A Bournemouth University student calls at 10:30am on a Wednesday — they've been struggling to read the lecture slides and need their prescription checked. They're a full-time student under 19 and qualify for a free NHS sight test, but they don't know this. Your optometrist is halfway through a glaucoma referral assessment and the front desk is busy with a walk-in. The call hits voicemail and the student assumes you're too expensive. ForgeMason takes the call, explains the student NHS entitlement, books the test, and keeps a patient who was a moment away from walking to a chain optician on Old Christchurch Road.
Bournemouth is Dorset's largest urban centre — a competitive market with national chains, supermarket opticians, and independent practices all competing for the same patient base. An unanswered call here doesn't just mean a lost booking; it means a patient booked in by a competitor who may never return. The town's large student population, active retirees in the cliff-top and east cliff areas, and working families in Charminster and Springbourne all call at different times and for different reasons. ForgeMason handles every call — NHS, private, emergency, reorder — so that no patient makes their booking decision based on who answered the phone first.
Sight test appointments booked for both NHS and private patients. Type identified from the first call.
Automated sight test recall at 2 years (or custom interval). Patients book before their vision changes undetected.
Appointments booked outside clinic hours. Evening callers book next-day slots without waiting to call back.
Flash, floaters, sudden vision loss — urgent calls escalated immediately. Routine calls handled normally.
Lens reorder requests captured and forwarded. Patients don't need to come in just to reorder.
Automated post-appointment review requests build your profile for local optician searches.
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