Osage Veterinary Clinic reduces call volume by 40% with PetDesk Booking

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Veterinary Technician holding a cat while a veterinarian examines them

reduction in call volume

hours a day saved by the front desk staff

minutes or less to integrate with their PIMS

osage

Real-time Online Booking
RSlot Exclusions
Reminders
Analytics & Disclaimers

Meet Osage Veterinary Clinic

Since the 1980s, the mission of Osage Veterinary Clinic has always been to provide exceptional pet care. They serve patients throughout Northwest Arkansas, including Bentonville, Bella Vista, Springdale, Fayetteville, Lowell, Sonora, and Rogers. Osage Veterinary Clinic prides itself on compassionate care and superior service that pet owners can count on.

“PetDesk Booking saved the front-desk staff three to four hours a day, which is around 18 to 24 hours a week, considering a phone call would range from 5 to 15 minutes.”

Challenge

Due to the spike in pet ownership during COVID-19, Osage Veterinary Clinic faced a high volume of phone calls: “There were times when I had to jump in and answer phone calls,” said Rebekah Rangel, practice manager at Osage Veterinary Clinic. Phone call volume was so high that Rebekah had to add new staff members to help manage it. Although the practice was using a “request an appointment” platform, this did not help, since appointments were not booked in real-time.

Solution

Intrigued by PetDesk’s real-time online booking feature, Osage Veterinary Clinic believed that the solution to their problem lies within this platform that can help save time. This is when they turned to PetDesk’s real-time online booking feature to reduce phone calls and better manage online appointment booking through automation.

1. Real-time online booking to the rescue

PetDesk Booking offers practices the opportunity to reduce 10 to 15 minutes of admin time spent on phone calls daily and enable pet owners to book at their convenience. This means that Osage Veterinary Clinic could even receive appointment bookings outside of office hours, and the front desk would not have to worry about the paperwork the next day because all the appointments would already be booked. PetDesk Booking’s real-time integration with Osage Veterinary clinic’s practice management system (eVetPractice) allows practices to maintain control of their schedule and automates the time-consuming parts of the appointment scheduling process. Once the platform is set up on the practice’s site, appointment scheduling becomes a streamlined process for the practice and the pet owner.

“We transitioned from another software which had ‘appointment requesting’ to PetDesk’s real-time online booking so that customers could book appointments themselves.”

2. Slot exclusions

By using PetDesk Booking, Rebekah managed to configure a plethora of customizable features, such as slot exclusions, which gave Osage Veterinary Clinic the ability to limit appointment types and even limit appointments beyond its working hours of operation (e.g., if they were closed for an hour for a staff meeting or closed due to inclement weather, etc.). This saved the practice valuable time and reduce phone calls.

3. Reminders for the win

Osage Veterinary Clinic also found the reminder option useful for relaying reminders to pet owners about their appointments. Although the clinic called the pet owners prior to the appointment, they could always rely on PetDesk to email outside office hours if needed. Or, if a client didn’t answer their phone call, they would receive an email that included the booking link, making it easier for pet owners too.

4. Analytics

“PetDesk’s analytics is also very interesting. I like the options we get to monitor, such as how many people are dropping out of the booking process and how many appointments we’ve gotten from new clients.”

PetDesk also monitors how many people are dropping out from the booking process and how many new clients are booking appointments. These features helped Osage Veterinary Clinic keep track of its appointments and evaluate its performance.

5. Disclaimers

Another issue that Osage Veterinary Clinic faced was that pet owners were utilizing doctor appointment slots to book appointments that did not require a doctor, costing the clinic time that could have been spent on a pet that needed a doctor’s medical attention. Using PetDesk Booking’s disclaimer feature, pet owners are presented with information that advises them to choose the correct appointment type when booking.

Results:

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40% phone call reduction

After implementing PetDesk Booking, Osage Veterinary Clinic reduced their call volume by 40%. By introducing real-time online appointment booking at the practice, front-desk staff could reclaim 4 hours of their day, or 18 to 24 hours a week. This helps the staff focus on providing the best pet care and keeps the front desk from being inundated with phone calls.

The front-desk team at Osage Veterinary Clinic was relieved from the pressure of continuously answering phone calls at a stretch thanks to PetDesk’s real-time online booking.

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Happy pet owners

Thanks to PetDesj’s real-time integration, Osage Veterinary Clinic patrons who were previously struggling to book an appointment by requesting an appointment or contacting the clinic directly could now easily book appointments online.

“There were no issues reported by pet owners; they just started booking their appointments online because it was so easy and streamlined.”

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An easy onboarding process

“It was pretty simple and didn’t take too long,” said Rebekah, who integrated PetDesk Booking with the clinic’s PIMS in less than 30 minutes. During the setup process, the practice was also able to customize PetDesk Booking according to the clinic’s needs.

“Support was very efficient and easy. I got an email with step-by-step instructions on what was needed to get PetDesk Booking integrated, and I don’t remember having any hiccups during the integration process!”