Grow Therapy is a pioneering online mental health care platform that offers therapy and medication management, enabling therapists to launch independent practices which clients can choose from. In April 2024, they raised $88 million in funding to expand access to effective mental health care. 

Their mission is to make mental health care accessible and effective, but as their operations expanded, managing complex scheduling demands became increasingly challenging. 

Grow Therapy started working with Surfboard in August 2023, driven by their need to expand the number of channels they offer to their customers, avoid over-hiring, and improve adherence and productivity across a growing number of people.

Grow Therapy’s challenges

Outgrowing spreadsheets

As Grow Therapy scaled, managing schedules for their growing team became an overwhelming task. 

Initially, with 40 agents across 3 teams, they relied on spreadsheets for scheduling. However, as the team grew to 120 agents across 7 teams, the limitations of spreadsheets became glaringly evident. 

The manual process was time-consuming and prone to errors, making it difficult to keep up with the increasing complexities and sometimes sudden changes of their operations.

Increasing scaling complexities

With a recent $88 million Series C funding led by Sequoia, Grow Therapy needed to ensure their operational efficiency kept pace with their growth. Managers were spending excessive time on scheduling instead of focusing on core responsibilities. 

The introduction of new communication channels like live chat and calls further strained their existing systems, making quick adjustments and maintaining coverage a challenge. The inability to see coverage gaps and the inefficiency of handling scheduling changes in bulk highlighted the urgent need for a smarter solution.

How Surfboard helped GrowTherapy

Transition to a centralised system

Surfboard provided Grow Therapy with a one-stop scheduling tool that could handle the complexities of their operations. 

With Surfboard’s integrative capabilities, including CRM, communication platforms, calendar, and HRIS, Grow Therapy was able to streamline their scheduling processes. This transition allowed managers to have a day-to-day and week-to-week view of schedules, which wasn’t previously possible with spreadsheets.

The return on investment in moving to Surfboard was obvious to the finance team at Grow Therapy. Managers and agents were able to focus their time and resources to where it really mattered and the improvement in adherence helped the service and finance teams work together to ensure they had the right sized team and weren’t growing disproportionately to their needs. 

Efficient capacity planning

Using Surfboard’s advanced capacity planning features, Grow Therapy could confidently plan and manage their inflow to meet both supply and demand effectively. 

The ability to forecast and adjust schedules based on real-time data ensured that they could deliver exceptional support to their clients, enhancing overall customer satisfaction (CSAT).

Standardisation and flexibility

Prior to using WFM, Grow Therapy managers were all working from a different version of their scheduling spreadsheets. Surfboard’s balance of standardisation and flexibility enabled Grow Therapy to create efficient scheduling structures while retaining the ability to make necessary adjustments. This structure not only improved time efficiency but also reduced the stress and energy required for scheduling, leading to a happier and more productive team.

Team improvement

The introduction of Surfboard significantly reduced the time managers spent on scheduling, allowing them to focus on enhancing team performance without losing sight of their goals. The ability to self-serve and carry out investigations within the team empowered agents and managers alike, creating a more autonomous and motivated workforce.

Grow Therapy also saw significant adherence improvements across their support teams, an average of 19%.

Book a demo today

If your organisation is facing similar scheduling challenges, get in touch with us to see how Surfboard can help streamline your operations and enhance your efficiency.