YMCA Enterprise Shared Services (YESS) is the centralized operational unit, wholly owned by YMCA of the USA (Y-USA). It delivers critical back-office functions, including Human Resources, Finance, and IT to local YMCA associations nationwide. By consolidating these services, YESS allows local Ys to reduce costs, ensure consistency, and focus their resources squarely on their core mission of serving their communities.

Industry

Nonprofit

Challenges

The CX and HR teams of YESS manage hundreds of requests each week. As the support volume grew, they needed a reliable, easy-to-use help desk to bring structure, visibility, and accountability to their internal support. Before switching to HappyFox, they used Freshworks briefly, which proved too complex and inflexible for customer-facing teams. Key challenges included:

An overly complex, underutilized tool that didn't fit team workflows.
Limited visibility into staff workload and ticket progress.
Difficulty tracking time spent per customer and ensuring SLAs were met.
No centralized system for managing HR and CX email requests.

Implementation

After exploring multiple help desk options, YMCA Enterprise Shared Services chose HappyFox Help Desk. They had also considered Zendesk, but its higher cost and implementation complexity ruled it out. During the HappyFox trial, the CX team quickly saw how intuitive and flexible the platform was.

CX Team Rollout: Implemented HappyFox as the central system for customer requests.
HR Team Adoption: Expanded usage to manage HR email inquiries alongside HRIS tools.
Training: HappyFox University videos enabled quick, self-paced onboarding.
Automation & Reporting: Set up Smart Rules, Canned Actions, and dashboards to streamline workflows and track SLAs.
Integrations: Zapier integration enabled automating repetitive actions and improve cross-tool efficiency.

Results & Benefits

Enhanced Visibility

Dashboards and customizable analytics allows leaders to track workloads, ticket trends, and performance in real time.

Improved SLA Compliance

The team consistently meets their two-day response goal through automation and streamlined routing.

Validated Performance

Data from HappyFox helps Y-USA demonstrate the value of their CX and HR operations, reinforcing trust with partner YMCAs.

Scalable Processes

Smart Rules and Canned Actions automate repetitive tasks, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistent workflows across teams.

Cross-department Collaboration

Both HR and CX teams now operate within a shared, unified system that reduces confusion and manual effort.

YMCA Result

HappyFox was easy to set up and even easier to use. We were up and running almost immediately, without the long learning curve we faced with other tools. HappyFox completely changed how we manage support.

Natalie Johnson

Leader, Customer Experience YMCA Enterprise Shared Services (Y-USA)

Why HappyFox?

Ease of use Workflow Automation Reliable Support Custom Reporting Quick Implementation Scalability

Our experience

HappyFox provided YMCA Enterprise Shared Services with the visibility and control their previous tools lacked. Automation features simplified workflows, while dashboards gave teams clear insights into workloads and SLA performance. The result is a more productive, transparent, and accountable support operation.

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