Heather CE

From technology to payments: Embrace Orthodontics puts patients first

The team at Embrace Orthodontics often feels a sense of sadness when a patient's treatment plan comes to an end. Over the typical two-year treatment period, the twelve-person team, led by Dr. Cadman, forms strong connections with their patients, seeing them every 6-10 weeks.

“We really get to know them as they are coming through for treatment,” says Marley Ring, Orthodontic Assistant and Office Manager. “We’re usually a little bit sad when we dismiss them and don’t get to see them anymore.”

It’s obvious the Embrace team takes pride in the service they offer and cares about their patients.

“We are constantly evolving and adding in the newest technology and methods to our treatment approaches to make the patient experience as smooth as possible,” says Marley.

Located in Prince Albert, Embrace Orthodontics is the first office in Saskatchewan to offer LightForce braces, a custom 3D-printed bracket system that is patient-specific. Dr. Cadman also regularly attends conferences to acquire new skills and ensure they stay current with the latest advancements in orthodontic care. 

Making sure their office runs smoothly is also important for their patients’ experience. This includes their payment process. Patients can pay for their treatment over time, on average making 18-24 monthly payments.

Based on a recommendation, Embrace Orthodontics started to process their patients' pre-authorized debit payments with Rotessa. According to Marley, using Rotessa has improved efficiency and convenience for both patients and staff. 

“We were just using pre-authorized debits straight through our bank, and the system they used sucked honestly,” states Marley, “It was at least an hour a day going through and making sure everything is approved a couple of days in advance, and then go in a couple of days later and try and search for their reports to see if it was declined or returned for any reason.”

“Whereas with Rotessa, we set up the payments and forget about it until we have to post them,” says Marley. They also use Rotessa’s reporting tools to quickly get the status of their transactions, “It’s very very simple and a lot less work for us.”

Using Rotessa’s online authorization tools, they quickly get permission from their patients to debit payments from their bank accounts. “Getting them to fill in the information to get set up, we get that back within a half hour of sending it to them,” explains Marley, “Before we would have to send them a paper copy and beg for them to send it back and it would take weeks to get anything back from them. It’s way faster to get everyone set up and way easier.”

Although they do accept credit cards, Marley notes that the fees are high so they encourage patients to pay using pre-authorized debit, which they seem to prefer. 

They have also found Rotessa’s Payment Reminders helpful, “We usually don’t really have that many that are insufficient funds or get returned but I find with the reminders it’s been even better,” says Marley, “People get that and ‘yeah I’ve got to make sure money is in the account’ and they know that payment is coming out.”

At Embrace Orthodontics, patient care goes beyond just treatment—it’s about building lasting relationships, staying up to date on the newest technology, and ensuring every aspect of the patient experience is as smooth as possible. With innovative approaches like LightForce braces and efficient payment solutions through Rotessa, Dr. Cadman and his dedicated team are committed to delivering top-notch orthodontic care with a personal touch.

by Heather CE

Castle HR: Scaling Success

Tom Nickalls didn’t plan to build an online HR consulting firm. He’ll tell you it’s a long way from the job he once had in sandpaper distribution. Tom founded Castle HR to solve a problem and to use his entrepreneurial passion to help other businesses. 

Two things happened. First, Tom had the misfortune of being let go from a successful tech career, building sales teams. “It was a brutal experience,” describes Tom, “If you had a checklist of all the things you could do wrong, they hit all the notes.” 

Second, to figure out what to do next, Tom spoke with his software and tech company contacts. He saw a common theme, “I found out that none of them know what to do with HR,” he explains, “We all white knuckle it until we get to some magical number that we think we should hire an HR person and we have no idea what we need.” 

This was the beginning of Castle HR in 2019. Today, Tom’s team provides services to SMBs from coast to coast. His staff are all senior HR professionals with at least 10 years of experience. Their clients are growing businesses with 15 or more employees.

“It’s an exciting time for businesses, let’s scale this and make this something bigger,” explains Tom, “It becomes no longer a focus on revenue and product, it’s how to build the best team, that’s where we come in.” Castle HR implements processes and teaches clients how to scale their business, from tech stack reviews to talent acquisition strategies. 

The expertise Castle HR offers is working, “Clients that stay with us for two years, on average, grow by 68% in that time,” says Tom, “Year one is kind of building it out and year two is about really refining it and executing and making sure it’s working.” Eventually clients do outgrow Castle HR,“ We hand the keys to the car over when they get to the point that they need to hire someone full-time.”

Castle HR provides its services for a monthly subscription fee. They have used Rotessa to collect client payments from the beginning. Using Xero to automate invoices, Tom also wanted to find a way to automate payment collection. His search led him to pre-authorized debit services with Rotessa. 

“Hands down this is the best money every single month that Castle spends, period, end of story,” says Tom, “It’s fantastic because I have zero time spent on account receivables.”

Rotessa’s reliability and ease of use allow Tom and his team to focus on what matters: facilitating the growth and success of clients.

“I’ve never had to call customer service, I’ve never had to complain, I’ve never had a problem with anything. It’s fantastic.”  

From its start to now as an SMB leader in HR consulting, Castle HR stays focused on helping businesses. Rotessa helps make things smoother behind the scenes and leaves more time for what matters. Castle HR's commitment to its clients promises continued excellence in shaping the HR consulting game and scaling success for businesses.

by Heather CE