Releaf Dispensary is a UK-based medical cannabis clinic on a mission to rethink healthcare. They aim to make safe, legal cannabis-based treatments more accessible to patients in need with the support of over 40 NHS-experienced doctors.
Releaf Dispensary combines specialist clinical care with modern technology to simplify the patient journey, from online assessment to prescription and delivery. They’re now the fastest-growing clinic in the UK with over 16,000 patients, expanding internationally into Germany.
As a fully remote company, their patient support team is 22 and growing — managing 300 calls and 400 emails a day. “My main focus is that patients feel supported from the very first contact. What really matters is that every patient interaction builds trust. We’re not here to “fix problems,” but here to listen, advocate for our patients, and make sure they feel valued,” says Patient Support Lead Natalie Fearn.
We use Front as our main communication hub for patient interactions. It allows us to keep everything organized in one place, ensuring patents get timely, empathetic, and consistent support.
Challenges
Juggling separate platforms slowed down support
Releaf Dispensary tried a couple of different tools at first, but realized they could not scale with their growing business across their communication channels. With Help Scout, they struggled with emails being completely separated from their phone calls in Aircall. Swapping platforms to gather sprawled customer context and perform different actions not only elongated hold times but also made it cumbersome for their patient support coordinators.
Delayed responses eroded patient trust
Releaf Dispensary needed a platform that could guarantee their communication was compliant, accurate, and timely. Any delayed or missed messages could have a serious impact on patient trust and well-being.
Previous tools had the danger of messages getting siloed, cases not having clear owners, and handoffs not going as smoothly between teams.
Being able to integrate everything into one place has made Front our single source of truth to help our teams gain the visibility they need to help a patient and collaborate more efficiently.
Solutions
One unified communication hub to deliver more personalized service and resolve inquiries faster
With all relevant patient information readily accessible through Front, patient support coordinators can view their Aircall phone logs and patient details through a custom-built CRM integration from one place. Agents have the full communication history and patient information to handle conversations faster and track call outcomes to deliver a more personalized patient experience.
And with Front’s internal comments, collaboration is an easy @mention away. Escalations can be assigned across teams without losing any context, so teammates can immediately pick up where the conversation left off and speed up resolutions.
Diverse patient needs require robust routing and standardized protocols
Patient requests can range from payment inquiries to prescription shipping and management to delivery timelines. Inbound messages are automatically tagged according to the type of query to ensure they get routed to the right person quickly.
From there, agents can provide fast and accurate responses by using message templates and referencing knowledge base articles to ensure policies are followed consistently.
Gaining essential visibility into growing inquiry volume
As business grew, Releaf Dispensary was relieved that Front gave them the visibility into service level agreement (SLA) breaches to uphold their strict Patient Charter. Front allows them to track first response time, resolution time, one-call resolution rates, patient satisfaction scores, and Smart QA scores. “Trust the visibility Front gives you,” says Fearn. “Having all communication in one place can feel like a big change at first, but it quickly becomes the foundation for faster responses, stronger collaboration, and better accountability across the team.”
Front has transformed the quality of our customer service by giving us a single, transparent view of every patient interaction. With everything in one place, our team can respond faster, collaborate more effectively, and focus on one-call resolutions that make patients feel supported and listened to.
Results
67% improved SLA compliance with a more efficient team
“The biggest change for us after we switched to Front was the efficiency of the team, which ultimately benefits the patient,” says Fearn. “We aim to run at a 3-hour SLA for emails, but we’re responding to our patients in an hour, even with our large ticket volumes.”
Scaling personalized responses through Copilot
Because patient needs vary from one individual to another, it’s hard to distill every nuance into a knowledge base article. That’s where Releaf Dispensary leaned into Copilot’s capability of learning from past conversations. Copilot has been useful in helping agents get a head start in replying to customers with more personal and empathetic responses that it’s learned from similar conversations.
Smart QA coaches agents to keep the patient at the center
Releaf Dispensary monitors the quality assurance of its patient communications with the help of Smart QA. With Smart QA, Releaf Dispensary can pinpoint messages where the agent might’ve missed the mark and provide extra training and support to improve their service quality.
Front has helped us shift our broader patient strategy. Instead of just reacting to issues, we now have the data and visibility to spot patterns, track performance, and improve processes proactively. That means we’re not only resolving individual cases more effectively, but also shaping a more patient-first experience across the company.
Tips for setting your team up for success
Fearn’s biggest piece of advice for teams considering switching to Front is: “Really take the time to map out your workflows before switching. Front is incredibly flexible, so the more you clearly define how you want messages routed, tagged, and escalated, the more value you’ll get from day one.”
Fearn continues, “Front is not just a tool, it can be a way of working. Encourage your team to use features like comments, shared inboxes, and integrations to their full potential.”