Challenge

Elevating Standards and Efficiency Through Cloud Adoption

In today’s global economy, digital transformation has been a top priority for a vast majority of enterprises, including healthcare. Many organizations have already embraced digital transformation as a way to streamline communication and enhance patient care. As operations migrate to cloud-based applications, companies are able to process data faster while improving key business functions such as virtual care, remote health assistance, and staff availability.

Our customer, a WebMD company, is a leading health engagement provider with over 40 years of experience delivering well-being and educational solutions that improve health outcomes through clinically driven behavioral change. By offering personalized assessment tools, coaching programs, and technological advancements, they helped hundreds of thousands of consumers lower health risks, reduce healthcare costs, and achieve a better quality of life.

Facing growing customer demand, they are able to successfully implement an automated engagement platform that took the patient healthcare journey to new heights. By introducing a highly customizable and scalable online appointment scheduling system, they not only increased customer engagement and satisfaction rates but also lowered operational costs while improving staff efficiencies.

Solution

A Case for Care

The company chose SUMO as its customer engagement partner due to the ability to provide a highly customizable scheduling software solution that would power its mission to improve public health through information and one-on-one patient education.

Through an extensive discovery process, they recognized that SUMO’s self-scheduling website, appointment reminder engine, and integrated calendar management features connect patients to medical services in a quick and efficient manner regardless of time zone and location. SUMO’s proven ability to deliver a personalized customer experience by matching users with a region-specific healthcare provider or specialty service with smart matching and routing was one of the main key capabilities that attracted them to the platform.

Results

Achieving Process Automation and Improving Customer Experience with Smart Scheduling

The SUMO Customer Success team partnered with the company’s IT administrators to leverage the software’s out of the box functionality and develop a user-friendly online scheduling process that enabled patients to connect with health coaches in a timely and error-free manner. In order to effectively connect patients with health coaches, they turned to SUMO’s native ability to cover all customer touchpoints within the framework of the existing infrastructure. Without the need for costly software modifications and operational changes, they effectively integrated an automated scheduling system that ensured the best possible outcomes for its patients.

SUMO’s development team first analyzed and assessed current systems and business requirements to determine the framework for integration. Within the project scope, the team has built a customized platform that allowed the staff to see appointments in a client’s time zone, match individual patients to the appropriate team members, and allow them to work with the same coach or nurse throughout the entire program.

An ability to reroute patients to appropriate resources in case of scheduling conflicts and out of the office events was another valuable feature that helped ensure staff availability and considerably reduced the number of missed and rescheduled sessions. Their team was impressed by the software’s scalability where mass-reassignment of appointments can be done with just one click of a mouse.

Additionally, the implementation of the brand new health and wellness appointment scheduling software ensured full automation. As a result, spending countless hours on manual tasks quickly became a thing of the past. A simple “Schedule an Appointment” link on the website was a sure way to allow patients to schedule a desired appointment at a time that’s convenient for them, thus reduced manual scheduling by at least 25%. Automated text messages and calendar reminders also helped minimize no-shows and improved staff utilization.

As for the patients, allowing them to schedule their own appointments from any device not only increased the number of successfully completed sessions but also improved client engagement and helped patients achieve desired health goals faster. Customer satisfaction soared resulting in an influx of new business referrals and a high return on investment.

Overall, they successfully achieved the goal of arming patients with fast and easy access to the support they need ensuring the highest possible success rates. SUMO Scheduler became a game-changer that took the organization to the next level of customer engagement.

With time running out and their clients’ health at stake, this company tasked SUMO with injecting new life into an old scheduling system.

THE CHALLENGE:

• How can we effectively deliver our medicines?
• How can we organize and align several departments?
• How can we consistently meet the needs of every patient?

For a multinational research-based biopharmaceutical company, time was running out. Solutions to these questions seemed unattainable, and the systems were flawed.

Simply put, the client’s nurses responsible for meeting with patients and distributing the company’s medicines were using an archaic scheduling system.

Booking appointments via phone calls and managing them through an overstuffed Excel spreadsheet was leading to miscalculations and inaccurate delivery data.

Critically, human error and faulty data processing could result in incorrect deliveries for clients who needed specific medicines in specific dosages, putting their health at serious risk. Facing this critical issue, the client reached out to SUMO to revitalize their entire scheduling system.

THE OBJECTIVES:

SUMO conducted a thorough analysis of the client’s operations, and  focused on the following areas of improvement:

• Enable customers to self-schedule appointments directly with nurses
• Provide various appointment types to meet each customer’s needs
• Ensure specific field values for each medicine’s guidelines
• Create additional records automatically once an appointment is booked
• Guarantee security for sensitive customer and company data

THE SOLUTION:

First and foremost, as a Salesforce native application, SUMO assured top-tier data security, HIPAA compliance, and seamless integration with the Salesforce platform.

