InstaTelehealth is a mental health platform that addresses the ease & accessibility issues of mental health services to all persons in need throughout the US and globally. Their aim is to help individuals in need of mental health assistance, improve the lack of access to mental health care and reduce long wait times for appointments with counselors or therapists.

They provide their services via a HIPAA-compliant, omnichannel support solution. The company engaged Adelante as an implementation partner to set up Zendesk to manage and support their mission-critical communications channels — including phone, live chat, and video conference, all available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We spoke with InstaTelehealth’s founders, Chareka J. Cross, CEO, and Raymonda Takla, VP of Operations, to gain some insight into why they opted to work with Adelante and their experience of the project.

“Zendesk had the features and integrations we needed – it was just a matter of getting everything set up correctly.”

Before looking for an implementation partner, InstaTelehealth had already researched the market and decided that Zendesk was the right platform for their needs. As Chareka explains, “After trying a few other options, I saw that Zendesk had the communications tools we needed to provide an omnichannel service.”

“That’s key to supporting our “no excuse” policy — clients are always able to access us to get help at any time of day. Zendesk was the platform that best suited our needs in this regard — allowing people to reach out on the channel they were most comfortable with. And it had the option for the further integrations we needed to fulfill the rest of our goals”

“We were looking to achieve an easier way for individuals to communicate with us — including those in critical situations.”

“Our main goal with the project was to provide more accessible communication methods for individuals in need,” she continues, “as well as creating expedited tickets or escalation points to help those who may be in extreme need or crisis.”

“Zendesk had those escalation processes built in for us to do that. It’s about getting the calls or inbound messages routed to the right person as quickly as possible, so people can get help as quickly as possible,” Chareka explains.

“Adelante’s exceptional communication, transparency, and efficiency were all key to the success of this project”

“Adelante was fully transparent about what they offered, what they would do, and they gave us a very clear idea of what we needed to provide to make the project successful,” adds Raymonda, “The way Adelante laid out the game plan from the very beginning had a big impact on the success of the project because we knew what to expect, based on that transparency.”

InstaTelehealth knew they needed an implementation partner from the start of the project, as they didn’t have the resources or expertise in-house to tackle this type of project.

“If we’d attempted to implement Zendesk ourselves, it wouldn’t have worked! Certainly not as well as it has with Adelante.”

As Chareka explains, “Doing it ourselves – well, it just wouldn’t have happened! I’ve had experience using Fiverr before to source partners, so we looked there. Adelante was listed at the top of the Pro section, which was a good sign. And once I’d reviewed their profile, and made initial contact, I was totally confident in their ability to move forward and complete the project for us.”

“We did have some experience working with another implementation partner,” Raymonda adds, “and we tried reconnecting with them. But when we compared what they could offer us to what Adelante was proposing the difference was significant. Adelante was the obvious choice.

“Adelante is so far ahead of anyone else we’ve been able to find in terms of their knowledge of Zendesk and how easy it is to work with them.

Chareka recalls the factors that led to InstaTelehelath choosing to work with Adelante, commenting, “Once I reached out – the speed of their response, for one. And the upfront plan, making it clear exactly what they could offer, what to expect, and what we needed to do to get things started.”

“They showed us clear outcomes, and the path to get there,” Raymonda remembers, “We couldn’t find anyone comparable. They were very caring in how they helped us create exactly what we needed. They thought of things we hadn’t considered, or didn’t even know we should consider!”

“Adelante gives you a very clear plan of each of the steps towards achieving the goals and the overall mission.”

“Often in this type of business relationship we as the consumer — or owners of the businesses — are not fully aware of what’s possible,” Chareka explains, “We have a vision in mind of what we want, but we don’t know how to achieve it. Adelante makes the game plan clear. But they also take the time to advise on easier ways to run our existing processes, to make them more efficient — things we hadn’t thought of initially.”

“In our opinion businesses looking for a Zendesk implementation partner couldn’t make a better choice than Adelante!”

For Chareka and Raymonda, working with Adelante has not just been a positive experience, it has delivered significant value-add that the two founders had not expected at the start of the relationship. “We’re highly excited by the work Adelante has done, the ease of that process, as well as the training,” Chareka offers, “They’ve taught us how to continue to work with the processes they put in place.”