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Is there a single right way to run a home care agency? We sure don’t think so. That’s why we’re interviewing home care leaders across the industry and asking them tough questions about the strategies, operations, and decisions behind their success. Join host Miriam Allred, veteran home care podcaster known for Home Care U and Vision: The Home Care Leaders’ Podcast, as she puts high-growth home care agencies under the microscope to see what works, what doesn’t, and why. Get ready to listen, learn, and build the winning formula for your own success. In the Home Care Strategy Lab, you are the scientist.
Spencer Roth (00:00)
when you think about it, they're walking into a stranger's home essentially every day ⁓ or nearly every day when they go and start a new case. And that can be quite a daunting task. And then as well, when you look at operationally, home care seems so simple, but it is yet.
one of the most endlessly complex things that I've seen from all the logistics of getting people where they're going and making sure your bases are covered, you're complying with rules and regulations. So when I first stepped in, was like, wow, this is really, it's quite simple. But the more and more time I spent, the more I realized the complexity of the work that we do every day.
Miriam Allred (00:47)
Welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host Miriam Allred. Today in the lab, I'm joined by Spencer Roth, the Chief of Staff at Cypress Home Care Solutions and also the co-founder at SmartAutomations.care. Spencer, welcome to the show.
Spencer Roth (01:04)
Awesome. Thanks, Miriam. I'm excited to be here and talk to you today.
Miriam Allred (01:08)
Likewise, you were on a webinar yesterday. I am guessing this is your first podcast, is it?
Spencer Roth (01:15)
Luckily, I work with a guy who's into the podcast realm, so I got to guest appear for a short one, but this is definitely my first lengthy podcast feature that I've gotten to do.
Miriam Allred (01:26)
Awesome. I know you do a bit of public speaking at this point with all the success that you're driving. So this shouldn't be too uncomfortable or out of the box. And like I said, dude, it's just a conversation you and me. Let's let everyone get to know you a little bit before we jump into the topic. What is your background pre-home care? What were you up to before you got into the family business?
Spencer Roth (01:46)
Yeah, so pre home care, I worked for a big health insurance company for a handful of years, got to do a variety of things there, but really on the innovation side, they were really forward thinking organization and I got to work on some really, really cool projects, helping manage these projects and programs, which interestingly kind of run like their own business within a business. So, but they were all called something reimagined. So they were all trying to really revolutionize the thinking of how we were doing things and.
⁓ Really got to work with great, brilliant minds who were rethinking the healthcare realm. And I think a lot of that's really parlayed into the work that I got to do at Cypress in terms of rethinking how we're doing home care and bringing the operations into the kind of 21st century.
Miriam Allred (02:31)
And more specifically, was your background in like project management or what was kind of your day to day in your wheelhouse?
Spencer Roth (02:37)
Yeah, project management big programs where, you know, there were like 15 to 20 little projects that all roll up a part of a big program and making sure that, you know, everything's working together flowing seamlessly and we're hitting milestones and getting to our end goals at the end of the day.
Miriam Allred (02:57)
Okay. And so your father and uncle, maybe uncle started this home care company. And so you grew up in and around the business, but what was it like stepping into the business? Like, do you feel like you had a good sense of what home care was and is, or when you walked into Cypress, did it feel very different than I guess what you expected?
Spencer Roth (03:20)
So yeah, my dad and my uncles ⁓ started the business over 30 years ago. ⁓ Obviously, my uncle Bob runs the business today. You know, I grew up around it, but I don't think I really comprehended really what Cypress was. wasn't until I got to see my grandfather towards the end of his life receive ⁓ care from Cypress, and I got to know the caregivers. And the more I spent time here in Phoenix, I got to really understand what it is that Cypress did.
⁓ I really got to really appreciate the value and the respite that it could provide for our families. And, it's kind of that time that I was spending here led to me getting involved a little bit. I ended up spending a week here, just kind of learning what Cypress did, ⁓ spending time with different staff members and, eventually got involved part-time, just helping out here and there. And, you know, next thing you know, I'm working full time. I'm there every day and.
It's really cool to see and be much more connected to the end impact and the end goal of what we do every day. Obviously, it was great work that I got to do within a big organization, but I love that we are so close to the work that we deliver and the care that gets delivered every day out here in Phoenix.
Miriam Allred (04:36)
Think back to your first few
days and weeks. What were some of the things that surprised you most? Again, walking into home care kind of for the first time after having gone through the experience with your grandfather, what surprised you? What stood out to you?
Spencer Roth (04:50)
I mean, I think the number one thing that stands out to me is the caregivers and the quality of people that they are, but also the work that they do. I mean, when you think about it, they're walking into a stranger's home essentially every day or nearly every day when they go and start a new case. And that can be quite a daunting task. And then as well, when you look at operationally, home care seems so simple, but it is yet.
one of the most endlessly complex things that I've seen from all the logistics of getting people where they're going and making sure your bases are covered, you're complying with rules and regulations. So ⁓ when I first stepped in, was like, wow, this is really, it's quite simple. But the more and more time I spent, the more I realized the complexity of the work that we do every day.
Miriam Allred (05:43)
And you and I were talking
about that before we got on about you're working with lot of home care companies across the country now and you're getting a look at operations of other home care companies and home care is home care, but the application, the execution, the operations vary drastically company to company. And so even, you you're looking to Cypress versus what other people are doing. It's so fascinating to see that, like you said, it's so simple, but it's also so complex at the same time.
