Hitchin Dental Improves the Patient Experience with Sangoma Unified Communications

The Customer

Hitchin Dental — part of the Obex Dental group — is a large network of community dental practices located in Hitchin, United Kingdom. Established in 2005, it cares for the teeth of thousands of patients across 11 practices offering a range of general and specialist dental services as well as dental hygiene.

Business Challenges

Multiple sites, massive demand and an obsolete phone system: it was no surprise that Hitchin Dental realized it needed to modernize. Often, its 11 practices received 200 calls a day; receptionists and call management agents constantly tried—and failed—to cope with the volume. It was impossible to know how many calls went unanswered or were abandoned by frustrated patients, each struggling with the same inadequate system.

The managing partners could only assume that the figures were agonizing; the likely scale of lost revenue was too great for them even to consider, let alone calculate. They knew they were behind on their communications strategy. They knew many successful business owners who had adopted the latest technologies. The problem was that they and their teams were too busy fixing smiles to consider fixing phones. The challenges were clear. The existing solution lacked call queue management to organize calls; call routing for internal transfers; and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to deliver prerecorded information to callers who did not necessarily need to speak directly to an agent.

It was also tied to fixed hardware—phones wired to reception desks and treatment rooms—which allowed no mobility or flexibility, such as might support a new “work from anywhere” mandate for any staff able to do so. Finally, the existing solution captured no call data—the new critical currency for any modern business seeking to turn insight into evidence-led change that drives growth.

Sangoma Solutions

Accredited integration partner Dental IT worked closely with the Hitchin Dental team to fully understand the problems. After identifying the key pain points and, above all, their causes, Sangoma’s Switchvox as a Service cloud communications platform proved to be the ideal solution. By replicating all the company’s communications features on any connected device, anytime and anywhere through a single app, it immediately provided rich and powerful unified communications features such as voice, video, IVR and comprehensive call management.

Selected users received a personalized dashboard, visual voicemail, a mobile and desktop softphone for calls and chat, call queuing, contact center features, detailed call reports, conference calls and auto-attendant capabilities; all included as standard. The system was paired with 1 Gbps Digium D60 and D62 plug-and-play desk phones, entry-level and tier-one models, with a 4.3-inch HD color display, context-sensitive soft keys and advanced applications specifically designed to maximize the power of Switchvox. All Hitchin Dental staff received comprehensive, easy-to-understand training on using the new system, its live dashboard features and call reports.

Results

Soon, Hitchin Dental’s nightmare of missed and abandoned calls was over. Its once-overwhelmed receptionists and call management agents adapted brilliantly to the new seamless, smooth-running system, confidently and efficiently answering, queuing and directing high call volumes.

They were empowered by a comprehensive, instant overview of communications activity across the company’s 11 sites on a single screen; in addition, they regained control of call flows and improved the quality of this crucial customer experience for the business. No more frustrations. No more missed or abandoned calls. No more lost revenue.

Finally—and just as importantly—the team can dive into the newly captured call data, gaining a better understanding of patient behavior, enabling more cost-effective management of staff schedules and providing evidence on which to base strategic decisions that can generate additional revenue far exceeding the investment cost of the new solution.