How vet practices can respond to today’s ‘on-demand’ generation

From TV and movies on-demand to home delivery from your favourite restaurant, today’s generation are impatient and expect instant results from the businesses they interact with. Their vet practice is no different. 

Our research* shows that when asking their vet a question on social media, 42% of people expect a response within one hour, and that increases to 65% within four hours. And the percentage of people expecting a near-instant response are growing every time we ask the question – this isn’t a trend that’s going to die away any time soon.

But, with a veterinary practice to run, how can you be expected to deliver that instant reaction?

When an anonymous visitor comes to your website looking for information or your contact details, there is a way you can offer them an instant opportunity to engage with you – and that’s by using Live Web Chat.

Nowadays many company websites offer a Live Web Chat service, where a pop-up box appears and connects the web visitor with someone who can help them. In some cases these are ‘Bots’, a trained robot which has been fed a series of answers to frequently asked questions, but in many cases (and for a more effective solution), these are real people.

Why would you want to answer people’s questions in real-time via your website?

• Manage incoming queries more effectively

By having someone available to answer quick questions on your website, you’ll receive fewer incoming calls, thus taking the pressure off reception, which in turn will help to reduce the number of missed calls. 

• Be more accessible than your competitors

Having someone available to answer queries until late in the evenings will mean that you are visible and accessible when other local practices are not. 

• Improved customer experience 

Having a real person who is qualified to assist a pet owner with advice, and even promote services such as your health plan, makes your online presence work so much harder for you.

• Increased revenue

If a prospective client is having difficulty using your online booking system, being able to get instant support to assist with those bookings can mean directly increasing revenue. 

Who is using it and what do they think?

The winners of Best UK Vet 2020, Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral service have been using Live Web Chat on their website since April 2019. Director, Tracey Morley-Jewkes explains the business benefits she has experienced from introducing the service to her website…

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Tracey says:

“The business benefits we have found are a very cost effective, high quality way to increase our contact strategy with our clients and our referring vets. 

It gives us inside information as to how we might better resource our own reception team, our own digital teams. It has given reassurance that tech and the connected tech can act as part of our contact strategy, and providing we are using the right people that are clinically trained in the background to do that it has actually enhanced the overall client experience. 

So from a cost effective point of view, from gathering data of the types of queries that are coming in for improving our contact strategy, that’s been really useful.” 

How can we help?

At VetsDigital, we have a team of customer service trained RVNs who manage Live Web Chat on behalf of practices. Our team immerse themselves in the practice brand to ensure the online client experience aligns to the offline experience. This means that our Live Web Chat operatives are like an extension of your team.

Here is Sarah Spinks, Operations Director at VetsDigital explaining how our Live Web Chat service works:

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How much does Live Web Chat managed by an RVN cost?

Our Live Chat service is priced at £190 for 30 chats, each subsequent chat is priced at £6.40. We only charge for real chats, i.e. only if there is a proper conversation. All transcripts are provided, so you can see exactly what people are asking. In addition, people can rate the quality of the chats, so you can monitor client satisfaction of the service.

Interested?

Find out more : contact us via our online enquiry form or call us on 02382 250 102

*VetsDigital Pet Communications Survey 2019. Data set 995 participants