As the veterinary industry evolves rapidly, so must your practice. When it comes to this, the key question is: “How do you keep up with the times without breaking the bank!?”
Getting caught up in a costly diagnostic equipment arms race with the competition in your area can make it easy to overlook one important fact: Fewer than one percent of consumers will ever leave your reception and consulting rooms, oblivious to your advanced CT scanner, operating table, or X-ray machine (not unusual these days!). Therefore, it is important to note that customer service and communication from your employees is still the most important factor in the success of your business.
Modernising customer service is an excellent method to modernise your practice’s entire appearance. Fortunately, and contrary to common belief, this would not break the bank either!
Several veterinarians have worked with technology Providers such as Veterinary IT.
Here are seven best practices that can drastically improve your veterinary services while competing in our modern, fast-paced world most cost-effectively:
1. Automation of Appointment Booking Process
Why take up both your phone lines and the time of your entire team? Veterinary clinics must send out confirmations and reminders to avoid missed calls and appointments.
You can automate some customer support processes to save time and money for your personnel. Your patients’ owners may be able to make appointments independently with the correct tools, applications, and platforms. If you like, you may also offer them access to their animal’s test findings, generate documents with pre-surgery information, or regularly send notifications and reminders.
Scheduling an appointment with a veterinarian has never been easier, thanks to Vetstoria. Online bookings, payment options, analytics, and more are among its features.
2. Improved Inventory Management
Over- or under-stocking can have a detrimental impact on a company’s profits, which is why inventory management is important. Reduced profitability and dissatisfied consumers are possible outcomes of an understocked practice. Increased supply costs and labor risks are also possible outcomes of having too many products on hand.
You should develop inventory thresholds to help businesses maintain proper stock levels and enhance cash flow by altering the frequency of orders to strike the right balance. High-value products should get ordered less frequently, whereas low-value products should be kept in stock and ordered more frequently.
Increasing traceability and efficiency while minimising the likelihood of human error can be achieved by implementing automated procedures where they are feasible. At any given time, a comprehensive, tech-forward inventory management system can indicate what is in stock, track sales and trends in real-time, and automatically issue orders based on the maximum and minimum numbers set in place.
3. Going Paperless
By not producing as much paper, your clinic will be more environmentally friendly by not creating as much paper. Your employees and clients will save time by not having to go out and collect signatures on paperwork and the like, and then scan and attach these papers to client records. Popular software that serves the same purpose includes SmartFlow, VetRadar by ezyvet, and Plexi.
4. Automation of Social Media Posting
A good example to streamline social media posting is using tools like Hootsuite to automate your social media postings. You can spend a few hours a month on this task. Using the “Best Time to Publish” tool, you can find an adequate time to submit a new blog entry to your followers. You can get more done in less time and produce better quality content in the process.
5. Integration of Asynchronous Chat Tools
Using voice assistants and chatbots could also be a terrific concept for a business to utilise. Chatbots can answer basic questions, such as scheduling an appointment, learning about costs, or learning about the availability of a specific prescription or medical treatment. Bots can do much more than that; they can gather data for patient documentation or business analytics that you may employ.
Communication with clients can be done asynchronously by utilising PMS-based apps, such as the proven clouds clients app, or third-party apps like the PetsApp. Some apps can also accept payments, which can further enhance efficiency.
6. Digital Imaging and Use of PACS Systems
Save time by not manually attaching client records after plugging in your imaging equipment with a USB cable! The best PACS systems will not only give you enhanced diagnostic capabilities, but they will also prevent missing charges, eliminate the need for repeated entries, and link directly to the patient’s record in the PMS. There are many PACS solutions out there and the right one will depend on what PMS you are using.
7. Intuitive Feedback Management
Feedback management is something veterinary clinics overlook. However, that is something you should do more often. Customer satisfaction surveys, such as those conducted by SimpleSat, allow you to learn more about how satisfied your customers are with your product or service.
With the help of this customer feedback management tool, you can enhance customer service, boost employee morale, and attract more reviews. An automated email gets sent to ensure that the customer has arrived on time. Permit customers who have a nice time to write reviews on Google and Facebook. Capture what went wrong and make internal changes if necessary if things don’t work out so well.
Conclusion
It is never an easy job running a veterinary clinic. The success of your clinic is dependent on your ability to handle a variety of different operations effectively. Maintaining a smooth process and achieving financial and quality objectives is your primary responsibility. As a result, you must want the most cutting-edge veterinary clinic software on the market. What distinguishes a great veterinary IT system?
An effective management system for veterinary clinics has advanced tools and solutions specifically geared to this organisation. Companies across a wide range of industries benefit from automated processes. Veterinary practices can also benefit from these types of solutions. Machines can perform a wide range of manual and analytical tasks. The techniques mentioned above can help the veterinary sector keep up with the fast-paced world.
Veterinary IT is the first Technology Provider in the UK that specialises in helping veterinary practices. Their services revolve around the technological systems that vets should have, network security, how to choose software, and some less technical company development and industry news.
