Denplan deploys NewVoiceMedia to help improve its emergency service

Denplan has deployed NewVoiceMedia’s ContactWorld to deliver its out-of-hours emergency service across the UK, with availability, reliability and ease of use at the very heart of the service.

Headquartered in Winchester, Denplan employs a large team of regional consultants across the UK. It arranges dental payment plans to suit most budgets and also offers a 24-hour worldwide Dental Emergency Helpline to assist patients at home or abroad. With over 6,500 dentists and approximately 1.8 million patients across the UK, Denplan’s Dental Emergency Helpline is imperative to provide its customers with expert advice when they need it most.

“The biggest challenge,” said Steven Marwick, IT Services Manager at Denplan, “was that we wanted to deliver a vital out-of-hours service that was fast and reliable, giving our customers peace of mind.

“All of our out-of-hours calls have the potential to be an emergency situation, so in this context dropped calls and system failures are just not acceptable. We needed a system with the highest level of performance and availability that allows calls to overflow to supervisors when necessary and automated alerts to be generated to ensure visibility of peak periods so that calls can be handled effectively.”

Denplan required an out-of-hours solution that would work with their existing phone lines and could be deployed rapidly from any location. Their initial plans were to upgrade in December 2012, but the need to improve the service offered to emergency callers meant that the date had to be brought forward. They investigated four of the biggest names in the telecoms market and decided to deploy ContactWorld by NewVoiceMedia because of its ability to support home workers. NewVoiceMedia was also able to prove its availability and performance through its Trust Site, an industry first, meaning that its commitment to 99.999% availability was more than just words.

Denplan went live with NewVoiceMedia’s ContactWorld six months ago, just before the Christmas holiday period. Their consultants were initially reluctant for the new system to be switched on at this time as it is the busiest period of the year. To counter fears over not being familiar with ContactWorld, NewVoiceMedia ran extra training sessions, which was just as well as Christmas was an exceptionally busy period:

• During the Christmas and New Year period (24th December 2011 to 4th January 2012) 742 calls were received, double the normal call volume.
• Emergency out-of-hours calls peaked during the festive season to 160 at their busiest point.
• Each call is an emergency.

“We needed to get a system up and running in time for Christmas,” continues Marwick. “What became very clear early on was that NewVoiceMedia was the only vendor who offered a true cloud solution that would allow us to meet our timescales. Other alternatives required us to buy a virtual data centre, which was no good, whereas ContactWorld needed no software and no costly hardware.  All our consultants required was an internet connection and a phone line.”

Deploying ContactWorld means that rather than calls coming into Denplan’s central exchange delivered over VoIP, the system intelligently redirects calls to the appropriate remote consultant based on who is logged in and ready to take calls. Consultants work from home and are able to view which other agents are logged in. This is critical for customer service as agents can see which of their colleagues are available to take calls.

Jonathan Gale, CEO of NewVoiceMedia, said, “Delivering an effective and rapid response service is essential with any business, but when dealing with medical emergencies it’s utterly critical. It’s because of forward thinking organisations such as Denplan that customers are able to get the information and help they need whenever and wherever they are. There is such a great opportunity for businesses just like Denplan’s, where maintaining a high level of customer experience is pivotal to their brand, to take advantage of the latest voice technology to make every customer call count. Cloud has changed the boundaries of possibility, and forward-thinking companies are now differentiating themselves by improving the customer experience through innovating with the voice channel.”