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Saving Lives, One Pulse at a Time: Rapid Response Revival's Journey with StoreConnect & Salesforce

November 25, 2024

When Sarah experienced sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 41, her husband’s quick actions made the difference between life and death.

Donovan Casey’s knowledge of CPR sustained Sarah long enough for paramedics to arrive with a defibrillator. Sarah survived, but the terrifying incident inspired Donovan to develop a device that could help others in the same situation: CellAED, a cell phone-sized defibrillator. Cardiac arrest claims the lives of about 16,500 people every day worldwide, and every minute that passes without defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by 10%.

Sarah was among the lucky 3% to survive, and Donovan was determined to increase that number by making defibrillators more accessible. This mission became the foundation of Rapid Response Revival (RRR), a company focused on making defibrillators affordable, accessible, and easy to use.

CellAED: A Life-Saving Innovation

Donovan spent years developing CellAED, a portable device that gives anyone the ability to deliver a critical “kickstart” to the heart. The mission was clear: tackle the global issue of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) with a device that anyone, regardless of medical training, could use to save lives.

CallAED being administered to a man laying on the ground

However, to scale this lifesaving technology, RRR needed more than just a great product. They required a robust, global eCommerce platform that could grow alongside their expanding markets. That’s when they turned to StoreConnect, a revolutionary commerce platform built on Salesforce, the #1 AI CRM, to power their growth.

3 photos of CallAED - one in bag, one in box, and one being delivered

The Challenge: A Global Launch for a Revolutionary Medical Device

RRR needed a platform that could help them rapidly launch their product across multiple regions, ensuring that it reaches as many people as possible.

RRR faced multiple challenges:

  • launching a new product in multiple countries,
  • navigating medical device regulations, and
  • building a scalable eCommerce and CRM platform.
  • Each new country’s store had to be ready as soon as regulatory approvals were in place, with full CRM capabilities to manage sales, customer data, and marketing.

We needed to be up and running fast, and StoreConnect helped us get there, explained Mark Hillebrand, Chief Marketing Officer of Rapid Response Revival. Scalability, efficiency, and effectiveness were the most critical points, and it’s all there.

Within six weeks of signing their Salesforce licence in August 2021, RRR had launched their first fully designed, fast, and responsive website powered by StoreConnect and Salesforce. This initial success paved the way for the global launch of CellAED.

Two photos: The first with factory worker working on circuit board, and the second of an emergency wall kit including CellAED unit

How StoreConnect Helped Power Rapid Growth

Launching Multiple Stores, Quickly and Efficiently

StoreConnect enabled RRR to launch multiple online stores across different regions. This included Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, with plans for expansion to 70 countries.

Each store is fully integrated into Salesforce, offering seamless operations and ensuring compliance with different regulatory requirements, such as GDPR in Europe.

We’d committed to Salesforce, so the ease of integration was absolutely critical to us too, and absolutely delivered by StoreConnect The ability to spin up multiple stores for our product in different regions was what made StoreConnect attractive to us, said Hillebrand. It allowed us to get our product to market faster.

The word's first handheld, smart, personal AED easy to use and is also more affordable for the home, workplace & community

Enabling Resellers and Global Expansion

Not only did RRR need to sell directly to consumers, but they also wanted to enable resellers to launch their own branded stores easily.

StoreConnect allowed for the rapid creation of these reseller stores, giving them the flexibility to grow while maintaining centralized management and reporting. They have launched two reseller stores: one in France and one in Ireland, with more planned.

StoreConnect’s multi-currency and multi-region support simplified global operations, handling everything from currency conversions to subscription management. This made it easier for RRR to navigate complex logistical and financial challenges as they expanded into new markets.

With the ability to manage all of our online stores from one platform, StoreConnect has truly simplified our operations, said Hillebrand.

When we started with StoreConnect we were thinking primarily of an eCommerce store. But there is also the content management aspect to it. The fact that our content management and content is integrated intimately with the store is great. The speed and responsiveness of our site is wonderful.

Over 25,000 CellAED devices shipped since launching just over 2 years ago!

Proving a Seamless Customer Experience

RRR needed their eCommerce solution to integrate with their existing Microsoft Azure backend, which monitors the defibrillator devices and manages customer service. Because StoreConnect is built on Salesforce, allowing for deep integration with Salesforce Experience Cloud and ActiveDirectory, RRR are able to maintain custom dashboards and provide customers with a seamless user experience across their web store, support portal, and device management dashboard.

The reality is that a lot of businesses don’t have detailed customer insight, but the customers expect this and expect businesses to treat them appropriately. It is unacceptable in this day and age to have to repeat the query or to re-brief or re-ask a customer a question they have already answered. It all should be unified and available.

Compliance with GDPR and Medical Data Privacy

As RRR expanded into Europe, they needed to comply with GDPR and other medical data privacy regulations. StoreConnect’s built-in GDPR compliance, combined with Salesforce’s role-based permissions, ensured that RRR could manage sensitive data securely and efficiently.

StoreConnect’s GDPR compliance feature allowed us to launch our European stores without needing expensive third-party solutions, Hillebrand explained.

Centralizing Operations with Salesforce

The success of Rapid Response Revival has been significantly bolstered by the decision to centralize their entire business operation onto Salesforce. By using Salesforce as a single source of customer data across e-commerce, customer portals, and digital marketing, they’ve streamlined their customer engagement strategy.

Salesforce has been a game changer for us, says Hillebrand. With everything in one place, we can respond to our customers’ needs in real-time, and having this level of access to data means our teams can make faster, more accurate decisions.

The Results: A Unified Platform for Lifesaving Technology

With StoreConnect and Salesforce, Rapid Response Revival now has a single, unified platform for managing eCommerce, CRM, and customer service. By leveraging Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Marketing Cloud, RRR has streamlined its operations, providing a complete view of their customers and delivering exceptional service.

By having StoreConnect, Service Cloud, and other Salesforce tools, everyone in our company from customer service to marketing has visibility into appropriate customer information, said Hillebrand.

The #1 selling AED company in the Australian market sold 22,000+ in Australia alone since launching!

Looking Ahead: Scaling to Save Lives

With StoreConnect and Salesforce, RRR is poised for significant growth. They continue to expand the availability of CellAED, with plans to launch in six new European regions in multiple languages. With legal approval to sell in 70 countries, RRR predicts a market of 30 million CellAED devices in Australia alone, transforming cardiac arrest survival rates globally.

We see StoreConnect and Salesforce growing with us as we expand, said Hillebrand. Their platform aligns with our vision, and we’re confident they’ll continue to be part of our journey.

CallAED we're here to save lives site on computer screen

RRR’s journey is just beginning, but the potential impact of CellAED is immense. By combining groundbreaking technology with StoreConnect’s eCommerce and Salesforce’s CRM, RRR is not just launching a product—they’re saving lives, one pulse at a time.