SimonMed: Saved $500,000, streamlines processes, and expands operations

For over 30 years SimonMed Imaging’s mission is to supply high-end imaging solutions in the U.S. Based in Scottsdale, AZ the company plans to double in size in the next three to four years and will need a scalable communication solution to maintain service level excellence through the expansion.

Challenge

Growth is good, however the influx of new patients, served by several older phone technologies, created the costly challenge of ensuring patients show up to appointments. As small as one missed appointment may not seem too broad of an issue, but it’s time-consuming to reschedule thousands of appointments in a year. Overall, it can take a toll and drain other business resources.

SimonMed sought to fix this by pulling multiple legacy systems under one unified communications platform. This is critical as SimonMed will soon manage at least twice as much business as they currently have today (170 and growing).

First, SimonMed needed the solution to be scalable, agile, and economical. They needed daily scheduling for hundreds of locations. SimonMed knew the cost of managing business on that scale, would increase as they took on more business. Plus, more patients meant more calls investing in 100 to 200 additional employees.

Second, to improve customer experience challenges many companies to simplify and connect communications. It’s a colossal differentiator for many medical businesses. Empowering patients to easily schedule appointments will reduce stress for everyone.

Solution

Duleep Wikramanayake, Chief Information Officer, came to the rescue. After hearing about IntelePeer’s solutions years ago, he decided that Engage and SmartFlows could deliver.

Wikramanayake and IntelePeer achieved the following results:

• Making scheduling and growth easy and affordable
• Improving customer experience while reducing internal workload
• Implementing a reliable solution smoothly

Automating multiple touchpoints and phone calls per patient improved scheduling. This scalable solution stands in for hundreds of SimonMed outbound calls and reduces overhead costs. Auto dialing and SmartFlows guided more patients to schedule appointments for themselves.

IntelePeer’s implementation and continued support of solutions have been painless. Wikramanayake talks about IntelePeer, “They’ve been very good. They’re very attentive. You give them a task and it gets done. They give you timelines, they keep to their timelines, and they report back on it.” In addition, SimonMed has experienced zero hacking incidents while working with IntelePeer.

Results

In Wikramanayake’s 25 years of experience, it’s essential to build the right network for the company and customers. He says going with IntelePeer was a “no-brainer.” With Managed Solutions, IntelePeer helped set up a quality network without straining resources.

Decrease cost and maintain growth
Duleep says data and voice costs have gone down by about $500,000 as SimonMed has expanded by around 70%. The savings come from zero outages or downtime since working with IntelePeer. SimonMed also reduced major costs by automating outbound calls.

Better customer experiences
SimonMed now records a better answer rate with IntelePeer’s solutions and support. SmartFlows and Engage have streamlined the outbound calling process. Wikramanayake looks forward to more efficient customer service after implementing even more automation.

IntelePeer’s Message SMS supplied real-time updates for customer inquiries which reduced hold times for SimonMed’s hotline. Shorter hold times instantly connected customers with the answers they wanted.

Swift implementation with immediate value
Wikramanayake says, “in my lifetime, I’ve had multiple installations, and they’ve been a nightmare.” But with IntelePeer, installation was “painless, cutting over from the normal PRI, the usual connectivity, analog lines through the SIP, was really actually very painless.”

Continued improvement
IntelePeer continues to swiftly respond to SimonMed’s needs as the relationship grows. Making changes comes easily. Issues rarely get escalated to Wikramanayake.