Spencer Roth (06:09)
Yeah, everyone's really operationally a snowflake. They're all very unique in how they do it. And the interesting thing is, right, there's no right or wrong way to do things. And I think there's a lot of people creating a lot of great outcomes. And it's really cool that everyone can put their own spin on it. And at the end of the day, it's the people that make this work possible and the trust that they build with their caregivers and their clients.
A lot of that uniqueness comes from the people that work within all these operations across the country.
Miriam Allred (06:42)
So with your background in technology, project management, innovation, especially when you walk into the home care company, there's a lot of manual processes still. And I'd imagine your brain with your background went to automating. How do we streamline, automate, speed up manual processes? What were some of those initial processes that you saw at Cypress that you thought, wow, there's a better way, like, wow, we can automate, wow, we can streamline. Like what were the...
the few kind of like areas of the operation where you thought we can immediately come in and streamline or automate those processes.
Spencer Roth (07:15)
I feel like I was fortunate to join Cypress at a time where we're really rebuilding, retooling. So we kind of had this toolbox, it was open and you know, the opportunity for us to, replace some of those tools or, find better ones that really worked was, really the timing was right for that. So we were looking at operational processes, we were looking at all those key tools we're using. you know, what the business revolves around for the phones and
talking to your clients and caregivers. all right, so we're getting in hundreds of phone calls a day. What are we doing after the call? How are we documenting them? We really got to, I got to dive deep and work with different people that were doing different things and really seeing how we could streamline that work, but as well, like remove a lot of the mundane that can be involved in their job, right? everyone loves the work that we do, but.
They don't love having to go leave notes all the time and, how can we take things like that and automate it so they can spend their time doing more high value things, being more engaged person to person and building relationships with our caregivers and our clients.
Miriam Allred (08:23)
I think it's interesting
the phrase that you just used, is like, the operation revolves around the phones. Another way of thinking about that is like the operation revolves around the people, but the phone is the tool that gets us to the people. And so really the phone system is at like the heart of the operation, which I personally haven't thought a lot about. Like we talk about like the scheduling system. We talk about some of the other tools and technology that are like the backbone of the company.
but you've helped me just bring to light more of this focus on the phone system. Like the literal phone calls are the avenue, the channel, the tool to get out to these people. And that is really like the backbone of the company. ⁓ Talk to me a little bit about something you shared with me that's super interesting as you're working with more companies is that the volume of calls doesn't directly correlate to the size of the business. you...
Again, like no Cypress and your footprint, but as you work with more companies, there's not actually this like direct correlation. Explain what you're seeing there and why that's interesting to you.
Spencer Roth (09:25)
so let's say you have two agencies for round numbers. They're each doing 5000 hours of care on a weekly basis. But those what makes up those 5000 could be vastly different. Right? If 1 is predominantly 24, 7, where the other may be a lot of 4, 6 hour shifts, the amount of calls that happen around a 4, 6 hour shift client is significantly higher than those of a 24, 7 case, or maybe those with a lot of 12 hour shifts. Those tend to be a lot more stable.
you probably tend to have a few less call offs due to being able to provide more hours. And, you know, when you look at the shorter shifts, there's more likely to want to maybe move to a different day of the week. Or, have caregivers calling off. So the amount of calls that it takes to really maintain those shorter shifts is significantly higher than it is longer. So you can have 2 agencies producing the same volume of care, but it takes a little more work and orchestration to really manage those.
shifts that are a little bit shorter than others.
Miriam Allred (10:26)
And we'll get into
obviously your technology and what you're doing to give more transparency into these calls because I think some people listening to this and we'll talk about phone systems and what's possible and what's not. But I think just transparency into all of these calls that are taking place. There's like a lot of value in bucketing them, organizing them, having reporting and data on the calls. Because my next question to you is like which of all these calls that come into the office, which calls warrant the most time?
and energy and resources. there's a lot of volume, but which calls take up the most time and energy of the office team.
Spencer Roth (11:04)
in terms of focus, the interesting part is, right, you never know who's calling in on the other line. Obviously we have caller ID and all that, so you have an idea. But if that's an unknown number, it could be a caregiver calling from a different phone number. It could be an intake call. So you really have to be able to answer every phone call in that same way, providing that same great level of customer service. Because at the end of the day, that is what really keeps you allowing to retain great caregivers and then as well, clients.
⁓ But it's really those intake calls that if you look at it from a time perspective are the most lengthy, one in duration, but one making sure you're capturing all that information and as well have all the steps aligned on the back end to be able to continue to move that person through that kind of client onboarding journey and getting them from just a phone call into a caregiver in the home providing care.
Miriam Allred (11:56)
Let's talk about that intake call specifically. ⁓ kind of thinking back to when you first started in the business, what were the inefficiencies or the specific pain points with that intake call specifically?
Spencer Roth (12:10)
Well, I think, you know, one, we at Cypress always wanted to kind of set a standard and really make sure we were providing consistency in terms of how we were handling those calls, but as well, you know, what we were doing behind the scenes, right? So how are we taking notes? if you're typing while you're talking to someone, they can often hear it and it can kind of be off putting. So, your handwriting notes. you're.
Capturing everything on paper, then you go and you enter it into the system. You you send a message to that next person who is scheduled to go visit them in the home or who needs to call them, set that up, whatever, gets established on that phone call. So there's a lot of ways we can kind of remove some of the redundancy and repetitiveness from, call to visit. So there's a lot of ways to easily streamline getting that information automatically into the system, automatically informing people.
At the end of the day, right? Everything's happening to the phones. There's so much communication and there was so much need to keep everybody on the same page and really make sure that information is accessible to everybody. So, whether they are creating the schedule or they're in the home, visiting the client, you want all the different teams within the operations to be really on the same page of what's going on with each person.
