Improving Your Relationship with Veterinary Clients Using Technology

Building and maintaining strong client relationships has been key to the success of veterinary hospitals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic brought a unique set of challenges, it also underscored the importance of adapting to new circumstances and finding innovative ways to connect with clients. As we move beyond the pandemic era, veterinary practices are continuing to embrace an ever-changing “new normal” and reevaluating how they can streamline operations while keeping their clients front and center.

In this evolving veterinary landscape, the role of technology has never been bigger. It offers a wealth of opportunities to engage with clients, enhance their experience, and ensure they remain central to your practice’s mission. Here are a few ideas that can help your practice harness the power of technology to strengthen and maintain those all-important client relationships.

1) Accurate Contact Information in Your PIMS 

Veterinary practice management software (PIMS) helps you deal with the day-to-day running of your vet hospital. Veterinary practice management software (PIMS) helps you deal with the day-to-day running of your veterinary hospital. With a PIMS, you can typically manage tasks like scheduling appointments, tracking client and patient data, add service charges for patient treatments, data reporting, and client check-out processes.

Accurate contact information is the lifeblood of any PIMS. To avoid missed interactions that can harm client relationships, it’s important to keep your PIMS accurate and up-to-date. Accurate contact information in PIMS also ensures that the system can integrate seamlessly with PetDesk. Adding PetDesk on top of your PIMS boosts the capabilities of the system and makes client communication easier and more personalized. It also saves staff time and improves overall efficiency. 

2) Website & Social Media

Your website and social media accounts are essential for making announcements and engaging with your community. They can also be used to keep clients updated about your changing operational protocols. Set expectations with new and returning clients about what to expect from your practice. You could use a popup on the homepage, a banner, or a special page to achieve this objective.

You can also offer clients the convenience of online appointment scheduling to improve relationships and keep them coming back to your practice. PetDesk’s web requester easily integrates into your practice’s website to make requesting appointments simple and convenient. If you don’t have a website, or are in need of an upgrade, consider WhiskerCloud to help in all things web- and marketing-related for your clinic.

3) Mass Messages

Improve and maintain client relationships by getting messages out fast and communicating to your clients about what’s going on, especially if there are changes. PetDesk’s mass messaging feature allows you to send one-way messages (aka push notifications and emails) to your clients and reach them where they’re at – on their smartphones.

You can use mass messaging to send information about operational changes, promotions, limited time offers, business updates, or anything else it’s important for your clients to know. PetDesk’s mass messaging analytics make it easy to keep track of how many people you sent the message to (Sent), the total number of people who received the message (Delivered), and who opened the emails (Opened). You can also track which individuals clicked on a link within the email (Clicks).

Your veterinary practice likely has a number of clients with pets that require additional care beyond traditional services such as vaccines and checkups – for example, elderly patients that you offer special screenings for or introducing a lifestyle vaccine just for dogs. PetDesk can help you engage these clients by sending messages to remind them of their appointments and offer resources, new promotions, or other services (such as veterinary house calls) related to the care they require.

4) Two-Way Messaging

As pet ownership increases, PetDesk’s two-way messaging feature makes it easy to connect with your clients. Millennial clients are more adept at using technology and text messaging versus phone calls.

Two-way messaging makes communication convenient and accessible for both your staff and clients. It’s ideal for post-exam follow-ups and rechecks, notifying clients when medications are ready for pick-up, easing patient concerns when routine lab results are favorable, and acknowledging and rescheduling appointment cancellations.

Utilizing two-way messaging is a simple and effective way to connect with your clients and manage their expectations. After receiving a message, clients can respond quickly via the PetDesk client app on their smartphone or tablet. You can even create templates that are applicable to common occurrences to cut down on routine calls and free up staff time.