This was originally posted on TechSoup.org as a guest blog post. The following is an overview of a BetterWorld customer, HealthRIGHT 360 and interview with Dave Dayter, IT Director of HealthRIGHT 360 discussing their experience with BetterWorld and the TechSoup VoIP Donation Program.
BackGround
HealthRIGHT 360 is an impressive and complex organization, the combination of two renowned community nonprofits, Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics and Walden House. Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics was the first free medical clinic in the country, serving its first patients in 1967.
Walden House was founded in the Haight-Ashbury district, just two years later, in 1969 and focused on helping runaway youth and the homeless with substance abuse problems. With residential and outpatient centers throughout California, Walden serves a huge swath of socio-economically disenfranchised people. From treatment for mental health and substance abuse to vocational and training services for people transitioning back into their communities, the scope and scale of their work is tremendous.
Dave Dayter, IT Director of HealthRIGHT 360 shares some of how BetterWorld Telecom and the TechSoup VoIP Donation program helped HealthRIGHT 360 in their mission and day-to-day operations.
The Challenge: In 2012, HealthRIGHT 360 served over 29,000 people with a budget of $64 million and 13 locations across California. With over 500 internal telecom users and a support staff of just 5 IT people, it is essential for their organization to have solid support, effective tracking of telecom services, and minimal complexity in billing and contract management. Also, like many modern organizations, effective phone and Internet service is mission critical, supporting both their online EMR services and frequent phone contact with clients.
The Situation: “We had six contracts that were coming due at various times and keeping track was difficult. Payments were being applied incorrectly, [requiring] hunting down and solving issues with various providers, it was a huge hassle.”HealthRIGHT 360 has so many different points of service, it is essential for us to implement a solution that doesn’t involve multiple providers. “Historically there was no central planning for telecom services. With 3 locations in Southern California, 9 in Northern California and 1 in central California, the local person in charge would sign up with whatever provider was easiest. We were trying to find a solution that would give us one billing, one number to call.”
The Solution: BetterWorld has been able to support HealthRIGHT 360 with flexibility, cost savings, and high-touch customer service, including discounted VoIP services through the BetterWorld TechSoup VoIP Donation program.
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Flexibility “Sometimes [we’ll receive] notice only 2 weeks prior to the start of a program. This requires managing frequent changes on the account. HealthRIGHT 360 is in the middle of adding more sites as well. BetterWorld has been convenient and easy, it’s been a great process.“
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Cost Savings “The biggest reason we’re driving all our business to BetterWorld is price and customer service. We’re saving a great amount of money. Even if the customer service level wasn’t great, it would be worth it.” But add in great customer service and it can make a world of difference. “With one person to call, it saves me probably 40 hours a month.”
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Customer Service “With previous providers the billing was clunky, the cost was higher and the customer service wasn’t there. There was also no ‘touchy-feely’ human interaction – no ability to call up a person.” BetterWorld also supported and trained HealthRIGHT to get the most value from their services. “Ali showed us how to use the web interface and we can solve problems and train others ourselves. Glenn & JP have been great.”
3 BetterWorld Bonuses:
No Upsells Unexpected perk about BetterWorld? No upsells. Says Dave Dayter, “[HealthRIGHT ] was getting continuously upsold by other providers during service calls, asking ‘Hey, what about this new service..’.”
Proactive Communication “Because the [BetterWorld] team is on the East coast, a lot of times they know about issues before we even get in to the office. For instance, LA had a huge outage and we were affected. I made a call to Glenn & JP, and they already knew what was going on. Even though we were impacted, we had up-to-date information about exactly what was going on.”
Precise & Easy Usage Reporting “Instead of spending a Sunday morning pouring over bills with coffee, I can pin point exactly where the problem is. [If there is an issue] it's easier to see what's going on, our accounts payable person can access where the problem might be and figure it out quickly.”
HealthRIGHT 360 has a great motto: Get Better. Do Better. Be Better. That’s a mission that we here at BetterWorld Telecom are excited to get behind. Check out the TechSoup VoIP Donation Program to see if BetterWorld can improve your organization's operations and telecom experience.