Miriam Allred (13:24)
And the word that comes
to mind is like real time. In home care, we talk a lot about proactive versus reactive. You think about all these calls coming in and the documentation. It takes time and there's lag. And you want everything to be as real time as possible. But when the documentation becomes so burdensome, it's hard to keep everything moving in real time.
Tell me about, so obviously you have a lot of experience like with phone systems and you know, kind of what's available today with AI coming on the scene. It feels like transcription is kind of out of the box with every solution these days. In your kind of three years in home care, have the phone systems evolved and innovated pretty heavily when it comes to transcription and is that out of the box or is that not common with phone systems?
Spencer Roth (14:14)
It really depends who you're working with. I think there are a lot of great options out there, especially as you move into stuff that's in the voiceover IP realm. It's really not always out of the box. Sometimes it's an add-on. Sometimes it's not. I mean, the thing that I always encourage people to do, whether we end up working with them or not, is always record your calls. I think there's so much opportunity to improve your operations and outcomes when you can really listen back and
get quality feedback to those who are on the phones every day. think, regardless of whether you can utilize a lot of these AI tools that are built into some of these systems, regardless of if it's a simple phone system you use, just the basics of recording a call can really go a long way to help improve operations from that standpoint and the customer service that we're providing every day.
Miriam Allred (15:06)
In your experience working
with more home care companies, are a lot of them recording calls? Are most of them recording calls or are a lot of people not recording calls?
Spencer Roth (15:14)
I would say it's probably less than you think. it's a very much 50 50 when I talk to someone, whether they are currently recording calls or not, and many of them are using phone systems that have the capability to they just haven't enacted that for one way or another. I mean, obviously, if you look at all 50 states, there's different laws around recording consent within each state, so it does take some practice to make sure you're complying with regulation and making sure you're.
announcing that you're recording, whether it is an in mid bound or outbound call.
Miriam Allred (15:46)
I wonder if that's the hangup for people is the compliance piece and not knowing, but then also not wanting to add that extra layer of compliance to their phone calls. The most common phone system I hear is Ring Central. ⁓ I'm curious who you all are using at Cypress and what and who are the main phone systems that you hear of across the industry.
Spencer Roth (16:09)
So, at Cypress we're using a system called AirCall. ⁓ but as we look at what's common out there, Ring Central is definitely a common one. You know, we see some dial pads and open phones and, Zoom phones. So there's a lot of different options out there. I think the interesting thing people have to think about when they're picking their phone system is, know, do they need that desk phone or are they willing to go mobile? most of these systems can be done from an app on your cell phone or even done on your computer.
so, when I'm talking to people like, all right, well, what phone system would work with smart automations dot care? We're always like, okay, first question. Do you need a desk phone? And the answer oftentimes is no, and, ⁓ really kind of changes their perception of how they're going to handle things. And, you know, the other interesting thing is a lot of the different phone systems out there. They are more than a phone system, right? They can become your internal communications platform. You can have your meetings there. So.
There's a lot of other features that you kind of have to explore and assess whether you want those and need those. And that kind of informs the way a lot of people decide what they end up doing.
Miriam Allred (17:16)
Share your personal advice on this, like desk phone versus mobile. again, you're in this territory and I think a lot of people listening to this may be thinking like, we're not recording. we're using RingCentral. are we utilizing all the features? Like what's your take on best practices when it comes to phone systems? And it's okay for you to share like your opinion. I know this is your opinion. And like you said earlier, every home care company is like the operations like a snowflake. I love that. But what's your advice? what's your take on best practice for some of these things?
Spencer Roth (17:46)
I mean, I think if you can move to a system that really allows you to be mobile, it leaves you in the best place moving forward. I mean, so much of the work that we do is in the field, right? And, you really want to be able to pick up and make those calls wherever you are. So giving people the option to be mobile, I think, is the biggest benefit that I see for many of these systems. And even if people aren't in the office, even if they're working from home one day, they still have all the access they could.
need and then as well, they are so much great opportunity within these platforms to route your calls a certain way, build certain call flows so you can get the right calls to the right people at the right time and really not worry about, calls getting to voicemail or getting through in a way that you're not answering when a caregiver is calling for an urgent situation or a new client's calling because they need care. You really want to be able to capture as many of those calls as possible. So
You know, having that mobile solution really provides that.
Miriam Allred (18:47)
And I think like a lot of software, comes down to like utilization. There's some crazy stat about like most software that people are using only, they're only utilizing like 20 to 30 % of like the total capabilities. And I think it's just a lack of understanding and knowledge of what's available. And so I think my call to action for everyone listening too is just like understanding what's available with your phone system and make sure you're aware, but then also maximizing it. if you're not maximizing the tools and resources that are available, like that's on you.
to figure that out and make the most of it. Because again, I think it's just a lot of like lack of utilization, lack of understanding. Would you agree with that?
Spencer Roth (19:24)
I mean, 100%. And I think that goes for outside of the phones, right? Everyone's got these powerful scheduling platforms that they're using, but are they really using all the capabilities that they have to really maximize things within their operations? I mean, I think it kind of goes hand in hand with every tool that people kind of put in their toolbox for their business. And all these systems provide trainings and opportunities to learn and maximize. So how can you utilize all this stuff at your fingertips to really
Maximize it because you're already paying for it. So, you know, why not get the most efficiencies that you can out of everything.
Miriam Allred (19:58)
And it's such an easy trap to fall into. Like we're just doing things the way they've always been done. And I've been thinking a lot about that. A lot of the guests that I've had on the show lately and people that I'm following in the industry, a lot of people are talking about like reinventing themselves. And I think part of it is this, this like retooling, like looking deeper into your systems, into your technology and breaking it down in...
from like an unfiltered lens in that, okay, we've been doing things this way for so long. Let's shake it up. Let's dive deeper. Let's figure out how we can be more efficient. Let's think about what our software utilization is. Are we maximizing the tools that we have? Can we scrap some of the tools? Should we bring in new tools? Like I think part of like reinventing your home care company is looking deeper at the processes and the systems and breaking down processes that you chalk up to. This is just the way things have always been done.
Spencer Roth (20:53)
I think you kind of have to look at everything with that scientific method, right? You kind of have to hypothesize what might work and give it a try and evaluate it and see, okay, some parts of this work, some parts didn't, and you can really change and really streamline things that way. But if you're not willing to fail a couple of times along the way, you're never going to get to that ultimate process that's going to really allow you to flourish as an operation.
Miriam Allred (21:19)
Let's talk a little bit more about SmartAutomations.Care specifically. You all sit between the phone system and the scheduling software, which I find really interesting. Explain what you're building that sits between systems and what exactly it's capturing and doing.
Spencer Roth (21:39)
so our goal with this is really to allow that human connection to flourish because we know that's what makes home care businesses successful and that's why people love doing this work. sitting between those two systems, our goal is to really allow that person to have that conversation and really handle a lot of the back end work that they might be doing after the fact. you know, documenting, leaving a note, creating a profile.
Our goal is to really manage all that so they can focus on the action and then as well, really looping other people into that process. So there's a lot of important events happening all day long within a home care agency, right? A new client call, call off, emergency, someone's having an issue. So how can you handle this best with what we're doing, right? So that emergency happens, our system documents it in their proper profile within the scheduling platform.
so that whoever took that call can then go make that next call to help solve that problem. Or we've informed in their communication channels about this call and they can kind of collaborate and help find the better solution that exists out there. So I think it's all about really collaborating internally and making sure everyone's on the same page, but also in a world pre a system like smartautomations.care,
There's a lot of information that's sitting within people's brains that's not, accessible to everybody. And you really need to be able to maximize that in a way to solve problems that are happening every day and create solutions to things that, know, whether it is a call off or a client who's having an urgent issue and needs a different type of service that you may not be able to provide. It's really want to bring everyone together cohesively and allow it really to be teamwork that makes.
a home care operation thrive.
Miriam Allred (23:36)
that was a
great, specific use case that you all are trying to solve. I think simpler than that too is just the quality of these calls. It's so important for the human to answer, but then also to be invested in the caller, invested in the conversation. And like you talked about earlier when they're multitasking, when they're typing or writing and talking and processing all at the same time, the quality of that call goes down.
And this is a human to human business. we all talk to people on the phone regularly from a professional standpoint, you know, with a bank or a grocery store or a therapist, it's like, you can tell when someone's listening and paying attention and cares through a phone call. And you also know when that's not happening. And so just the quality of that call is so important. And with AI, we see people trying to automate that, trying to remove the human from the intake, remove the human from the screening of the caregivers.
We've got to be so careful with that. That's what I worry about is people coming in, not what you're doing, but what other people are coming in to do to try and pull the human out of that to save time. But what you're doing is removing the documentation layer so that they can focus on the conversation, on the quality of that call.
Spencer Roth (24:47)
I think that's something that we haven't even how can you it's not that's not even measurable really with what we're doing. You know, we could talk about all the time. It's saving people from, you know, entering all this information, but it's really the I think quality of care, rises when, everyone's informed and engaged in conversation and really, talking to that person on the other end, like you said, and really listening and ⁓ everyone that, works at Cypress and works for many of these agencies.
they're there because they have heart and it really can shine across when they're really engaged on the phones.
Miriam Allred (25:20)
talk about the quantitative side, like the reports and the dashboards and the metrics, because I mentioned it earlier, I think there's just a lack of transparency into calls as a whole into the office. Like how much time is said care coordinator spending on the phone and is it 50 % with caregivers, 50 % with clients? Like I think agencies just have no sense of the call volume, let alone
what all of those calls entail and how much time they're taking and who are the time sucks for a lack of better terms, who are the clients, the families, the caregivers that are calling in regularly that are wasting a lot of time. You said it a minute ago, like a lot of this lives in their brain, but to actually see all of that like in a dashboard is really useful. So talk about some of the metrics in the reporting that you all are focused on.
Spencer Roth (26:12)
I think first off, just putting numbers to things, right? So how many calls are coming from caregivers versus clients versus our referral sources? And, what are those calls about really trying to dig deep? I could tell you a story about an agency that we work with and 20 % of their calls were related to clocking in and clocking out, which when you're having 3000 calls a month, that's 600 calls.
If you look at that on a daily basis, that's a lot of time that's spent clocking people in and out. Right. And not all of those are like the same people calling in every day, but there's definitely a few that were. And when you start to look at that, okay, so what can we do now that we know this type of information? Well, we can one, we can figure out who those folks are who are struggling and we can retrain, help them to understand how to use the mobile application or figure out what problems there are that are stopping them from being able to use successfully. But then as well.
