Groundwork
Groundwork is a national environmental regeneration charity. Home water and energy advisors, called "Green Doctors", conduct home visits and offer practical advice to householders for improving water and energy efficiency, helping them save on their utility bills for the good of the environment. When utility companies Thames Water and Southern Water commissioned Groundwork to encourage their customers to take advantage of the benefits of a water meter, Groundwork employed e-availability’s Appointment system to improve the customer engagement and booking process.
Groundwork's call centre and door-to-door team are able to search online for available time slots to meet with customers to conduct home water and energy audits and provide advice, and book/reschedule/cancel appointments online. The system runs on both desktop PCs and mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads. Some of the many features for Green Doctors include the ability to set the status of appointments (e.g., visited or missed), add notes, and receive notification of cancellations and re-schedules via SMS text messaging. The extensive reporting allows Groundwork to track booking activity, review appointment lists and generate customer lists. Future enhancements include synchronisation with iFormBuilder to enable auto-delivery of customer questionnaires.
In the first few months of the system going live, over 13,000 appointments were taken!
Website: Groundwork
Pearlys
Pearlys is a leading teeth whitening company in the UK; a team of specialists hold regular clinics in over 150 locations across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Clients include the X-Factor – for the past two years Pearlys has provided whitening treatments for the finalists!
Pearlys employed e-availability’s appointments system to improve the booking process and help them cope with the increase in the number of appointments for Pearlys teeth whitening and other treatments after their inclusion on the highly succesful Groupon discount voucher website.
Previously, bookings were taken over the telephone by sales staff, who then phoned the appropriate consultant to give them the appointment details – a process that could take several hours. Customers can now book an appointment online with a consultant in their area, via a link on Pearlys’s website, entering the Groupon voucher to ensure they bypass the online payment. The system now automatically sends an email notification to the consultant and enters the booking automatically on their Google calendar, which is synchronises with their Blackberry mobile device - keeping both admin staff and consultants fully informed on appointment as the come in - in real time!..
In the first three days of implementing the new system, bookings increased by a whopping 500% making the return on investment immediate!
"I am so very happy with the product and your support, it's making our lives so much easier and also we're much more efficient. We've taken over 200 bookings in the 2 and a bit days it's been up and running and without it we would only have managed about 40! I really appreciate your attention and feel that you do everything that you can to iron out any teething problems."
Liz Ridley - Managing Director
Website: www.pearlys.co.uk
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Doctors InStore
Many patients have difficulties in accessing routine healthcare due to daytime commitments. In a bid to provide convenient, accessible and routine appointments, PriMed services led by Dr Mohammed Jiva, approached Sainsbury's superstore to explore the possibility of using the existing pharmacy consultation room to undertake routine GP consultations. The business model was accepted by Sainsbury's.
Named 'Doctors InStore', the scheme began operation at Sainsbury's Heaton Park in Manchester on the 3rd of March 2008. In the first 12 months, Doctors InStore took over 1300 consultations. The adjacent Sainsbury's Pharmacy was open at the times that 'Doctors InStore' undertook consultations, thus providing patients with the option to dispense their prescriptions.
Mohammed Jiva sought the services of e-availability to develop a system which would allow patients to book and attend appointments in the evenings and on Saturdays. The online booking system created allows each of the practices involved to access a common booking list. Patients can book appointments through their own GP practice. Receptionists access the booking system through a centralised login page, look on the screen for a free slot, and reserve it. GP practices can also alter existing bookings, but only for patients from their own surgery. The practice nurse based at Sainsbury's will check the screen each day and print out the patient booking list for the GP at the in store clinic.
"Patients' needs are changing, and so it's important that we find ways to provide a more flexible and convenient service. An efficient online booking system is essential for making it work, and I'm delighted by what e-availability have developed for us."
Dr. M. Jiva