As the saying goes, “You’re never fully dressed without a smile,” and Evan McCarthy, owner of Sporting Smiles, knows how to keep his customers well attired!

Located in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Sporting Smiles provides high quality orthodontic products at affordable prices. By enabling customers to take accurate self-impressions from the comfort of their own homes, and thus removing the middleman, Sporting Smiles keeps prices low, reducing a patient’s total spend for retainers and mouthguards by $200 to $300.

Evan developed a passion for dentistry at a young age after experiencing a sports injury in 8th grade. “A girl swung a bat and let go, knocking out my front four teeth,” Evan recalls. “Ever since, I always wear a mouthguard while playing sports, so I won’t have to go through that kind of experience again.”

Following his sports injury, Evan and his father, a dentist, began experimenting with making mouthguards, adding graphics and customizations to their products. As demand for their products grew, so did their communications needs, and 8x8 has been with them every step of the way.

“Right when I started my company, we chose 8x8 for our communications needs,” Evan recalls. “It provided the flexibility to work from home or the office, which was especially important to me as a small business owner.”

Gaining a phone system and a marketing edge

Evan quickly discovered that not only did 8x8 meet his integrated voice, video, and chat requirements, but the system included features that he could leverage in marketing his business.

“I liked the fact that 8x8 could make us look bigger than what we were at the time,” Evan says. “It was nice having an auto-attendant where you could call up and ’press 1 for this, press 2 for this and never miss a call.’ Now we have people answering in each one of those departments, but at the time, it all rang to the same spot, so it made us look bigger.”

In addition, Sporting Smiles delivers phone-exclusive promotional offers when customers are placed on hold. They even enlisted voiceover talent to record professional messages which were easily uploaded to the 8x8 system.

Cost savings and business agility

As the company expanded into a 10,000 square foot warehouse facility, the investment in 8x8 continued to pay off. “When we moved into our new building, there were some rooms that didn’t have fixed hard internet lines,” Evan recalls. “Being able to put an adaptor in the back of the phones and have them be wireless instantly saved us hiring an electrician to run network cords. That was a huge feature because it got us up and running quickly and saved a ton of money.”

Sporting Smiles recently began using the MMS feature in 8x8 Work to enable customers to share images of their impressions for verification and quality assurance purposes. “8x8 is on top of new products, and a lot of times when I ask for something, 8x8 already has it,” Evan says. “I can’t really think of anything that 8x8 doesn’t have."

Evan McCarthy is an 8x8 Original

With 8x8 delivering robust and reliable business communications, Evan McCarthy can stay laser focused on delivering cutting-edge dental products at the best possible price. His creativity, resourcefulness, and determination keep his customers grinning from ear-to-ear, which is why he’s an 8x8 Original Thinker. Watch this feature on Evan and Sporting Smiles below: