How many of your clients come in daily to purchase refills, preventatives, food and other pet supplies? Chances are it is a good number...but it's declining. Competition from online providers, like Chewy and Amazon.com, has never been tougher.  Some of these companies are so well-funded that they are willing to LOSE money in order to get your clients' online pharmacy business because they know that, once they get them away from you, they'll never buy medications/food from you again.  We've even seen some online providers with retail prices that are less than the average veterinary practice pays wholesale!

Despite this trend, and while convenience and low price are important to the modern consumer (Are you really any different?), a significant number of clients would still prefer to buy these items directly from you.  Why?  Because they trust you.

I’m sure you find it a constant struggle to have clients perform specific tasks in order for you to keep their pet healthy. In many cases, the primary struggle is getting a client to return to the practice for their pet’s annual exam. We’ve discussed overcoming this obstacle prior in some of our previous blogs on why clients aren’t returning to see you  and why you’re kidding yourself if you’re using postcards. But, the primary focus of this blog is to discuss the other actions your clients need to take in order to make their trip to the vet a successful one; a trip where you can actually do your job.

Direct-to-schedule appointment booking for veterinary care is here with VitusVet and it could impact your business significantly. There are understandably a ton of questions, maybe some hesitation, but the great opportunity for practice growth is undeniable. In most businesses, sometimes it’s best to leave a functioning system alone. However, when it comes to your veterinary practice appointment booking system, just being “functional" can negatively effect your ability to provide exceptional client service and improve patient care.

Chris is a practice manager at Green Oaks North Pet Hospital, a practice in Arlington, TX. He believes email addresses are just as important as phone numbers, so his practice recently cleaned up their email database, improving email collection from 65% to 91%.

“The biggest benefit of cleaning up our email list has been increased compliance and day-to-day communication. It’s easier with VitusVet than with PMS to blast out an email,” said Chris. “We send out marketing emails once a month, most recently with Santa photos and a biggest loser weight loss contest which was 3 months long. We used the campaign tool to send out updates on it, and because we can send text and push notifications, we were easily able to fill up our schedule for Santa pictures.”

Lea Ann is a practice manager who knows digital reminders and notifications are her clients preferred method of communication. She also uses digital reminders because they’re less expensive, environmentally friendly and increase compliance.

“Our clients think our digital reminders and notifications are great. It saves our front desk staff time by reducing phone calls and it saves our clients time because they can respond at the most opportune time. They can respond early before we open or late when we’re not here. There’s a lot of opportunity for clients to contact us back on their own terms,” said Lea Ann.