It'll help on the EVV front. There's a lot of downstream impacts that, we can find that will benefit people. And then maybe they're changing how they're training caregivers on how to use that app. So there's a lot of differences you can make when you start to look at the data from a numbers perspective. And then when you talk about looking at who those callers are and why are they calling in all the time. I like to look at a chart we put together on, call frequency and time that's happening on, whatever sort of day.
day duration time frame you want. And you can start to see trends. And I think it's a great opportunity to get ahead and be proactive, right? If you have a client that's called 20 times in one week, like why are they calling so much? And what can we get ahead of that, you know, maybe they're about to churn and move to another agency, but it's very much the same on the caregiver front. you have to provide customer service to them as well, right? They are an employee, but they could easily go find a job.
with another agency as well. you really want to create those touch points with them where you can because they're not coming into the office every day, right? They are out in the field, out in someone's home. So oftentimes the phones are where you're going to meet them or talk to them most. one of the things that we're also doing is keeping track of, when is the first time we spoke to someone? When's the last time we spoke to someone?
You know, gives our staff a great opportunity to say, okay, what caregivers haven't I spoken to in a while? What clients might need a touch point? Great opportunity to just keep Cypress at the front of their minds and talking to all the folks who we should be talking to on a regular basis and seeing how we can help improve care and improve outcomes for them every day.
Miriam Allred (28:48)
So many great insights. think
everything you just shared is like indicative and reflected in growth. I'm just having this mental image of like everything that comes in through the phones is indicative of what's working well and what's not. Like you said, EVV was a perfect example. 20 % of calls are EVV. For another company, know, 20 % of the calls could be about payroll, could be about billing, could be about all sorts of things. And so,
it's just so indicative of the health of the business. Like what are people calling in about that they don't understand? What are the issues that we're not resolving offline, know, off the phones to warrant the calls coming in? I think it's so indicative. And again, I think there's just a lack of transparency and reporting quite frankly about all of these calls that then help the agencies know how to pivot and innovate and streamline some of these things. But the calls are really like.
the indicator of that and so seeing all of it quantified is so useful so that they can make the changes necessary.
Spencer Roth (29:48)
as a listener, I know you talked, you talk about the cyclical nature and seasonality of home care sometimes. ⁓ You know, it's interesting the more we're working on this and the longer we're working with agencies, year over year, you can start to see trends on, you know, what things happen in certain times of year versus others. And, you know, the phones are the lifeline and it's really crazy how indicative of the success and healthiness that ⁓ they are.
Miriam Allred (30:16)
Can you share more into, guess, what you're seeing? Like, I don't know if you're thinking like time of year, like summertime is busier or slower or holidays are busier. Like, are you talking in terms of like seasonality that you're already seeing trends?
Spencer Roth (30:29)
Well, I think a lot of that also has to do with location, right? So if you are in locations like Phoenix, know, winter is definitely a little busier than summer. I don't know how much time you spent here, but not too many people are coming here for a vacation in the summer, let alone want to spend a lot of time here. So I think it's just giving people a little bit more insight that, you know, a lot of that kind of stuff might have been intuitive already, but, know, to put numbers behind it really starts to solidify things for people and they can make
a lot of data-driven decisions that can help their business at the end of the day.
Miriam Allred (31:03)
And even on a smaller scale, like the daily trends and the weekly trends, what time of day is there the most call volume? And then what time of week is there the most call volume so that you can be proactive and scheduling or doubling up people on the phones in certain times of day or when to scale back certain times of the day. There's so much value in just understanding that level of detail with the phones.
Spencer Roth (31:28)
Yeah, the, ⁓ you know, we have a, like a heat map we're generating for folks and, really being able to look at it, week over week, two weeks might not be the same, but generally as you span across time, there's so many interesting trends that you can identify within your own operation, right? That, generally speaking, Monday morning might be the busiest, but as well, Friday afternoon as well. there's a lot of interesting data points to take away to make sure.
that you have the people available to capture and answer every call that comes in.
Miriam Allred (32:01)
So for people that are curious, explain the workflow. A call comes in through the phone system. What is your system doing? And then where is it pumping information to? Walk through the literal flow of what happens with smart automations.
Spencer Roth (32:18)
Yeah, so person takes the call handles it however they see fit. You know, they're talking to whoever they're talking to. Once they hang up, that's kind of where SmartAutomations.Care takes over. We're going to analyze that call and really based on the caller and type of call decide what to do. If it's an ordinary call from a caregiver or a client who's already on service, we're going to document that in their profile.
We're going to leave a note. We're going to categorize it. We're going to use the internal systems of their scheduling platform so they can really maximize it. And that becomes their source of truth. When it's a lead call, we're going to help them create that lead, populate that profile with all the information that was captured. And then behind the scenes with any call type that they deem really important to their operation, we're going to share a bit of a summary about that call to some of their communications channels so that
They are as broader awareness and they can work together to solve problems and that person who answered the call can then just go do what's next necessary, whether that is, you know, making another call. Because at the end of the day, you're right, if a client changes their schedule, it requires another call to a caregiver or vice versa. So ⁓ oftentimes calls require other calls and we want people to just continue to do the work they have to do and not worry about, telling everyone what's going on and.
documenting it because a lot of this can be really automated and handled for them. ⁓
Miriam Allred (33:42)
So there is a layer of AI
in here as well, which is maybe the summarizing and some of that documentation. Explain, the functionality and the purpose of the AI specifically.
Spencer Roth (33:55)
the AI we're using really our goal is to use it in a way that really aids in the work that we do. So a lot of summarization, obviously. I mean, if you look at every meeting you're on today, you've got a little meeting. There's a person that joins a meeting, but it's really not a person. It's recording, it's summarizing, giving you tasks that are going to happen. So you can kind of think of a, something like that for your phone calls, although we're not listening live.
so we are doing that for all the calls and then as well, making decisions about, when to create a profile, when to not create a profile, where to leave the notes. So, our system is quite complex in making decisions on where to put things and when to put things in certain places and when to inform people. So a lot of decisions that it's making to really empower and kind of be that teammate behind the scenes that is keeping everyone tied in and looped into what's going on.
