8x8 helps STA build a bespoke communications system

The Challenge: Reliable communications

For nearly 50 years, Southwest Transplant Alliance (STA) has helped save and heal lives by recovering donated organs and tissues for transplantation, education, and research. With so many important calls coming in and out of STA, it is critical that the organization has a reliable communications platform. Without hyperbole, a single call can quite literally be a matter of life and death.

Before 8x8, STA experienced two terrible communications platforms, back-to-back. “We picked a system right when we first started the call center, and while we did the best we could, there were many glitches and support issues,” explains Alexandra Headley, Manager of Donor Services at STA. “We switched, and it was worse. Halfway through our second phone system, we knew we really needed to find a better solution.”

On the hunt for a better solution, STA’s IT department culled a list of four or five different systems for the teams to evaluate. Reliability was a must, due to the nature of STA’s mission, but the teams were also looking for a solution that would support a hybrid workforce, provide first-class support, and offer data-rich reporting and analysis. Based on those criteria and after evaluating several different providers, STA chose 8x8 to revolutionize its communications.

The Solution: A unique system for a unique organization

When it comes to working with organ and tissue donation, STA is responsible for the entire process from the first phone call alerting them to a potential donor to placing the selfless gifts for transplant to enhance the lives of recipients and their families. On average, they field over 500 calls a day from hospitals across their service area regarding potential donors, loved ones of the recently deceased, and with surgeons, hopeful to transplant their patients in need. “There are a lot of phone calls required to effectively steward the gifts made possible by our heroic donors and their courageous families. We strive to help serve our community, including Medical Examiners and Funeral Homes. In a stressed healthcare system, our job is to make hope possible and support all our various donation partners,” says Miles Kueffner, Vice President of Donor Services at STA. “It is imperative that STA have a system that keeps these calls organized and streamlined, both in the Contact Center and internally between all our different teams in order to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

“Because of the work that we do, our needs are very different from the standard call center or even the standard medical call center,” says Headley. “Many of the systems we had been working with were so broken, we didn’t even know what questions to ask.” Fortunately, 8x8 was able to work closely with the STA team during the implementation process to help them build a unique 8x8 Contact Center solution to meet their specific needs.

“There were people from 8x8 to help us through the implementation phase, and we had lots of meetings to hone everything,” says Headley. “They truly were able to meet us where we were and guide us forward to implement a system that works. Even when we thought we’d considered everything, the 8x8 team helped make sure it was right even after the unforeseen glitches cropped up.”

The Result: Game-changing reporting and analytics

Today, STA coordinates organ transplantation to patients in ten transplant centers in its service area across Texas. Since its founding, the organization has recovered more than 35,000 lifesaving organs and helped more than 100,000 people. With 8x8 and its 99.999% uptime SLA, the Southwest Transplant Alliance team can trust that they will be able to reach medical professionals, donor families, and transplant recipients right when they need to, without risk of dropped calls, busy signals, or connection issues.

One of the biggest benefits for STA has been the data-rich 8x8 reporting and analytics. “8x8’s detailed reporting is critical for us. We track some very specific metrics, and we customize our reporting. That might feel very standard, but it is not standard across the VoIP industry,” explains Headley. “8x8’s reporting is one of my favorite wins.”