The owner of a hypnotherapy practice in London’s Harley Street says the business is growing at a faster rate, thanks to Oberoi Business Hub in Derby.
Malminder Gill said call answering and administrative services provided by the hub – launched by Derby entrepreneur Kavita Oberoi OBE – have enabled her to focus on expanding the practice’s client base.
Ms Gill, who offers a range of hypnotherapy treatments, had used another call answering company but decided to switch to Oberoi Business Hub, based in Pride Park, as it offered a more comprehensive personalised package.
Malminder said:
“I switched because my last call answering provider just took messages and answered basic questions. That was fine at the time, but as my business was growing, I needed a little bit more support.
“Kavita’s team not only answer the call, they answer some of the more detailed questions that clients have, manage the whole booking process and cancellations and all sorts of other administrative tasks as and when I need them. It’s just like having a personal assistant but it’s a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time receptionist.
“I’m really pleased with the service they’ve provided so far. In that past, I feel I may have missed out on potential customers or annoyed them because I was in session and couldn’t call them back quickly.
“There’s definitely been an uplift in customer numbers since Kavita’s team began working with me.”
Kavita launched Oberoi Business Hub, in St Christopher’s Way, four years ago to provide space and back office support for start-up and growing businesses.
The entrepreneur explained how the hub – which has several clients in Harley Street – came to provide call answering services for Malminder’s practice.
Kavita Said:
“I started off mentoring Malminder and, as part of the sessions, we looked at all the tasks she was undertaking herself.
“Answering the phone was one of the areas that we reviewed. When a client books in for a hypnotherapy session with Malminder, there’s a number of things that need to happen. The appointment needs to go into the practice diary management system, which then issues a text and confirmation email. It then needs to go into her own personal diary. And also there’s a third diary for room bookings at the clinic.
“Malminder was doing so much of this work herself, I said to her ‘I can’t believe you’re doing all this administration work – it must be taking you so much time and taking you away from focusing on growing the business’.
Kavita Oberoi continued:
“So in July we started providing a much needed service for Malminder. We screen any marketing and sales calls, provide call answering six days a week. If someone wants to talk to Malminder, we are able to check first that she’s available and not with a patient. If she’s free, we transfer those calls live. It’s as if we are based in with her in Harley Street”
“We also do all her virtual PA work – so we book and cancel her appointments and update her patient records. There’s an online booking system as well that we now manage when alerts come through.
“It’s a classic example of ‘you don’t know until you know’. Before we came on board, Malminder had always seen what she was doing as the norm.
“It’s so rewarding to know it’s made a huge difference to her – it’s freed up a lot of her time so she can focus on other key aspects of the business and her writing, as she is in the middle of writing her second book. Malminder’s clinic is another great example of the vision of had for the hub when I started it. Our clients’ success is our success.”