave us a seamless migration the whole way through. It took around six to eight weeks or so, which, given it was over the Christmas break, was really, really impressive,” Huw explains.
Today, 8x8 Work connects all of Southampton FC’s employees across its various locations, enabling smooth communication whether staff are on-site, remote, or traveling internationally. And 8x8 Contact Center now powers the club’s customer-facing operations, from ticketing to corporate sales and hospitality. Features like call routing and real-time text-to-speech allow the team to provide faster, more responsive service.
"The partnership between 8x8 and Southampton Football Club has been really strong," says Huw. "We got to know the account team really well at the start and it’s been a really positive relationship ever since."
