Anyone in telecoms who’s dealt with a doctor’s surgery will tell you the Monday morning call traffic spike is near impossible to deal with. The Derbyshire-based Appletree Medical Practice referred to these as ‘Manic Mondays’ as practice manager Stephen Leather explains, "The patients struggled to get through, and the staff were also under a lot of pressure."
Call queuing to the rescue
An NEC SV9100 communication platform along with the MyCalls Call Management application was installed with immediate effect. The call queuing system enabled patients to manage their time more effectively with position-in-queue announcements, which gave them he option to stay on the line or call back later. As a result - calls were more evenly spread throughout the day, reducing stress for staff and helping them deal with patients effectively.
Staffing efficiency with call management
NEC’s MyCalls also provided the surgery with concise reports of their calls, covering everything from call duration to highlighting their busiest times. The reports are emailed to key staff for review and they can also run their own reports on demand.
Stephen continues, “We’ve identified from the MyCalls data what our peak call periods are throughout the week - this enables us to staff them accordingly.”
Empowered by call recording
MyCalls Call Recorder was another key part of the installation. ‘There’s a real difference in the way my staff communicate on the phone.’ explains Stephen. “Call recording empowers staff to have professional conversations knowing that they have a safety net in the background.”
Significant savings
Stephen adds a further positive on their installation; ‘The move to SIP has made significant savings in terms of line rentals and call charges we’ve gone from £400 per month to £170 per month saving well over 50%. In fact that saving has been so significant it has covered the cost of the switch to SIP technology.’