How Little Spurs Turned Its Phone Line Into an Always-On Booking Channel
Challenge
Little Spurs Pediatric Urgent Care operates 19 clinics across Texas, where patient demand can change quickly. Flu season, back-to-school and the start of youth sports can all create sudden surges in visits and phone calls.
Staffing around those fluctuations was difficult. But the larger challenge was making sure patients who called were actually able to book a visit.
“One of our challenges is definitely fluctuating volume and staffing to that fluctuating volume, and capturing the visit on the phone,” said Shauna Kohleffel, Vice President of Operations at Little Spurs. “So many patients call before coming into the clinic. Getting our team, from a customer service standpoint, to make the effort to book that call at the time of visit was a challenge.”
The front desk was also answering the same questions repeatedly, often during the busiest periods of the year.
“When we had our highest volumes with back to school, one of the major calls we would get time and time again was, ‘Do you guys have vaccines?’ or ‘Do you do sports physicals?’ Those are very time-consuming calls for our team to try to talk through.”
Every call meant another family waiting. The front desk was answering phones, registering patients, and managing the waiting room, all at once.
"When we had our highest volumes with back to school, one of the major calls we would get time and time again was, ‘Do you guys have vaccines?’ or ‘Do you do sports physicals?’ Those are very time-consuming calls for our team to try to talk through."
Solution
Little Spurs had been utilizing Solv to power their operations since 2019, so adding Maya as an extension of their team was easy. After some simple changes to their call routing & customizing Maya to their workflows and preferences, she was off and running on Day 1.
Maya answers 100% of calls 24/7, including after hours, and resolves 52% of incoming calls without staff intervention. Since she was answering common questions and booking visits directly into the schedule live on the phone, the Little Spurs team no longer got distracted from those. Calls that require staff attention can still be transferred to the appropriate team member. Maya wasn't there to answer the phone faster. She was there to finish what the caller started: a booked visit.
Results
The Phone Became a Meaningful Booking Channel
Before launching Maya, only a small fraction of Little Spurs phone volume turned into bookings — 1.8%. After implementing Maya, that number grew 6x higher.
"Maya books over 1,000 patient visits a month for us,” said Kohleffel. “Because she can answer every call, book visits, and take action on her own, she saves our staff over 380 hours of work each month. That lets our team focus on the patient standing in front of them. She's never frustrated, never overwhelmed, and she's working even when we're closed."
She also continues working when clinic staff are unavailable, giving patients a path to book after hours rather than reaching voicemail or waiting for the clinic to reopen.
Front Desk Time Re-Allocated
By spending less time answering repetitive calls, staff can focus on registration accuracy, insurance details and delivering a better patient experience:
“They’re really able to focus on the details of their job, making sure that our claims aren’t getting denied because of inaccurate information,” Kohleffel said. “When that patient does walk into the clinic, they’re getting that high-caliber customer service experience that they may not have gotten last time.”
From New Technology to the New Normal
Introducing a voice agent at the front desk naturally created some hesitation. But Kohleffel says Little Spurs' long-standing partnership with Solv made it easier for the team to embrace the change.
"There were mixed emotions. Any new technology is very scary. I will say that everything we've done with Solv and every partnership we've had with Solv has been an improvement for our teams."
For newer employees, however, the AI agent is simply part of how Little Spurs operates.
“Those that are coming in that never knew us without Maya, there’s really no hesitation,” Kohleffel said.“They’re loving it. They don’t know any other way. So really, a great transition all around.”
The phone used to be a bottleneck competing with a family standing in the clinic. Now it's one more way Little Spurs shows up for patients, with calls answered, visits booked, and questions handled, whether the clinic is open or not.
“Maya books over 1,000 patient visits a month for us. Because she can answer every call, book visits, and take action on her own, she saves our staff over 380 hours of work each month. That lets our team focus on the patient standing in front of them. She's never frustrated, never overwhelmed, and she's working even when we're closed.”
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