The annual PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report has uncovered an 18% decline over the past three years in the number of dogs, cats and rabbits receiving primary vaccinations. The PDSA have described this as “a ticking time bomb for UK pets” and have called for the industry to refocus around strategies to increase compliance. This is where our experts and solutions can help your practice on your way to compliance success.
RoboVet™ + Rapport™ offers an integrated solution which not only helps your practice grow but can also help your practice put new strategies in place to:
- Minimise no shows
- Improve compliance
- Promote best practice client retention strategies
So RoboVet, meet Rapport.
The Rapport suite of client communication tools integrates with your practice management software and can help you achieve better compliance via fully automated reminders and recalls using the best practice approach combining post, SMS and email. Rapport not only allows customers to schedule appointments online, but it also helps you increase staff efficiency, market and grow your practice. When we talk to our clients using Rapport with their RoboVet system we hear the same benefits around practice compliance reported time after time.
So here’s five ways RoboVet + Rapport can help you boost your practice compliance:
1. Increased reminder compliance
Consider this typical scenario. A client is due for their next appointment, so you give them a call to remind them of the date and time. They’re busy at work, so your call goes through to voicemail. You leave a message but get no response. A few days later, you give them another call and get their voicemail again.
As this example reflects, trying to contact busy clients can be time-consuming and often ineffective. And, while attempts to make contact even once by phone can be a struggle, industry best practice suggests that recalls are most effective when clients are reminded more than once and through multiple methods: text, email and post.
Rapport’s automated scheduling and confirmation can free up your staff to focus on value-add tasks, increase reminder compliance and reduce no-shows by up to 50%. Having integrated software that automatically recalls clients through each of the key channels of communication not only reduces staff time and effort significantly, it also means that clients can respond to reminders at their convenience.
2. Reduction in no shows
Your practice compliance goes hand in hand with the percentage of pet parents successfully attending their scheduled appointments. It’s also no surprise that appointment no-shows and cancellations can negatively impact your practice revenue, can cause inefficiencies in operational performance and create financial pressure. Our recent study found that losing a single appointment each day can cost a practice over £18,000 in revenue per year.
Rapport is designed to help reduce fail to attends and findings have shown that sending an automated SMS on the day or day before the appointment can reduce no-shows by up to 50%. Our team are on hand to set up your reminders system start to finish based on what your practice needs, providing you with a system of automated communications scheduled at pre-set intervals and sent at the most effective times. With Rapport you also have access to our dedicated Campaign Consultants who can work with your team to design reminders and recalls which are highly effective and carry your look and feel for consistent, on-brand communications.
3. Stronger client relationships
As well as bringing customers back through your doors, a strong bond between client and veterinarian is also likely to increase compliance. Just as we listen to the advice of our close friends, if a client feels a bond with their veterinarian, they are more likely to follow their recommendations for care. In this respect, bonding with your clients is not just important from a customer service point of view, it can also impact on the overall welfare of your patients.
Additionally, bonding can increase compliance; not only through trust but also through a better understanding of animal care. Part of having a good veterinarian-client bond is open communication, where clients feel comfortable asking questions about their animal’s care. If clients understand the reasons behind certain treatment options – and these can be discussed in the context of a good relationship – compliance follows far more naturally.
Building trust and commitment through effective communications is key in showing your clients that you care about what matters to them most. Rapport is a tool that many of our clients have found instrumental in building these stronger relationships and boosting client retention. For any business consistent messaging portraying your purpose and values is key to building a brand and business that customers want to engage with. This is particularly important when it comes to the veterinary industry and earning the trust of pet parents. We know that engaged clients visit more, promote more and stay with your practice longer.
Rapport’s integrated communications via email, SMS and postcard facilitates this engagement and can act as an extension of your brand, helping you get closer to your clients. Communications between appointments such as a practice newsletter containing news, updates and promotions are a great way to keep your clients aligned with and loyal to your practice. With Rapport, your practice has access to a dedicated team which design and deliver effective integrated marketing communications on your behalf. Our team will work with your team to translate your brand and identity into stand-out visual communications which engage and help to build stronger client relationships.
4. Time-saving automation
Many practices continue to rely on traditional channels and manual methods to contact customers and schedule appointments – all done during business hours. It’s easy to forget that this effort takes the focus away from customers in practice. We have been working with our clients to help them make the move from time-consuming manual operations to an automated practice management solutions to improve their business processes, save time and streamline the day-to-day. In a recent client story, Churchfield Vets explain how they have benefited from Rapport’s automated communication tools as part of their daily operations:
“It is immensely easy, there is no more toing and froing. The time saving has been the biggest benefit, and the cost savings that accompany this.”
With Rapport, your clients will receive relevant and fully automated communications at exactly the right time within the reminder or recall cycle. This means your practice can retire manual reminder runs, increase efficiency and promote a steady stream of appointments and product sales throughout the year.
5. Convenient online booking
In today’s time-pressured world, not only are your practice staff busy, your clients are too. Rapport’s online booking system gives your clients the power of choice and simplifies things dramatically for your team. With an online booking system, clients don’t have to commit to an appointment date and time during their visit – they can do this at a time and place that suits them, using their device of choice.
In fact, practices with an online booking facility report that 50% of all appointments made using an online booking system are made outside of regular business hours, and 17% are from new clients. With an online booking system, your reception desk becomes available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Rapport helps your practice increase compliance by capturing appointments which might otherwise be ‘lost’ by offering your clients booking convenience and saving your practice valuable staff time. Having an online booking system need not replace traditional methods but by providing your client with more options and the power of choice, you are already on your way to increasing compliance.
RoboVet + Rapport = Your new strategy for boosting practice compliance
To discuss our packages and learn more about how Rapport can help you achieve your compliance objectives talk to our team.
Email: josh.monro@covetrus.com/gayle.munro@covetrus.com
Phone: 0131 311 5506 / 0131 311 5540