Playa Pharmacy in Playa del Rey, CA is a full-service independent pharmacy providing a wide range of products: prescriptions, compounding, homeopathic remedies, herbs, natural and organic supplements and superfoods. This year they were faced with an increase in business, which led to a need to hire additional staff in order to keep up with their orders and maintain their relationships with customers. At the same time, they were being questioned about why they did not have an automated way to refill medications over the phone. Owner Joe Chehade decided to start shopping for an affordable solution. Smart Solution’s IVR was compared to several major IVR vendors. Smart Solutions quickly rose to the top for several reasons. According to Joe, “I chose Smart because they were investing in new technology and I appreciate a company that is looking towards the future. Smart Solutions is a small business which I like to support, and the people were extremely responsive. The price was a bit lower than others, however, I did not view that as a significant factor. I was impressed with the IVR system features.”
Playa chose to install a cloud phone service paired with cloud IVR service. This choice eliminated the need to install any hardware onsite, except for new phones, and did not require any technicians to be present. There was no need to spend any money on equipment. Prior to the installation, Playa had a bundled phone/internet service with Time Warner. “By keeping our internet service with Time Warner, and switching our phone service to Smart Solutions, we were able to reduce our phone bill by $15/month. What I like most about the service, is I can take my phone and plug it in anywhere in the world, and still be an extension at the pharmacy just as if I was there. I can park calls and transfer calls. Before I had 4-line phones, and customers would often get a busy signal. Now customers never get busy signals,” says Joe. “The call quality is also much better than before. The Voice seems clearer.”
Playa had some concerns about switching from answering the phone live versus automating calls with an IVR. According to Joe, “90% of customers are happy we have joined the 21st Century. In the installation process, my goal was to keep my IVR service personalized. Smart Solutions helped me do that by letting me use my own voice at the beginning of the recording,” Joe reported. “Smart Solutions also set the system up so that the first option was the option to speak to someone live by pressing 0.”
The SmartCloud IVR gives Customers the ability to program people’s caller ID into the system. If that person calls, they ring right through to the pharmacy.