Case Study: DentalPlans.com

CUSTOMER PROFILE

THE CHALLENGE

With rising dental care costs, dental savings plans offer a practical alternative to dental insurance. DentalPlans.com has carved out a fast-growing niche, acquiring nearly one-third of its 340,000 members in just the last three years, with no slow-down in sight. Provider- and customer-care teams also handle 400k inbound calls a year.

Prior to moving to the CXone platform, the contact center operation didn’t run as smoothly. As recently as 2018, all member and provider care functions were outsourced. According to Gherman Duckworth, Senior Manager of Workforce Operations and Analysis, this outsourcing resulted in high costs and a lack of transparency and ownership of the customer experience.

“We were essentially blind-transferring calls as opposed to keeping the phone lines active during transfers,” he says. “But that meant we didn’t have transparency on the back end of calls and had no control over AHT (average handle time). We couldn’t control scheduling, and we really couldn’t see in real time what was going on at all.”

THE SOLUTION

Gherman says the company was unclear on what direction to take. “We wanted to streamline and close the gap on our deficiencies to be more effective and efficient,” he says. “We wanted to bring everything in-house, but cost seemed like a barrier, because we’d need as many as 50 extra licenses, additional ports and so forth. But after consulting with the NICE CXone team, we decided to pull the trigger. And I’m glad we did.”

DentalPlans.com has continued to see steady and impressive improvements since implementing the NICE CXone platform. “We were able to cut our abandon rate in half,” he says. “We went from about eight minutes a call to around 6:30 or 6:40 minutes — about a 16–17% drop. And because we were still on a per-minute model, cost savings from the reduced AHT alone made the move worth it.”

Improved performance with CXone Workforce Management efficiency and visibility

Gherman says that the streamlining, efficiency and visibility that came with implementing CXone Workforce Management, in addition to consolidating on a single platform, has improved performance.

“Part of the drop in AHT was because we could schedule better and manage in real time,” he says. “We were able to take some of our sales agents and cross-train them to actually back up our care business — something we couldn’t do before. So we gained a lot of efficiency. We were able to train agents, because now we had the recordings and we could hear what was lacking.”

“I started [in the business] doing WFM on Excel spreadsheets,” he says. “I’ve seen the gamut. You absolutely need the visibility, the transparency [of WFM] to make the operation run efficiently.”

Personal Connection boosts outbound to 100,000–120,000 calls a month

Contact center agents handle both inbound and outbound calls. Outbound calling is done largely through Personal Connection, which Gherman says, is driving incredible productivity gains.

“Manually, we could do about 5,000 calls a month,” he says. “But through Personal Connection, we can make anywhere from 100,000 to 120,000 calls a month.”

Agents also pursue email leads and work with Marketing to follow up on chat leads.

“We’re able to really take advantage of skills-based distribution on NICE CXone,” he says. “ Emails are distributed equally efficiently, rather than having them forwarded manually. That’s made the whole process a lot smoother.”

“With NICE CXone, I see a company going in the right direction… a one-stop shop…”

Looking ahead, Gherman sees more opportunities for expansion on the horizon. WebMD is now a sister company, and DentalPlans.com has also merged with Henry Schein, a leading provider of dental supplies and equipment. The contact center — and NICE CXone — will continue to play pivotal roles in the company’s growth.

“We’re entering the relationship with Schein with the direct-to-consumer piece already perfected as we continue to grow the business,” he says. “The opportunities are endless.”

Gherman also sees parallels with NICE CXone.

“With NICE CXone, I see a company going in the right direction,” he says. “It’s similar to what’s going on in our business — everything in a one-stop shop.”