How Tier One Physical Therapy traded hold music for headspace

Physical Therapist Conor Schmidt is co-owner and CEO of SAS Physical Therapy dba Tier One Physical Therapy, based out of four locations in Rhode Island.

In addition to his duties as owner, CEO, and chief physical therapist, Schmidt also found himself as the de facto payroll manager of the business soon-to-be five locations and roughly 20 employees.

While Tier One’s Rhode Island physical therapy practice has grown significantly “from nothing” since 2021, before Schmidt switched to the Insperity HRCore™ solution, the organization’s payroll practices were stuck in a rut.

A rough start with a familiar name

As a new business owner, Schmidt signed up with an HR and payroll solution that seemed safe and familiar to him because his previous employer had used it. His opinion quickly soured as frustrations around using this solution mounted, leaving Schmidt less than thrilled.

Schmidt found it difficult to get a hold of a customer service rep when he had a question, even simple ones. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and this was all new to me,” he recalls. “I had never owned a business before. Every time I had a question, it was a 45-minute wait.”

Their customer support system was plagued by long wait times and a single number to call for help, sometimes wasting hours of Schmidt’s time each week. “For someone trying to treat patients, do marketing, and handle payroll and all the other stuff, you don’t want to be on hold for 45 minutes,” he said.

A cold call that landed

That all changed one day in 2022 when David, a sales rep from Insperity, walked through the front door of his home practice unannounced and introduced himself. Even though Schmidt was fatigued from in-person cold calls, he also wasn’t happy with his current vendor, so he decided to hear David out. Ultimately, David’s cold call paid off as the frustrated Schmidt decided to give Insperity HRCore a try.

Schmidt didn’t even bother trying to repair his relationship with the other provider, and the vendor only found out he was moving platforms when Insperity started transferring data to their platform. “They were a massive company, and I’m just a small company. I didn’t think they’d really care,” Schmidt explained.

It turns out the other vendor did care, though, and they were quick to offer discounts, free months, and more to retain him as a client as he was walking out the door. For Schmidt, the damage was already done, and it wasn’t worth his time to even hear them out. To him, the other platform was archaic and not user friendly, designed for an HR organization, not for a small or medium-sized business (SMB) owner trying to grow.

“It comes down to customer service and the inability to get questions answered, especially when it’s a new platform that you’ve never used before,” he told 3Sixty Insights. “The inability to get questions answered when you have other things going on was a huge barrier.”

Implementation and early results

Implementation of Insperity HRCore took Tier One 2-3 months. David, the sales rep who had cold-called Tier One, handed him off to his Customer Support Specialist, but Insperity was quick to provide Tier One with four different contacts to reach out to via phone or email if they needed help. “There was no email with the other provider,” Schmidt said. “This is exactly what I wanted. Now, when I have a question, it gets answered quickly.”

In terms of disruption to his business, Schmidt ranked it a “four out of ten,” given that he was trying to work and had to hold meetings with Insperity to transfer the data. But by spring 2022, Tier One was up and running.

First payroll

Tier One’s first payroll with Insperity HRCore was fairly seamless, according to Schmidt. Compared to his time using his old provider, where he felt that when you knew what you were doing, the system worked fairly smoothly, Insperity’s payroll run wasn’t drastically different, and time savings were comparable.

Schmidt likes Insperity’s breakdown of total payroll numbers and employee data, which he finds a little simpler and “very user-friendly,” especially for hourly employees who clock in and out regularly and for requesting PTO.

The main differentiators come down to service.

Operational Impact: payroll in 20 minutes, HR Compliance without a team

With Insperity, Schmidt can now call for help whenever he needs it, especially when it comes to questions about HR compliance.

“I am HR,” Schmidt explains, due to Tier One’s lack of a formal HR department. “Insperity keeps me covered and informed on state and federal HR-related laws, and things I need to abide by.”

Obtaining reports for tax purposes has been great as well—W-2s, W-4s, quarterly tax reports, and all the things Tier One needs to send to its accountant. The business has also begun using the Insperity HRCore 401(k) services which is available as an add-on service.

All of this has enabled Schmidt to be a better and more efficient business owner. Instead of spending 45 minutes on the phone every time he has a problem, he can now run payroll in 20 minutes every two weeks, saving him hours of time that were previously taken away from patients, marketing, or any other aspects of being a business owner.

Stress is also down for him, which has allowed him to invest in providing more benefits for his workers and making it easier to onboard new employees.

If he has a question, it’s very simple to get answers—”It’s easy, it’s seamless.” Response times with Insperity are always within 24 hours, but he’s even had responses within 5 minutes. On average, it takes maybe an hour or two by phone or email to get a response, but for urgent problems, he can reach his Insperity team member quickly. Best of all, even if someone is out of town, his email just gets forwarded to another person if his main rep is away.

Future plans

While the implementation started with just payroll data, Tier One is considering expanding to additional Insperity services to assist in business operations. Schmidt also had one piece of advice for SMB owner-operators: “Having started an SMB from the ground up, it is very much worth investing a little bit more capital for a lot less headache.”

The value equation: better service at lower cost

Conor Schmidt’s role as the “accidental” or de facto HR and payroll administrator is a classic case of an inexperienced small business owner being forced into a role they were neither trained nor prepared for.

Additionally, as we uncovered in our recent survey with Insperity, people are willing to pay for better service, because it often opens up greater potential in their business and takes work off the plate of leadership. Funny enough, in Schmidt’s case, going with Insperity was actually cheaper than its old vendor, and he found improved customer service in the process.

For Schmidt, the main thing that appealed to him about Insperity HRCore was that it listed a dedicated customer support representative on its homepage, along with its number and email. Long gone are the days of having to explain his business or business problems to a customer service rep he has no connection with. Instead of feeling abandoned by a big, faceless HR tech vendor that is impossible to get a hold of, he feels like he’s always covered.