A few weeks ago we went ahead with changing over to our new phone system (see Improving our Phone System). As expected with a new system we’ve had some kinks in getting the system to work, so we thank you for your patience if you’ve had any issues getting through to us.

The good news is that at this stage we’ve still got the same number of people answering the phones during the day, so we’re trying just as hard to answer your quickly as we were before.

Most of the issues we’ve had to date have been due to:

• The team getting familiar with the new system, which is a little bit smarter but requires some different thinking. We’re pretty much there with this, and I think our team have done a great job trying to minimise the impact to patients while they get to grips with it.
• Some changes to our call flows, which mean that calls don’t always behave the same way that they used to. These changes are for the better in the long term, however we’re the first to recognise that some of the configuration hasn’t been as sharp as we’d like. To resolve this we’re about to make a number of significant changes to the call flows, so look forward to some additional improvements shortly.

One of the big advantages of our new system is the excellent reporting we get of how calls move through our system. We’re able to see where we’re not doing as well as we could with our calls and resolve it.

The new system is also crucial to moving our phones away from the front desk, which we’re looking to do before the end of the year. We hope that by doing this we’re able to better handle the volume of calls that we get, remove the confusion at the front desk and make our waiting room a nicer, calmer place to be.

Thanks again for your patience during the transition, and we look forward to supporting you even better going forward.