Summary

Sound Advice MD upgraded from a basic phone system to CloudTalk’s AI-powered telephony, enabling agents to scale outreach while maintaining quality. The team gained deeper call insights, faster coaching, and more seamless CRM integration across growth.

We spoke with John Gourdin, CEO of Sound Advice MD, a U.S.-based insurance brokerage and advocacy group focused on helping seniors access health, life, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. With 29 remote agents operating nationwide, John needed a phone solution that could scale, automate, and simplify — without losing the human touch. CloudTalk made it possible.

About Sound Advice MD

Supporting seniors through specialized insurance and advocacy

Sound Advice MD is a U.S. insurance brokerage and advocacy group focused on seniors. They help clients navigate health, life, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits—especially for low-income seniors. The company operates a virtual call center; agents work remotely across the country. Its CEO, John Gourdin, leads operations, focusing heavily on seamless customer communication and scalable support.

The Problem

Legacy telephony couldn’t support growth or AI ambitions

Before CloudTalk, Sound Advice MD used an older system (Cloud Call) that handled basic call functions but lacked advanced features. As AI-enabled tools matured, the limitations became more acute. John observed:

  • No call scoring or conversation intelligence
  • No reliable AI transcription or summarization
  • Agents spending too much time recapturing call details
  • Coaching was inefficient — to evaluate calls, John had to manually listen for long durations
  • Integration with CRM and scheduling tools was partial and clunky

John realized the old system wasn’t evolving fast enough, while his business needed telephony to become smarter and more scalable.

Evaluation

Seeking an all-in-one phone + AI platform

When evaluating alternatives, John prioritized vendors that combined full telephony with AI features, rather than standalone voice agents layered on existing tools. Key criteria included:

  • Conversation intelligence (transcription, summaries)
  • Call scoring for coaching
  • Smooth CRM and scheduling integration (Zoho CRM, Acuity)
  • Flexibility and seamless call routing
  • Cost control in scaling new AI features

CloudTalk stood out because it offered telephony + AI natively and integrated with their existing stack (Zoho CRM, Zapier). John said:

I was in the process of trying to build my own AI integration and then I found out CloudTalk already had it. Why reinvent the wheel?
John Gourdin
CEO, Sound Advice MD

Other vendors offered parts of the plan (AI or telephony), but none offered a full, integrated solution at reasonable scale.

Solution

Deploying AI-driven calling across inbound and outbound

Today, Sound Advice MD uses CloudTalk for both inbound and outbound calling. Their usage includes:

  • Conversation intelligence & transcription: All calls are transcribed and summarized, automatically linked to CRM, saving agents from manual note-taking
  • Call scoring (beta): John has begun using call scoring templates to coach agents better by highlighting strengths and improvement areas
  • Voice agents (in testing): For inbound, to allow customers to self-schedule if no agent answers; outbound, to handle routine reminders (e.g. to update doctors/pharmacies)
  • Call routing and tree customization: John can adjust routing in real time without support tickets
  • Mobile app, SMS/MMS: Agents use mobile access, and MMS capability helps clients send images (like prescription lists)

The system is integrated with Zoho CRM and Acuity Scheduling (via Zapier) to route information and automate follow-up scheduling.

John also praised the flexibility:

That call tree function, to customize as I want on the fly, is huge. My old system let me do some things, but often required tickets and waiting. With CloudTalk, I’m in control.
John Gourdin
CEO, Sound Advice MD

Results

Faster coaching, richer insights, and scalable AI support

Though some features (like full voice agents) are still rolling out, John has already seen clear positive changes:

  • Qualitative insight at scale: Instead of sampling a few calls, John now gets summaries and data for every call, enabling better trend detection and coaching
  • Time saved in coaching: An hour-long call no longer needs to be listened to end-to-end; key moments can be jumped to via summary
  • Better call-quality metrics: Metrics around talk/listen ratios, outcomes, and quality are now visible across all calls
  • Agent empowerment: Agents can focus more on selling and serving clients, rather than logging, recaps, or repetitive follow-ups
  • SMS/MMS improvements: Being able to receive images from clients reduces confusion and back-and-forth in prescription details

John summed it up:

Conversational AI is a game changer … the ability to evaluate an hour‑long call in five or ten minutes is a huge time saver for me.
John Gourdin
CEO, Sound Advice MD

He also said CloudTalk is only “~50% rolled out” of what he plans to use, and sees strong upside ahead.

Conclusion

Turning calls into actionable intelligence at scale

Sound Advice MD’s switch to CloudTalk has already transformed how they manage client outreach, agent coaching, and operational transparency. Though not all features are fully deployed yet, the foundation is set.

I love how well you’ve implemented AI… So having every call scored, summarized, analyzed — for agents and managers — is huge. It lets me scale coaching and control quality without drowning in audio.
John Gourdin
CEO, Sound Advice MD

For organizations handling complex client communications (especially in regulated, detail-sensitive fields), John’s advice is clear: prioritize platforms that merge telephony and AI, support customization, and offer real control without backend bottlenecks.