8 Stats You Didn’t Know About Your Office Phone and Its Role in Veterinary Workplace Burnout

Your clinic phone has been working HARD! Here are some quick stats about your call volume and communication alternatives to help you uncover hidden workflow inefficiencies that can reduce staff stress and burnout. 

1. 1. On average, clinics receive 2,000 inbound calls per month per physician. That’s a LOT of calls! Create efficient call routing and ring groups to get these calls to the right person fast. Implement proactive communication strategies before and after appointments to reduce call volume and take some burden off your staff.
   2. Text reminders have a 99% open rate. Consider switching from phone call and email reminders to text-based scheduling and appointment reminders.
   3. 20-40% of those 2,000 calls are missed. This means each month, 400-800 calls per doctor are going to voicemail. Many of these calls are appointment bookings. If their call is missed, they’ll often call another veterinarian instead of leaving a voicemail or calling back. Offer online booking to recoup this potential lost revenue. Include information on your voicemail and hold messaging that lets pet parents know they can book their appointments online.
   4. 81% of millennials get anxious before making a call, and 75% will avoid phone calls entirely. Use online chat and bookings to make this key group of pet parents feel more comfortable — and to free up your phone lines. Millennials are the largest pet-owning generation (32% of all pet owners are millennials) and growing—and it’s not just about millennials. Other generations are also embracing a digital-first experience too.
   5. Employee turnover hovers around 23% in veterinary medicine.3 Much of this turnover is related to difficult client conversations that lead to burnout. The significant demands of the clinic phone play an important role. Routing pet parents to the right resource to answer their questions plays a role in client frustration levels—if they’re given the run-around, they are less patient with the doctor with whom they’re eventually connected. Implement effective ring groups to shorten wait time and improve pet owner satisfaction.
   6. Effective ring groups can improve answered calls from 75% to 98%. VoIP technology enables clinics to create simple or complex ring groups to make sure the phone only rings in the room where there is accountability to answer it.
   7. Research shows that 27% of CSRs plan to quit because of burnout. Identify workflow inefficiencies and provide communication training to support your team. If you’re not sure where they are feeling the greatest burden…just ask.
   8. The AVMA found that female veterinarians have higher burnout rates than men. 80% of veterinarians are women, highlighting the urgency to improve clinic workflow to create healthy workplaces for veterinarians. For the industry to grow and the workforce to thrive in a comfortable work environment, efficiency changes need to be made immediately.

The team at PetDesk is here to support you with uncovering and solving your phone-related workflow challenges. We’ve got workflow experts on staff who can help you quickly implement plug-and-play solutions for your practice. Reach out for your free consultation today!

About PetDesk Phones

PetDesk Phones is the most comprehensive veterinary-specific PIMS-integrated phone system available on the market. PetDesk connects your phone system to your practice management software to extract important client and pet information automatically. No more wondering who’s calling or who their pets are. You already know. You’ll also know the pet’s gender, species and spay or neuter status, last and next appointment, if any, and many more data points of your choosing. Armed with all this info upfront, imagine how drastically you can reduce the duration of every call.