One of the most common things clients tell us on Live Web Chat is that they don’t know whether something’s an emergency or not – but that they’re worried about calling because if it’s not, they might sound stupid. Equally, one of the most common complaints by vets is that clients don’t know what an emergency is. So, surely in this online age, there is a solution to this problem? With our medical colleagues using novel and innovative technologies like Babylon to triage their patients, can’t we do the same?

Once again, we are in a position to announce the winners of the Best UK Vets 2019. Unlike other awards, BUKV winners and losers are decided by the clients of the practices in question – no judges who might be biased, no “fee for awards ceremony”, just a recognition of good customer service. Over the course of a year (February to February), the reviews left on www.vethelpdirect.com and www.any-uk-vet.co.uk are added up. All reviews of 4* or 5* contribute towards the Best UK Vet and the practice with the most top reviews wins. It’s really simple and transparent! This year, the winner is [you’ll have to imagine the drumroll]…

We’d like to wish all our clients a very happy New Year! And we’d also like to remind you that there are only 5 weeks left before the Best UK Vets Award closes – so if you’re planning a blitz on reviews for your practice, now’s the time!

This Christmas, we’ve been seeing a lot of practices running Facebook and other social media campaigns promoting festive costumes for pets. However, as veterinary professionals, we are expected to meet a higher standard. I’m sure many of you would baulk at using a severely compromised brachycephalic to market your practice (#brachywatch!), and there are equally significant welfare concerns about festive costumes for pets.

If your website is built using WordPress, then recent major changes mean it might not work exactly as you’d like – in fact your website might even break completely. In this blog we will look at the issue and how the latest version release of WordPress could cause you and us a headache if not approached carefully!

In the past, it was commonplace to put information on your website which you knew people would want to have access to (for example, “top tips”, information about promotions you’re going to run or special offers, pet health resources, or whatever), and then ask for people’s email addresses, However, this becomes legally much more complex in the age of GDPR, as your data subjects have many more rights. In this blog, we’ll explore some of the legal issues around this approach to client data.

It’s very easy to think that attackers wouldn’t be interested in your website – after all, even the biggest veterinary practice looks like small fry next to BA, or the NHS, or one of the big department stores. And that’s true, from a certain point of view – you have far fewer visitors. However, that also makes you an excellent target for people distributing malware, or trying to set up a botnet, or indeed any other “black hat” (aka “cybercriminal”) out there. In this blog, I want to talk about a worrying trend we’ve seen recently in terms of hacking attempts on what seem like really low profile websites.