Answering Service Case Study: Appointment Setting Services Help Chiropractic Clinic Grow

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Doctors Martin and Trish Resnick started their chiropractic clinic two years ago, this May. After earning their doctorates they moved to Alexandria, Virginia where they opened their clinic. Their mission was to promote health and wellness through natural, non-invasive techniques.

Newly married and fresh out of graduate school, they were eager to build their practice. They began on a tight budget—too tight to hire support staff. Dr. Martin and Dr. Trish took patients on alternate days. While one attended to patients, the other took care of administrative issues, answered the phones, assisted in X-Rays, and marketed their business.

“For the first three months or so, it was really exciting,” Trish recalled. “Then we realized that doing clerical duties ourselves, such as answering the phones, hurt our image as professionals.”

“We were just starting out and counting every penny,” Martin laughed. Skeptical of the cost, he looked for an answering service to relieve them of juggling calls and patients. He also hoped to pick up some afterhours calls their answering machine missed. “It was quite affordable, especially compared to hiring a receptionist. But what really surprised us was they could set appointments, too.”

The answering service used an online appointment-scheduling portal so both the answering service and the Resnicks could access the same scheduling database to set and change appointments. The answering service scheduled patients whenever they called, 24/7, and the Resnicks scheduled follow-up appointments after they saw a patient. The process was smooth.

Then after a casual comment from a busy patient, they began offering Wednesday evening appointments, too. “That’s when things really took off,” Martin said. Soon every Wednesday night was full—for both of them—so they added Monday evening and eventually Fridays, too. They scaled back their slow midweek morning schedule to balance out their workload.

“It was working great. We had a full schedule,” Trish said. “But the no shows were killing us.” She mentioned her frustration to the answering service. The service suggested a solution. They began making appointment reminder calls to patients the day before each appointment, as well as sending reminder texts one hour prior.

“Our no-show rate dropped to near zero,” Martin said. “It was amazing!”

The answering service handled all of this. “I can’t see how we would have grown like we did without them,” Trish added. “Our answering service freed us up to give our patient’s the one-on-one attention they deserve. That’s the part of this job I love—helping people stay well.”

Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan. Contact us to learn how a telephone answering service can answer your calls 24/7 to better serve your customers

Answering Service Case Study: Sweet Rewards for Bakery Owner

Brooke Hiam, owner of Glendale Bakery, specializes in special occasion cakes. When you walk in you see a beautiful display case filled with wedding cakes. Nearby sits a photo album of more elaborate, one-of-a-kind creations.

Her shop is always busy. She has managed to develop her passion for creating decadent wedding cakes into a major profit center for her small business. It might surprise you to learn that an important element of her success has been outsourcing all of her telephone calls to a telephone answering service.

“When I bought this place,” she recalls, “I was everywhere, doing everything. From managing my purchases, to meeting with clients, I did everything you can imagine.”

“Of course, I’ve always loved to create special occasion pieces. That’s my real passion. When we got started, I did a few wedding cakes that first summer. Word got around, and soon I was doing quite a few. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that listening to clients carefully is as important as creating the perfect cake.”

“But, I found that spending an hour with the bride, her mom, or even members of the wedding party took more time than I could handle,” Brooke sighs. “I wanted to keep doing the special occasion pieces, since that’s what I love, but I couldn’t afford to spend so much time selling each job. There is just too much for a small-business owner to do, and pretty soon I was overwhelmed.”

“In the second year, I hired a telephone answering service to handle my calls. That took a lot of pressure off me, but I had no idea how much else they could do! After about three months or so, my account rep at the answering service met with me again. She helped set up a system where all my special occasion callers go through a different process when they call.

“The agent asks them a series of questions that used to take me about a half-hour to go over in person. Then, they schedule an appointment for the bride to meet with me.

“By the time they come into the shop, I already have some price quotes together, samples ready, and photos from my portfolio to show them. The whole meeting is done in half an hour. Now, I’m doing what I love, and I’m managing my time much better. I couldn’t be happier.”

Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan. Contact us to learn how a telephone answering service can answer your calls 24/7 to better serve your customers.

Answering Service Case Study: Art Teacher Launches Business

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Theresa Alacante has been making fine, hand-made ceramic tiles for upscale clients for twelve years. After she graduated with her Masters in Fine Arts from UC Davis, she taught art in the public school system. At the same time she designed and crafted fine hand-made ceramic tiles on the side.

Theresa’s reputation grew. Many upscale designers began specifying her work on major construction and design projects. Soon, Theresa realized she had to make a choice. In order to meet demand, she gave up teaching to pursue her business full time.

As a new small business owner, Theresa attempted to handle all of the tasks her growing business demanded. She even kept a cordless telephone on her glazing table and juggled purchasing, inventory management, and customer orders herself. A friend helped her launch a website and later a printed catalog that she sent to designers around the state.

She soon found she had as little time to concentrate on her art now as she did when she was teaching. Because she worked from a home studio, Theresa was reluctant to hire staff, which would have subjected her to various health, labor, and safety regulations that did not otherwise apply to her as a small, home-based business.

In order to cope Theresa outsourced her telephone calls to a virtual receptionist service provided by a telephone answering service. Later she rolled over her 800 number so her catalog orders could be accepted along with her routine calls. Thanks to the proficient staff and sophisticated order-taking software at the answering service, her callers were greeted by professional operators who could answer questions and process orders.

A few months later her work was featured in a national designers trade publication,  and Theresa’s business was inundated with requests for her catalog. The answering service took every one of the calls that flooded in. They even mailed the catalogues for her, over a thousand of them.

“There is no way we could have coped with all those phone calls and catalogue requests,” Theresa said. “It was all my husband and I could do to keep supplies coming in and orders going out. If someone had told me a year ago how much this would have grown, I’d have never believed it. But thanks to my answering service it was all manageable, and we couldn’t be happier!”

Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan. Contact us to learn how a telephone answering service can answer your calls 24/7 to better serve your customers.

Answering Service Case Study: Optometrist Uses Answering Service to Improve Patient Care

Good optometry management affects the quality of life for many people, particularly the elderly. This is an even bigger concern in rural areas where residents have to travel many miles to visit their eye care professional. Usually this means the loss of a day’s work for the patient’s driver, which has to be coordinated with the doctor’s schedule. As a result, patients often put off making appointments for routine care and checkups.

However, Dr. Alison Chaussee of the Prairie Hills Vision Clinic provides a valuable service to her patients by bringing the clinic to them. Each week, Dr. Chaussee travels to one of two satellite clinics that she established in strategic rural communities. Her patients, young and old alike, are able to schedule convenient eye care appointments in or near their hometowns without sacrificing most of the day.

The doctor’s patients call a toll-free number to schedule their appointments for any one of the satellite clinics or the main office. These calls go to her answering service where customer care professionals answer her patients’ calls and prioritize appointments according to the doctor’s instructions. The patients are treated to friendly, professional service 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Although optometrists don’t often have emergency calls they do occasionally occur, particularly in rural areas. Occasionally, Dr. Chaussee’s toll-free number gets calls after hours from concerned farmers and ranchers about an eye injury.

In accordance with the doctor’s instructions, her answering service’s staff can triage the call and connect callers directly to Dr. Chaussee who provides basic eye care instruction over the phone and refers them to the nearest hospital if needed. This 24/7 service helps distinguish Prairie Hills Vision Clinic from all others, giving rural patients better access to care.

When she is on the road, Dr. Chaussee knows her patients who call her main office will be treated with care. Plus she knows her business calls will be handled professionally and messages will be available when she is ready for them. According to Dr. Chaussee, outsourcing her clinic’s calls to an answering service has helped her grow her practice without adding unnecessary overhead costs. Most importantly, her patients enjoy a higher quality of care closer to home.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan. Contact us to learn how a telephone answering service can answer your calls 24/7 to better serve your customers.