How To Make Your Veterinary Website Work For You

Many veterinarians still rely on phone and in-person communications to transfer meaningful knowledge to their clients. Tech-savvy vets have found ways to make their veterinary practice website a destination for information and action for their clients, which results in freeing up time for the front desk and medical staff while reducing stress on the pet parent. This helpful guide will make your staff’s lives easier by implementing a simple, modern approach to your website.

Digitize Your Forms on Your Veterinary Website

When a pet parent brings their beloved pet to your facility, what is the first thing they do? Usually, they are given a handful of forms to fill out while they wait. Meanwhile, their dog may be nervously panting or howling or even attempting to chase the cat sitting next to them. To be honest, waiting rooms can be a little overwhelming, especially with clients attempting to fill out paperwork by hand at the time of the appointment. Collecting information prior to arrival could prove to be incredibly beneficial for the veterinary office, the client, and the patient.

Using the PetDesk Forms, you can create, collect, and manage your hospital’s intake forms in one dashboard, streamlining your hospital’s workflow and dramatically reducing time spent on manual paperwork for your staff and clients. Use the form builder to create beautiful, branded forms that can be loaded directly to your website. Plus, once all of the client information has been captured, you will have the opportunity to send out automated reminders for upcoming appointments, changes in policy, and general post-visit information.

Why not encourage pet owners to fill out intake forms at home to expedite the process and reduce stress on pets in the clinic? You’ll be surprised by how much unnecessary anxiety this relieves from your practice and the pet parent. Clients will now be able to fill out the form(s) digitally on your website or via email or text prior to their appointment.

Veterinary Appointment Requests and Real-Time Online Booking

Did you know that at least 59% of your clients would choose to make appointments through the Internet? Plus, according to internal PetDesk reports, 65% of PetDesk Mobile App appointment requests were submitted outside clinic hours. That’s great news because veterinary online appointment request software allows you to provide your clients with online appointment requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while also reducing the amount of time your staff spends answering phone calls to set, cancel, and reschedule appointments.

With PetDesk’s Veterinary Appointment Requests, you can allow clients to request appointments, directly from your website or the PetDesk Mobile App, based on the time blocks you choose. This provides your staff with the flexibility to approve appointments, suggest alternate times, or modify appointments, based on what works for your practice. Appointments are then organized in one easy-to-use dashboard where your team can confirm appointments with just a few clicks.

Want to take it a step further? PetDesk now offers a super customizable Real-Time Online Veterinary Booking tool, powered by Vetstoria. Our direct booking tool works directly with your PIMS to ensure that only truly available appointment slots are shown. Add the booking widget directly to your website to give clients access to direct booking to drastically reduce phone calls, keep you in control and even add revenue to your hospital.

Accepting Online Payments for Veterinary Appointments

Accepting payments online can increase productivity in the office. When we pay a utility bill online or purchase on our favorite e-commerce platform, we rarely think about what happens in the background. 

Since the convenience of online payments has increasingly become a given, many customers who visit your veterinary practice will believe that they will be able to collect and pay their bills from the comfort of their phone. Without an online payment option, clients are left with a decision – whether or not to leave their comfort zone and pay in person or over the phone.

It’s never been easier to accept digital payments at your veterinary practice. With PetDesk’s Veterinary Payment Software, clinics can send payment requests from their office phone number via two-way texting or through direct messages (email, push notifications, or in-app for mobile app users). You can even collect advance deposits for new client appointments, prescription refills, and upcoming surgeries and procedures. 

Trigger Live Conversations with Veterinary Clients

Live conversations keep the phone lines open for emergencies. At PetDesk, we offer the ability to add 24/7 Live Chat, powered by Kontak, to your veterinary website, where trained agents handle inquiries specific to veterinary organizations day and night. Not only does this help with phone call volume during regular hours, but it offers support for clients outside regular business hours.

Looking for additional communication options? PetDesk’s Two-Way Messaging makes communication between your team and clients easy while providing practice partners with customization choices to manage client expectations. Two-way messaging allows for efficient communication of follow-ups, prescription reminders, normal test results, cancellations, and rescheduling options. Your staff can communicate and interact with clients by sending text messages with images, videos, and PDFs using your current phone number or a dedicated local number. 

Sharing Veterinary Hospital Details with Your Clients

The start of the pandemic presented veterinarians with a complex set of challenges around changing safety initiatives that affected how they cared for sick and healthy pets. Years later, clients continue to utilize their clinic’s website to stay up-to-date on their hospital’s policies, hours, and more. As a result, you should be clear about what you are and aren’t offering, including hours of operation, how to handle drop off and pickup, available services, and medication refills. 

PetDesk now offers Custom-built, Mobile-responsive Veterinary Websites, powered by WhiskerCloud. Our platform creates beautiful veterinary websites fully integrated with the latest apps to not only help you elevate your web presence but also keep your clients informed. They also incorporate search engine optimization descriptions and meta tags for Google, offer real-time tracking, and integrate your favorite veterinary and pet portal apps on your website. Plus, we offer your very own web team so that changes and updates are taken off of your staff’s plate.

Veterinary Clinic Social Media Presence

Veterinary offices are continuously changing. As opposed to altering your website frequently, maintaining your social media page on a regular basis can save time and increase engagement. Not only can you offer educational information and adorable photos of your patients on social media, but you can also let clients know if you are open or closed throughout the holidays or during a storm. 

Utilize PetDesk’s Digital Marketing platform, powered by WhiskerCloud, to give you the professional social media channels you’ve been dreaming about. We’ll help you engage current clients and attract new ones with your own in-house social media and graphic design team.

The Bottom Line

Your website is a workhorse sitting idly by. It doesn’t get paid an hourly rate, and it never needs to sleep, so if you invest a small amount of time into building useful functionality for your clients, your precious front office staff can spend more time providing the kind of care your hospital is known for.