Better Life Institute and RightFax

The Company

Better Life Institute (BLI) of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an independent consulting firm that offers health and fitness education to the surrounding community, and to national and international clients. In addition to providing information on general nutrition, vitamin, mineral and herbal supplementation; dietary requirements; weight management and behavioral modification, BLI consults on taste tests and promotes a line of low-fat, shelf-stable foods available through the Amway Corporation.

One of the services BLI provides is a customized report on potential needs for vitamins and other nutrients. This service is offered by a large network of BLI agents including: Amway Health Consultants, physicians, pharmacists and others in the medical community, as well as directly to individuals.

The Problem

BLI was faced with how to offer customized nutritional assessments to its customers. With hundreds of assessments expected each week, manually receiving, handling, tracking and returning assessment forms would be far too labor-intensive an undertaking. Manual processing also would have opened the door for human error in evaluating the assessments and processing payments.

The Solution

BLI knew there had to be a better way to process assessment forms and service their customers quickly and efficiently. BLI had decided to use Cardiff Software’s TELEform® total data collection software as part of its automation system. BLI asked Cardiff for a recommendation and was told RightFax would be their best fax solution. "We researched other fax server solutions, but it became very obvious that RightFax was the only way to go," said Damian Walters, IS Manager at Better Life Institute.

Today, with the help of RightFax, BLI has completely automated this part of its business. Customers dial a fax-on-demand number to request a nutritional health assessment form, fill it out and fax it back to BLI. Once the RightFax server receives forms, the handwritten information is automatically interpreted using TELEform. Upon interpretation, TELEform transfers verified information to a designated database where a recommendation for vitamins and other nutritional supplements is determined. The recommendation, completely tailored for the individual, is then faxed back to the customer via RightFax. No human being sees or has to oversee the test process, which eliminates the chance for error on BLI’s part and saves on response time and manpower.

Individual clients use this service, as do health-care professionals and Amway consultants who sell nutritional supplements to groups of people. They appreciate the quick turnaround and can be confident that after their assessment form is received they can expect their customized report within 24 hours.

"I liked RightFax for its ease of installation and use," said Walters. "We totally managed the set up in-house. I did read the manual, but the RightFax software walked me through the installation, which was really a piece of cake. And since we’ve installed the RightFax software, we truly ignore it. It runs perfectly all the time."

With its RightFax software, Better Life Institute uses a Microsoft Windows NT® server with 24 lines, a Brooktrout® TR114-8V-T1 fax board, Microsoft® Exchange, Microsoft® Visual Basic, Microsoft® Access database, and Cardiff Software’s TELEform® .