AbilityNet team up with Deskpro to power volunteer support

About AbilityNet

AbilityNet is a UK-based charity dedicated to empowering disabled and older people through technology. Its nationwide network of 450+ volunteers provide free support in homes, online, and community spaces. To deliver this service at scale, AbilityNet relies on a help desk platform that’s flexible, scalable, and easy for volunteers to use.

The Challenge

Before switching to Deskpro, AbilityNet used Freshdesk. However, as time went on, the platform no longer aligned with their needs, particularly around cost and service experience.

“There were a few different things,” said Sarah Brain. “What they were proposing in terms of cost was outside what we could afford. We’re a charity, so every penny counts, because everything we save we can invest in supporting older and disabled people with tech through our support services.”

More than cost, the team was searching for a collaborative relationship with a vendor that understood the charity’s mission. “We just wanted to feel like we were partners with someone rather than just buying a service,” Sarah explained.

Additionally, staff turnover at AbilityNet’s previous provider further disrupted their experience. “They changed staff so often,” said Steve Cooper. “Account managers came and went and we would have to go through and explain our use case every two or three months.”

Why Deskpro?

From the first interaction, Deskpro stood out as a true partner. The onboarding process, led by Deskpro’s professional service manager, Eloise, played a central role in that experience of not just providing a platform but a service.

When asked if Deskpro met that requirement, “You're exceeding it,” said Steve. “I mean, that's an easy thing to say and sounds like it could be trite, but it's true.”
“The brief that we came up with was to try and make it as close to our previous configuration as possible,” he added. “Most of our 450 plus volunteers log in infrequently to pick up a ticket. So they're going to have that fear factor of a new platform.”

“Eloise was fantastic through the configuration,” Steve continued. “We would come up with some ideas and she would go away and work on them”
Sarah echoed that praise: “She was very ingenious in her ways of solving problems. If she didn’t know, she got other people involved. But it was really nice to have that one point of contact, end-to-end.”

Volunteer Success at Scale

Launching Deskpro to a large and dispersed volunteer network came with challenges, but the rollout was a clear success. Thanks to thorough planning, volunteer training videos, and consistent communication, more than 450 volunteers were pre-registered before launch, and 390 had logged in on day one.

“We went live with 450 plus volunteers and 20 staff,” said Steve. “The proof for us on the very first day was the fact that we created exactly the same number of tickets as we would on any other Monday. That was testament to the planning.”

Most importantly, AbilityNet retained its volunteer base. “Last time we transitioned to a new system, we lost some volunteers,” said Sarah. “This time, we didn’t lose anyone. That says everything.”

Deskpro’s flexible licensing model was also a game-changer. “With a volunteer force there’s constant shifting,” Sarah explained. “Before, we were having to delete and add volunteers, even if they went on holiday for a few weeks, which is a logistical nightmare. Being able to just open that up and not worry about taking a new volunteer on because you haven’t got a seat on the system is a crazy situation to be in.”

Supporting the Mission

Beyond operational success, Deskpro helps AbilityNet fulfil its mission by offering powerful oversight and ease of use.

“We’re using it for that one-to-one volunteer support,” Sarah said. “It makes the management of volunteers much easier in terms of bringing them on board and getting them onto the system quickly.”

Steve emphasized the benefit of visibility. “We're dealing with clients who can have any form of disability, and we're not always going to know the answer the first time. So it's about having that shared information. The ease of access to the database, tracking the volunteers, how many tickets they've got, what their situation is. It really helps.”

AbilityNet also uses Deskpro to monitor feedback from the older and disabled people it supports, which is key to measuring impact. “The thing that motivates the volunteers the most is the feedback,” said Sarah. 95% of the clients AbilityNet supports rate the service as excellent or good.

“We can see the feedback coming in through Deskpro and share it with volunteers. That’s how we measure our impact.”

Commitment to Accessibility

Accessibility is a core value at AbilityNet, and Deskpro’s openness to collaboration made a strong impression.

“There was a real willingness to have that discussion about accessibility in Deskpro,” said Steve.

“We’d like to think that we can assist with the knowledge and experience we have in terms of how accessibility works, whether that’s websites, platforms, or applications.”

A Culture That Matters

For Steve, the first sign that Deskpro might be the right fit was not technical, but cultural.

“You put up pictures of the Christmas party,” he recalled. “You all looked happy. It looked like a fun place to be.”

The importance of the people behind Deskpro has continued throughout the partnership. “I sent a support ticket at a ridiculous time in the evening, not expecting or wanting a reply. And someone got back to me within 15 minutes,” Steve said. “It tells you a lot about the kind of company you’re working with.”

“As a charity, we weren’t just looking for a platform,” he added. “We were looking for a partner. Deskpro gave us both.”

Results & What’s Next

Since launch, AbilityNet has logged more than 2,500 tickets through Deskpro, including:

• 1,000+ assigned to volunteers
• 600+ supported by BT Group funded Digital Skills trainers
• 50+ through disability consultancy

The team is now working on creating internal “Tips & Tricks” videos to help volunteers explore features beyond ticket handling.

“There are things that we do every day that get taken for granted,” said Steve. “We want to sit down, play, and create a video to share those things. It’ll make our lives easier and the volunteers’ lives better.”

Ultimately, the system is helping to support older and disabled people be included in an ever more essential digital world. Here are just a few of the things they say:

“Jamie (volunteer) provided excellent, speedy help and support for my learning disabled brother, who lives independently and alone in the community. Jamie investigated the digital challenges encountered for my brother and was able to identify and implement good outcomes to enable my brother to be online, to increase his online security and to be able to reconnect with me and others via his communication portal. I live at the other end of the country and it is a relief to know that I can gain this kind of support for my brother. I would like to convey my gratitude and sincere thanks to Jamie for his help.”

“I was very, very stressed, filled with anxiety, having to turn on my computer and usually wasting hours of time trying to get it to perform as I wanted and nearly always failing. Very quick response and Anthony (volunteer) was here to help much sooner than expected. Anthony calmly showed me so much to help on tasks that I was having such trouble with what turned out to be "simple " actions that I knew nothing about!! I could physically feel my stress draining away and my confidence returning. It really helped as well to know I could contact AbilityNet again if I needed to.”