Miriam Allred (34:50)
One technical question coming from my technology background, I might be putting on the spot with this, but when I think about like call summaries and documentation, the quality of the AI has improved significantly over the last six months, over the last year. Like it's just exponential, the quality improvement. I'm curious what kind of checks and balances you have in place with what you've built that ensure quality. Like that's kind of the
The concern I think on everyone's mind is like, how do we ensure the quality of the AI is as good as we need it to be, especially when we're dealing with humans and complex conditions and very personalized needs? how do we ensure that the quality is there? So can you speak to again, how you've built the technology, how you've trained or built the AI to ensure quality?
Spencer Roth (35:41)
one quality is top of mind for I could tell you when we started building this, I read I read every call summary we generated for months upon months and even would read through transcripts to really see, our goal is to really give you enough information to understand the context of the call without like, giving you a few paragraphs about it, right? you don't need to know everything, but you need to know the important details. So really.
Under having that context of home care allowed us to really decide what information it is that needs to be pulled out needs to be summarized and we're very. ⁓ Cognizant that this technology is continuing to improve, but how we utilize the improvements that are happening over time. We're very cautious about how we kind of roll those out. We don't want to do something that's going to set people back or put information in their system that they don't want to be there. We are.
Very cognizant that there can be very sensitive information talked about as well. So we take security and how we're handling things very seriously.
Miriam Allred (36:46)
And the human is always involved,
even when this information gets pumped into the, the scheduling software. I think your advice and my advice would be the human is still reviewing, revising, approving things. We're not to the point where AI, we're hands off. know, the AI is like working 100 % in the background. the human is still involved at every step of the process just to ensure that that quality, that like final quality check is always done by a human.
Spencer Roth (37:13)
100%. that human is going to be able to verify what information is good, what information is bad, what information they want, what information they don't want. we are always making sure that people are reviewing and double checking not every call, but, know, when you create a lead and you're putting all this information in, ⁓ there's always going to be something from that call that they might have been able to infer that, you know,
our system might not have been able to. So there's always a element of the human being able to add that little touch that makes a difference that, you know, if it's a different person who goes in and visits that person in the home, that insight might make the difference between them converting and becoming a client and then opting to use another agency.
Miriam Allred (37:57)
And I think you shared an example with me about how impressed those answering the calls are with the technology in that it captures things that they wouldn't have written down. Again, when someone's taking notes of a call, they're writing down what's important in their mind, but the AI is like almost a little more unbiased and that it's going to write down everything. so
I feel like there was like maybe a baseball example or something that you shared with me of something that the AI caught that the human wouldn't have written down and then it meant a lot to the client. Am I recalling that right?
Spencer Roth (38:33)
Yeah, 100%. So, you know, we haven't talked much about what we're doing in the home, but, you know, we are giving the opportunity for folks to capture that first in-home visit assessment evaluation, whatever term you use, and in capturing that, really allowing the person who's sitting across the table from, that senior and their older adult child to really be engaged in conversation and in doing so not.
writing notes, right? When you're writing notes, you want to capture everything on the care front, but not all those tidbits about who they are as a person and their likes, their dislikes, their habits, routines. So when we're able to capture that conversation for folks, we're able to capture all those things that are important to have, but they're kind of back of mind in some ways. You are allowing that person to really focus on talking about the services they can provide because at the end of the day,
You know, we don't know how many other agencies were in there before or will be in there after. But in the example you referenced, yes, one of our customers had, they recorded the interaction and, we then put all the information into that client profile after the visit. One of the cool things we are doing is using that conversation to really create an entire care plan that's ready to be reviewed before care begins. But in terms of the person's likes and dislikes, they said they loved.
watching NASCAR and the Chicago Cubs. And I got a message that said, hey, I don't remember, any reference to the Chicago Cubs. So we went to the transcript and look back and ⁓ what do know, they really talked about, spending their summer afternoons watching baseball. So, you know, it's great information to have that can really only bolster and improve those services that they're providing. And it's great information for a caregiver going in to be able to.
talk about things and be able to relate to that client in a way that they might not have been able to otherwise.
Miriam Allred (40:29)
This is perfect. I was
getting ahead of us, but this is what I want to talk about. So we talked about the calls and what's possible with smartautomations.care with the calls, but now you're saying you're taking that application to the home. Explain exactly how that's possible. What is the method in which those conversations in the home are being recorded and documented?
Spencer Roth (40:50)
So the phone is everyone's carrying one, right? It's a powerful tool. So we have a couple of ways people can do it all via their cell phone. ⁓ but obviously, we talked a little bit earlier about, consent and recordings and, I think there's a great ways you can ask and, everyone's being recorded everywhere these days, right? Whether you're at your doctor or, you got your other in-home devices that are probably listening. ⁓ so.
You know, people are starting to ⁓ soften up to being recorded, especially when you can frame it in a way that, you want to make sure you don't want to miss anything. So, you know, we have a couple options and ways to do it so people can use their phone and capture that interaction so that they can really be engaged with the person on the other side of the table and build that rapport and relationship with them. Because it is a lot to digest in an hour or hour and a half, however long they're sitting there.
And ⁓ not to mention all the work that happens after the fact when they leave to be able to document and build a care plan. It's a massive time savings when it becomes more about review than active data entry.