With the client’s data-related concerns secured, SUMO implemented a scheduling platform focused on efficiency and customer service.

SUMO achieved this through the following:

• Customers could now self-schedule appointments through the client’s website and email, while retaining the option to book them through phone.
• Customers could instantly book appointments in-person, online or via conference. Both customers and nurses were informed about the appointment through SUMO’s Remider Engine.
• SUMO’s Assignment Engine assigned a duration to each appointment type while maintaining specific branding guidelines for each medicine, making it easier for customers to choose what they needed.
• To keep all departments on track, a trigger was put in place to create additional records once an appointment was booked.
• Nurses could view all available and scheduled appointments in an automated Multi calendar, rather than manually typing data into an Excel sheet.

THE RESULTS:

SUMO’s new scheduling solution provided the client with  bank-grade security measures, ensuring the level of protection required for critical healthcare data.

The client’s data was stored securely within the Salesforce environment and protected by strong firewalls.

The self-scheduling streamlined the client’s appointment scheduling process, and reduced manual errors.

Patients could now make appointments that fit their schedules, and nurses became more productive as they no longer had to handle constant calls. Furthermore, the Multi-calendar now allowed nurses to view all appointments in a unified calendar and manage them efficiently.

SUMO’s Assignment Engine matched customer needs to the right medicine, allowing orders to be placed directly with nurses, saving time and effort.

Finally, the Reminder Engine helped both customers and nurses prioritize their meetings, ensuring consistency and punctuality.

THE FUTURE:

Prior to SUMO’s solution, appointment scheduling was a major issue for the client, relying on an error-prone system that could critically affect the customer’s health.

Now, the biopharmaceutical company can focus on providing excellent healthcare to patients across the United States, while trusting SUMO’s solution to assist them with their scheduling needs at every turn.

Alarmed by their clients’ dissatisfaction, this company approached SUMO with an urgent request: to revitalize their appointment scheduling process.

THE CHALLENGE:

As a market leader providing software solutions, this company provided training and onboarding services to its clients. 

However, the customer training team was managing incoming requests for training using Outlook and Excel, which made booking appointments an extremely manual process. This process was time-consuming, and led to errors and duplicate bookings. Specialist trainers were left either sitting idle or “over-training” groups, leading to a decrease in their productivity and the customers’ satisfaction.

Furthermore, with no follow-ups from the trainers, customers would regularly miss their appointments, leading to regular breakdowns in communication.

Worried about the negative customer sentiment and their overall brand value, the company reached out to SUMO.

The objective was clear: revitalize their appointment scheduling process.

THE OBJECTIVES:

In order to better understand the client’s needs, SUMO conducted a thorough analysis of the company’s operations.

SUMO highlighted the following objectives: 

• Moving away from manual data processing to automated scheduling
• Decreasing idle time for training specialists
• Creating a streamlined calendar to view all scheduled appointments
• Safely migrating Excel data for up-to-date client integration
• Keeping clients (and trainers) accountable for appointments

THE SOLUTION:

As a Salesforce native application, SUMO assured HIPAA compliance, and seamless integration with the Salesforce platform, ensuring that the company’s sensitive data was secure.

Furthermore, this allowed SUMO to seamlessly migrate the Excel and outlook data into the platform, creating a “smart” ecosystem where the solution would automatically highlight data for repeat customers. 

SUMO proceeded to upgrade the company’s appointment scheduling process through the following steps:

• Customers would now receive three options to self-schedule an appointment: by phone, email, or conference. 
• As soon as the appointment was scheduled, both customers and trainers were informed about the appointment through SUMO’s Remider Engine.
• Once the appointment was scheduled, every trainer in the company could view the booking through a unified “multi-calendar” for seamless visibility.
• In case there were any scheduling conflicts for customers, SUMO’s solution would automatically recommend appointment alternatives.
• Lastly, SUMO created a bespoke feature that would cancel future bookings should a client decide to put the training program on hold.

THE RESULTS:

Using the self-scheduling feature, customers now had multiple options to schedule their appointments based on their convenience.

Additionally, this feature decreased the idle time for trainers, while ensuring that each new group was properly accounted for.

The client’s data was stored securely within the Salesforce environment and protected by strong firewalls.

Furthermore, the Multi-calendar allowed the trainers to view all up-to-date appointments and efficiently manage their time and resources.

