Case Study Life Insight

How Life Insight Improved Client Communication and Saved 30 Hours a Week With Spruce

Specialty
Mental Health
Practice Size
~30 Clinicians 870+ Active Clients
Plan
Communicator
30 hrs

Per week saved for the care coordination team

30%

Total time savings, which saves money

466%

ROI from streamlined patient communication

Executive Summary

How Life Insight Improved Client Communication and Saved 30 Hours a Week With Spruce

Life Insight is a mental health therapy practice with close to 30 clinicians, offering psychotherapy services for clients from age three through the lifespan. Life Insight provides a wide range of therapeutic services with a focus on patient-centered care. The practice has grown significantly, currently serving over 870 active clients and handling an increasing number of new intake appointments each year. Life Insight transitioned to Spruce to streamline and centralize patient communication across its practice.

Challenges
  • High call volume
  • Existing solution lacking scalability
  • Missed calls & delayed responses
  • Difficulty maintaining internal accountability
  • Decreased client satisfaction
Solutions
  • Unified view of client communications across channels
  • Separation of a shared main line and individual direct lines
  • Highly customizable set up per clinician, minimizing admin support
  • Voicemail transcriptions, texting, auto-responses, and saved replies for faster replies
  • Enhanced audit tracking and collaboration
As the practice grew, it became increasingly difficult to keep up with the demand. We were spending a lot of time on the phone and managing voicemails, which took away from our ability to focus on more critical tasks.
Carmen Mellone Director of Admin Operations, Life Insight

The Challenge

An Outdated Phone System Straining under Rapid Growth

As Life Insight's therapy practice expanded, managing client communication became a growing challenge. With nearly 30 clinicians and up to 500 new clients each year, the practice was handling close to 10,000 appointments annually.
"We had three admin staff managing all the incoming calls, intake coordination, and billing tasks," said Carmen Mellone, Director of Admin Operations at Life Insight.
Life Insight's previous communication system was no longer up to the task. "The biggest reason for switching was the growth of the practice. Our previous solution was leading to clients falling through the cracks," says Mellone.
The main issues with Life Insight's previous phone system included:
  • Inconsistent service: The previous system was unreliable, leading to missed or delayed communications.
  • General mailbox: All communications were funneled into a general mailbox, making it difficult to organize, assign, and respond to messages promptly.
  • Lack of caller ID: Without caller ID, it was challenging to identify patients quickly, leading to inefficiencies in handling inquiries.
  • No direct numbers: The practice needed a way for patients to contact their therapists or the appropriate department directly. Relying on a general line led to wasted time with phone tag, dropped calls, and missed messages.
  • Faxing issues: The fax functionality was cumbersome and not well integrated into the platform, complicating the process of receiving and sending important documents.
These challenges made it hard for Life Insight to effectively scale its client communications alongside its rapid growth, leading to missed calls and slow client-response times. This, in turn, diminished client satisfaction and experience. The lack of user-specific auditability and tracking also made it difficult to maintain internal accountability. For a practice that takes pride in its client-centric approach, these were critical issues to solve.
With Spruce, everything is centralized, and nothing falls through the cracks. Our team can now focus on what really matters—caring for our clients.
Carmen Mellone Director of Admin Operations, Life Insight

The Solution

Modernizing Client Communication with Spruce

Life Insight transitioned to Spruce to streamline and centralize patient communication across its practice. Spruce allowed the team to consolidate phone calls, SMS texts, faxes, and other communications into one platform, dramatically improving efficiency and reducing the time spent managing client interactions. Some of the key benefits of Spruce included:

Modern Phone System

Spruce's adaptable phone system allowed for the establishment of a shared main line and individual direct lines for each clinician, replacing the old system of a single number that was dependent on a phone tree and an unwieldy set of extensions. This improvement reduced the need for the admin team to reconfigure phone-tree recordings with every staffing change, and enabled clinicians to manage their own personal phone services, including individual voicemail function, out-of-office messages, SMS texting, and customizable auto-replies.

In Mellone's view, "This has been the most impactful feature. It saves our clients and intake team time and reduces the burden of being the middleman."

Saved Messages and Auto-Replies

Spruce's automation capabilities allowed the intake team to efficiently manage new client requests and follow-up communications. By using saved messages and auto-replies, the team could quickly respond to common questions with a consistent brand and voice that represented the practice's culture, while also effectively handling after-hours inquiries.

As Mellone highlights, "This has been life-changing for our intake team, as it makes the process of booking new clients, as well as follow-up communication, much easier and more consistent."

Improved Patient Experience With SMS Texting

Spruce's SMS texting feature enabled clients to communicate directly with their therapists, allowing for a quick and personal way to update or change appointments.

"It's huge," says Mellone. "Having the quick ability to text—whether to say they'll be late, need to change an appointment, or anything else—lets clients know their message got directly to the right person."

Centralized Communication Platform

Spruce consolidated key communication channels—phone calls, texts, and fax—into a single platform for Life Insight. This enabled Mellone and her team to better manage and track all client interactions in one coordinated place, eliminating the need to switch between multiple systems.

"Having everything in one place has been a huge time-saver, and helps us stay on top of client communications much more efficiently."

Enhanced Oversight and Collaboration

Spruce allowed Life Insight to gain better visibility into the practice's operations, providing oversight capabilities that ensure clients are consistently followed up with and that no issues are missed. This functionality empowers leadership to keep their teams more accountable.

"Being able to filter communication for each therapist and see everything that's happening has been incredibly helpful. It allows me to track issues, ensure clients are contacted, and maintain better oversight of the practice," Mellone explains.
We can handle our growing client base much more effectively, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Spruce has allowed us to grow without sacrificing the quality of care we provide.
Carmen Mellone Director of Admin Operations, Life Insight

Conclusion

Enabling Growth without Sacrificing Quality of Care

Since implementing Spruce, Life Insight has seen significant improvements in both efficiency and client care. The direct-line feature, in particular, transformed the way clients interacted with their therapists, leading to more personalized and effective communication.
"Clients love being able to reach their clinicians directly," said Mellone, Director of Admin Operations at Life Insight. "It has not only made communication more personal but also reduced client reliance on the intake team, enhancing their overall experience."
In total, Spruce's implementation led to a 30% reduction in the time spent on client communications, saving Life Insight's admin staff ~30 hours per week. This time savings has enabled the practice to manage an increasing number of clients more sustainably and without needing to hire more staff. "With Spruce, our admin team now has more time to focus on critical tasks like client care and intake coordination," says Mellone.
By consolidating all communication channels into a single platform, Spruce eliminated the need for the Life Insight team to switch between multiple tools, saving multiple hours each week. "Before Spruce, managing our communication was a challenge, but now everything is centralized, and we don't miss any client interactions," Mellone notes. "We can handle our growing client base much more effectively, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive."
The integration of SMS communication through Spruce has also significantly boosted patient satisfaction. Clients love the convenience of being able to text their therapists directly, leading to quicker and more personal communication. Through this mechanism, the practice has experienced fewer cancellations and missed appointments, contributing to a more reliable schedule and higher appointment fill rates.
By streamlining communications and reducing the time spent on repetitive administrative tasks, Spruce has delivered an impressive 466% return on investment for Life Insight. "Spruce has been invaluable to our practice," Mellone said. "It has allowed us to grow without sacrificing the quality of care we provide."
Key Results
  • 30 hours per week saved for the care coordination team
  • 30% total time savings, which saves money
  • 466% ROI from streamlined patient communication

See how Spruce helps practices like Life Insight deliver a better patient experience.

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