Miriam Allred (41:58)
So one method in which it can be recorded is just like a recording on your phone, like a voice memo, like literally just an audio recording. I think there are a couple of other methods in which it can be recorded as well. Explain what those are.
Spencer Roth (42:12)
yes, you can definitely record it just like you would record any sort of audio. And then we have a method that allows you to essentially, set up in our system who you're going to be visiting, why you're visiting them, because we can record different types of visits, whether it is that first assessment or it is a supervisory visit. And then from there, it calls out and you can ⁓ use that call to capture the dialogue.
And that it happens at the table and or wherever you're sitting and ⁓ enters it from there. You know, we're seeing a lot of people lean into this and use it in ways that I personally didn't even think of ⁓ to really help them improve the care and the outcomes that, they are wanting to provide.
Miriam Allred (42:54)
I see so much value in this. know, thinking back to my Careswitch days, like a lot of people wanted this exact solution, but it's a little bit of a step change for the business. You know, the person, the clinician, the care coordinator, whoever's in the home doing the assessment, they're used to taking notes. Like it's like we're, we're helping them unlearn the like take notes, write everything down, but no, set the phone on the table, hit record, and then be all in on the conversation. Be totally invested in the people.
that you're having the conversation with. again, it's like a process step change, but the value is incredible because you're right, it's just distracting when someone's taking notes and checking boxes and just feels like you're kind of another like item on their to-do list today. It's a totally different experience when they're sitting there looking you in the eye invested in your wellbeing and want to do right by you. it's night and day experience.
Spencer Roth (43:47)
I mean, kind of when you start to look at where home care is going, right? There's a lot of holistic things people are doing to create a kind of wraparound services outside of just that caregiver going into the home ⁓ whenever they need that care. So I think this is kind of one of ways we can really capture some of that information that allows us to really bolster those other services that many home care providers out there.
are providing to clients on a day-to-day basis.
Miriam Allred (44:18)
Explain more. What exactly are you referring to? what other, wraparound services are you considering or see this like getting bucketed into?
Spencer Roth (44:26)
Well, I think when talking about kind of wraparound services, I know there's a lot of unique care models people, are choosing to implement, other sorts of devices and things like that, that they're, putting in the home. So when you, kind of sit back and think about it, they're focused on getting that information about the actual care, but we can kind of help capture some of those details that may help them inform about some of the other things they can provide that.
You know, might be needed and then as well, they can kind of go take a look and really. Analyze and see how that interaction went and explore ways they might be able to improve upon it and ⁓ really streamline ⁓ future interactions like that. So as much it is about capturing, it's also really, I think, provides a tool for people to improve and grow their business from that perspective by providing better quality interactions.
Miriam Allred (45:21)
I like that. Yeah, bringing awareness to things that like aren't on the assessment checkbox. It's like there's a lot of other things that get discussed in the home, but if we're so focused on what needs to be covered, we're less focused on all these additional comments and ideas and needs that are being talked about. But I think what I'm hearing that you're saying is like, there's so much information that can be gathered in the home. And rather than being so focused on, again, checking the box, it's like,
Let's also bring awareness and transparency into all these other things that are discussed so that we can consider other wraparound services, other opportunities to meet the needs of this client that we hadn't otherwise considered. The other huge value add that I see in recording and documenting these calls in the home, you were hitting on this before, the next to real time documentation that flows after this call. I've heard firsthand from agencies where it takes two, three, four hours
sometimes more, sometimes 12 hours to get this information documented in the system for then the scheduler and the rest of the team to execute their pieces on. This is like real time, leave the home. Like, yeah, well, you explain when they leave the home, what are the next steps that follow to get all this documentation into the scheduling software?
Spencer Roth (46:37)
Yeah, so our system, then, you know, once they leave, we're processing, doing all the things we need to do, pulling out information, making decisions, entering information. And then as kind of with the call side, we're, you know, creating those pathways to inform so that, you know, that person leaves, they're in the car, they're driving somewhere else. Maybe they're going to another assessment. They don't have to think too much about it. The person who's then going to go set up the schedule has the information they need to really
get that ball rolling. Obviously, you you gonna have that person who did that visit go review everything. ⁓ but it's all in there and it's ready to be reviewed by the time they're kind of at their next destination.
Miriam Allred (47:19)
Yeah, incredible. Like so much value right there. You have a lot of companies at this point, offices working with this technology. What are some of the outcomes that you're already seeing in your own business and other businesses? Like, again, there's a lot of value here and it's just a matter of like utilization. What outcomes are you already seeing?
Spencer Roth (47:39)
I mean, we could talk about the numbers in terms of time savings. every 1000 calls, it saves at least 50 hours of a person entering all this information. And then, in the home, we're seeing about a half hour for every visit, but downstream, we're seeing higher conversion rates. Some, for some agencies, it's as high as 14 % that it's gone up. And then as well, they're able to answer more of those inbound calls that are happening and not.
get by them to voicemail or whatever they have set up in their process. But I think it's a lot of the things that we can't really calculate that we're really seeing. that's the one, everyone is really so much more on the same page because information is so much more accessible and ⁓ is being read by different people throughout the day. And then two, I think the quality of care is just rising because of that, because everyone is on the same page.
On what's needed, you know, just the quality of care and touch points that they're having with these clients and their families and then as well as caregivers is really just growing and I'm not sure really how we can measure that. Maybe that's client satisfaction or some other metric that we haven't quite looked into yet, but I think those are the kinds of things that we're really seeing that we're really most excited about outside of just, you know, the time we're giving back to people to provide higher level, higher quality things.
and that they have to fill up their day.