Finally, the Reminder Engine helped both customers and trainers prioritize their meetings, ensuring consistency and punctuality.

THE FUTURE:

The company was looking to increase trainer productivity and customer satisfaction by reducing the manual effort it took to schedule a training session.

Therefore, SUMO’s Scheduler simplified the booking process and removed the need for Excel and Outlook altogether, providing the client with a solution that was easy to implement, and efficient for the long run.

With its entire revenue based on top-class customer service, this client was facing over $10,000 worth of lost income each month, due to one critical flaw in its appointment scheduling system.

THE CHALLENGE:

The plastic surgery company, due to a combination of budgeting & staffing issues, was applying an archaic appointment scheduling method.

The receptionists would receive an appointment request, after which they would manually insert critical data into an Excel sheet… while being on the phone the entire time, thus blocking the line. This process was not only tiresome & prone to human error, but the long talk-times between the client and the staff led to *other* appointment requests being lost, which led to a vicious circle of “re-call, apologize, and repeat.”

Facing imminent chaos, this client approached SUMO with an appointment scheduling system that looked like a facelift gone horribly wrong.

THE OBJECTIVE:

SUMO started by conducting a thorough audit of the company’s operations, and interviewing the employees to better understand the scope of the issue.

Once the audit was complete, SUMO laid out the following objectives or “needs” that would help tackle the key pain-points for the company and its clientele:

• Multi-platform scheduling: to move away from *just* calling
• Automated data-entry & scheduling: for repeat clients
• Multi-calendar view: for clients to suggest their ideal appointment times

Automated follow-ups: for clients to re-book after an appointment

THE SOLUTION:

SUMO began by crafting a solution that was customer-first, which began with a simple philosophy; “a call should become the customer’s last method of scheduling an appointment”.

Firstly, SUMO expanded the appointment ticketing requests to include multiple platforms, allowing clients to now book appointments through email & website.

Secondly, a Multi-Calendar view was put into place, which allowed the clients to view each specialist’s availability, allowing them to schedule their own appointments at their desired time. Moreover, SUMO implemented a scheduling system that would automatically update after each new appointment was scheduled, thus providing the receptionists with up-to-date data to recommend to a new client waiting on the call.

Lastly, with the pre-recorded data extracted from the excel sheets, the receptions now only had to add a few sets of data for new clients, while the platform would automatically allocate them to a sub-grouping of the company’s specialists.

THE SOLUTION: 

SUMO began by crafting a solution that was customer-first, which began with a simple philosophy; “a call should become the customer’s last method of scheduling an appointment”.

Firstly, SUMO expanded the appointment ticketing requests to include multiple platforms, allowing clients to now book appointments through email & website.

Secondly, a Multi-Calendar view was put into place, which allowed the clients to view each specialist’s availability, allowing them to schedule their own appointments at their desired time.

Moreover, SUMO implemented a scheduling system that would automatically update after each new appointment was scheduled, thus providing the receptionists with up-to-date data to recommend to a new client waiting on the call.

Lastly, with the pre-recorded data extracted from the excel sheets, the receptions now only had to add a few sets of data for new clients, while the platform would automatically allocate them to a sub-grouping of the company’s specialists.

THE RESULTS: 

Through the combination of the above-mentioned features, the client’s receptionists are no longer required to scroll long, error-prone excel sheets while making awkward small-talk with clients on the phone.

The client’s entire staff now has one central location to schedule and manage patient appointments, which has reduced the number of no-shows and cancellations for their practice.

SUMO’s modernized customer engagement platform offers a transparent, bird’s-eye view of all the appointments in a convenient & efficient manner.

THE FUTURE: 

The plastic surgery client can now focus on long-term objectives by:

• Effectively serving client needs, without missing an appointment
• Increasing client inflow & focus on expanding services or locations
• Appropriately managing increases in demand 

How did a rapidly growing Laser Treatment Center manage to supercharge its customer service, increase revenue, and reduce appointment scheduling times by  50%? By incorporating efficiency… and a bit of SUMO magic. 

THE CHALLENGE:

With its previous appointment scheduling tool experiencing several system shutdowns that lasted anywhere from hours to days, the Laser Treatment Center’s staff was left with no access to customer data, and thus lost out on future appointments from new (or returning) clients. 

The unreliability of the previously employed system, coupled with the lost potential revenue from new bookings left the Laser Treatment Center in need of a new solution… and fast. 

THE OBJECTIVE:

Performing over 50,000 laser pulses every day, the Laser Treatment Center processed a substantial number of appointments for its sought-after services.

