From Zero Service Infrastructure to Scaled Support: Powering a National Volunteering Launch with HubSpot

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The Challenge

Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) was preparing to launch GoVo, a new national volunteering platform connecting charities, corporates and volunteers. This was a completely new platform meaning there was no existing service solution in place to manage queries or support users.

With a small customer success team and the expectation of high volumes of support requests following a nationwide TV campaign, RVS needed a way to scale efficiently, reduce manual workload and create a single view of the customer across their ecosystem of charities, corporates and volunteers.

 

The Solution

iME partnered with RVS to implement a HubSpot-first solution focused on automation, scale and speed to value. Capturing bug reports and feature requests was also part of the remit, ensuring that valuable user feedback could be routed to the appropriate internal stakeholders for action. The work was delivered across five coordinated phases:

 

  • Knowledge Base
    iME helped structure and optimise RVS’s existing support content into HubSpot’s Knowledge Base. This content became the foundation for self-service and AI-powered query resolution, ensuring users received accurate, approved information instantly.
  • Service Hub & Ticket Setup
    Dedicated ticket pipelines were designed for volunteers, charities and corporates. These included tailored statuses, routing rules and escalation paths (including safeguarding processes) to ensure tickets were prioritised and resolved correctly.
  • Teams/Users
    Roles and permissions were aligned within HubSpot to support streamlined workflows. Categories and ticket fields were standardised to reduce confusion, simplify assignment and accelerate team adoption.
  • Help Desk
    The Help Desk was configured to route tickets efficiently, categorise issues automatically and provide internal visibility across the team. iME ensured that Help Desk setup supported RVS’s specific support strategy and response goals.
  • Customer Agent
    HubSpot’s AI-powered Customer Agent was deployed to handle first-line support. Drawing directly from the Knowledge Base, it resolved common queries automatically and triaged complex issues to specialist teams. It ensured consistent, 24/7 service from launch.

This approach gave RVS the ability to launch quickly, keep costs low and future-proof their service operations in line with upcoming HubSpot releases.

What really stood out was their ability to balance strategic thinking with execution - this particularly came to life with the chatbot implementation. They took the time to validate that the HubSpot solution aligned with the evolution of the HubSpot AI plans, while also being incredibly easy to work with alongside a stretched business team. They didn’t need hand-holding — they stepped in, adapted quickly, and made things happen.
Joanna Allen
Programme Delivery Lead @ RVS

Impact and Results

0
%
of queries handled automatically by HubSpot’s Customer Agent at launch.
  • Successful alignment with GoVo’s national launch campaign, including TV coverage on ITV.
  • Zero downtime during a period of heavy platform activity.
  • RVS’s service team gained a unified, simplified process that scaled instantly and improved adoption of Service Hub.

About Royal Voluntary Service

Royal Voluntary Service is one of the UK’s leading volunteering charities, supporting communities and hospitals across the country. Through its GoVo platform, RVS connects charities, corporates and individuals to make volunteering simple, rewarding and impactful  –  empowering more people to give their time for good.

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