Miriam Allred (49:03)
The less direct one that comes
to mind for me, not to put words in your mouth, but I think that you're already seeing is office staff satisfaction. It throws a huge wrench in an operation when someone in the office leaves. And these people that work in the office, they don't want to be doing documentation all day. Yes, that's part of the job. That's what they signed up for. But if you pull off of their plate a lot of this documentation, their job satisfaction is going way up.
They like to talk to people. They don't mind being on the phones. They don't mind being out in the homes, but it's the documentation piece that they hate. You talk to nurses, they didn't become a nurse to do documentation. That's a real thing happening in healthcare and in home care is these nurses, they're tired of documentation. They didn't sign up for that piece of it, but that takes so much time. And so I guess the value that I really see is, again, office staff.
satisfaction, maybe a little bit harder to quantify, but giving them time back, giving them energy back, helping them do more of what they like and less of what they don't like.
Spencer Roth (50:03)
I totally agree. mean, I think you brought up an interesting point on turnover, which it's inevitable. ⁓ Whether that person is moving on to bigger and better things or this is not a right fit for them. But I think we're also removing that barrier of information that was probably otherwise in their head. And when they leave, that information goes with them and really making sure that there's a lot of continuity for clients and for caregivers for that matter that this information isn't
leaving one business one day and another another, it's all staying there centralized and accessible when they backfill that role or get someone else filling in for them. They can read all about that history and that relationship with that client and caregiver and really have an understanding of what their experience has been with that agency.
Miriam Allred (50:51)
Absolutely, and I agree 100%, it's 2025, technology's at a place where that shouldn't throw the wrench in the operations of a home care company, but I hear it all of the time. So and so left, so and so left, and we're scrambling, we're doubling up and it's like chaos, like somebody leaves, every person in the office is essentially so critical and they have so much information stored in their brains.
that when they leave, it turns into chaos and then it puts the burden on everybody else in the office and then talk about satisfaction, you know, can drop pretty quickly. So there's just a lot of those nuances that you need to be aware of and that AI and documentation and modern phone systems tooling can really help with.
Spencer Roth (51:38)
an interesting thing I've seen when we began to create this was not even from people leaving. was just making sure people can take that time off that they deserve from the office. ⁓ with tools like this, we can build ways to make sure that nothing gets left behind when they're gone. They don't have to worry about who's calling them, who's texting them. You can create ways for people to loop other people in and route calls and things like that so that
even an office staff member wants to take a week vacation doesn't have to have work in the back of their mind. We can utilize all these tools to really give many people the time off that they deserve from doing the great work that they do.
Miriam Allred (52:20)
Yeah, that's a great point.
I'm glad you added that. Let's talk about looking to the future, Spencer, like the next six to 12 months. specifically with AI are you keeping an eye on? what's coming out that you're impressed by? What do you all want to integrate into what you're doing? what's trending or popping up on your radar that you're watching?
Spencer Roth (52:42)
It's a great question. I mean, I think if you look holistically, things are moving fast, but also in some ways they're moving slow. I think for us, how we envision the future is, really being thoughtful about how we want to grow and implement things that can continue to really just empower that human relationship and continue to build that trust. So, you know, as a business, I think you...
a home care business, always have to think about, you know, one, the people in it and really how to empower them. And I think there are lot of great people out there working on a lot of great things. And I think, a rising tide lifts all boats. And the more people dedicating time and energy to the space, the only greater outcomes we'll have, across the board and for home care agencies everywhere. And obviously, you and I, you see the numbers that people talk about all the time about the growing demand.
for care so you know I really do love seeing all the different people working on great new innovative things in this area.
Miriam Allred (53:45)
Yeah, I was listening
to a podcast yesterday that was talking about all the layoffs, you know, like it's a really interesting time we see, we're seeing the big companies laying off thousands in droves and it's pretty alarming and they're chalking it up to AI. They can quite literally do more with less. And I think in home care, these companies are, these agencies are already running lean, but it's all about efficiency and margin. How can you get two to three more?
times productivity out of the team that you have in place today. it's tools like this. It's literally tools like this that take documentation out of the equation, reduce it significantly so that that individual can be two, three, four times more efficient. Like that's, think the evolution that we're entering into in home care. don't think we're not going to lay people off in home care. Like that's not what's about to happen. But if we want to continue to grow and scale and meet the demands, it's
plugging in technology to help your existing team be again, two to four X more efficient.
Spencer Roth (54:51)
And maybe some of these people will find their new calling in home care, whether that is maybe as a caregiver or maybe an office somewhere across the country. think there's ⁓ a lot of great minds out there that this space can always use more great thinkers who are working on new innovative ideas and then as well just providing great operations and great care to folks everywhere.
Miriam Allred (55:19)
That's a great point. Come to Home Care. Lots of good things happening here and we need the support. Spencer, Thank you so much for sharing a little bit about yourself, about the success that you're seeing, about what you're building with smartautomations.care. What is the best way for people to contact you and learn more about this tool that you're building?
Spencer Roth (55:37)
Yeah, they can shoot me an email spencer@smartautomations.care or I'm on LinkedIn at Spencer Roth. But, yes, we'd love to chat more about it. And, know, thank you for having Miriam. It was a great conversation. Really enjoyed it.
Miriam Allred (55:50)
Yeah, likewise. Thank you so much. I'm genuinely excited about what you guys are building and what you're up to and the success that you're seeing. Again, I think it's great. There's a lot of value in helping people more efficient in the office and taking away the manual burden. And that's what you all are doing.
Spencer Roth (56:07)
Thank you.