Therefore, prioritizing efficiency was paramount, along with addressing the following requests:

• A detailed, multi-location view of appointment data
• Multi-platform scheduling ability (including social media & emails)
• A reliable, round-the-clock system shielded from crashes & bugs
• Automated follow-ups with clients for renewed bookings
• Customizable reporting metrics for in-depth data analysis

THE SOLUTION:

SUMO’s specialists concentrated on reliability & sustained usage when designing
a modern, Salesforce-native platform tailored to efficiently handle large appointment volumes.

The employees/specialists no longer need to look for appointment availability by location, instead receiving automated emails and calendar support through a simplified and highly efficient process.

Secondly, SUMO’s customized platform provided the Multi-Location Calendar,
a bird’s-eye-view of all appointment openings and staff availability across multiple locations.

Not only was the platform engineered to operate for extended durations without encountering issues, the clinic employees were now quickly able to schedule an appointment once a request came into Salesforce from multiple contact channels.

Lastly, by utilizing SUMO’s Report Builder, the client gained access to a customized reporting and analytics dashboard with accurate, up-to-date data, allowing the Laser Treatment Center to plan future expansion and growth strategies. 

THE RESULT:

Following the adoption of SUMO Scheduler, the Laser Treatment Center has witnessed a remarkable 50% decrease in appointment scheduling times.

The clinic employees no longer struggle to find availability through complex and cumbersome excel sheets; instead, the modernized platform now offers a transparent, across-the-board of appointment openings & staff availability across its 10+ locations.

Furthermore, the Laser Treatment Center is able to:

• confirm inbound appointments across multiple channels
• utilize a reliable, 24/7 system shielded from crashes and bugs
• access client history to provide a well-organized treatment plan
• maximize output without the burden of crashes or data-loss

THE FUTURE: 

The Laser Treatment Center has prioritized efficiency through a renewed process of appointment scheduling and customer experience with the help of SUMO’s platform.

The Treatment Center continues to grow and expand its services to more locations across the United States, bringing with it professional services, high-caliber quality… and a laser-like efficiency.

Here’s how bespoke reporting solutions led to a popular chain of Wellness Clinics achieving a 75% increase in efficiency for scheduling-related activities. 

THE CHALLENGE:

With its entire business model revolving around client management, the company’s individual client progress reports were updated through manual calculations, which was laborious and time-consuming for the specialists juggling multiple hats.

Furthermore, classified client data and sensitive notes were haphazardly jotted down on archaic systems, leading to muddled results and a serious potential of data breach.

THE OBJECTIVE:

Recognizing the inefficiencies inherent in these processes, the CEO aimed to streamline operations, particularly in reclaiming valuable time spent on appointment scheduling in order to:

• Measure weight loss metrics accurately
• Graph metrics on a modern, intuitive interface
• Track key file requirements, such as physician approval(s)
• Prioritize individual client experiences
• Cut down on additional employee workload
• Enhance overall management efficiency

THE SOLUTION:

After a search on the Salesforce AppExchange, the CEO chose to move his scheduling operations to SUMO Scheduler. 

First and foremost, SUMO focused on increasing functionality with a custom-built Weight Loss Progress Reporting System that helped the clinics address the issue of recording and managing sensitive client data.

Furthermore, the implementation of  SUMO’s Scheduler allowed the clinic to upgrade its internal business processes centered around patient and coach scheduling, thus prioritizing efficiency in registrations & follow-ups.

Lastly, SUMO designed and deployed custom solutions for the wellness centers that allowed them to track patients progress with key metrics, generate routine progress reports with accurate data, and allowed health professionals to focus on their core objectives, without the extra… burden. 

IMPLEMENT: The chains implemented SUMO Scheduler to upgrade their internal business processes centered around patient and coach scheduling.

EXTEND: The SUMO Professional Services team extended the core SUMO feature set, by designing and building a number of custom solutions for the wellness centers to track patients progress with key metrics, generate routine progress reports, and more.

THE RESULT:

The CEO confirms that the business is now achieving a 75% increase in efficiency in scheduling-related activities since implementing SUMO’s personalized solutions.

“Based on hours saved and efficiencies from better reporting, I believe we will get a full return on our investment within the first 12 months. Changing core technology can be a gamble, but in this case, SUMO was a good bet for us and I’m glad we are on the SUMO platform”.   – CEO, Popular Chain of Wellness Centers

The Wellness Centers can now:

• Manage appointments through a modern interface
• Automate client calculations through accurately-recorded data
• Search their database efficiently without loss of sensitive time
• Track individual key metrics via a secure database