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Germany 23rd February 2024
An Interview with Katie Mercer, Principal, Anderson’s Vets
We went to meet Katie Mercer, Managing Partner and Senior Veterinary Surgeon at Andersons Vets, to get some honest feedback on the service that Premier Vet Alliance provides to them, as their health care plan provider.
What do you like about working with Premier Vet Alliance?
PVA are nice people to deal with and everyone is helpful and friendly. Contact is good and we receive answers to queries the same day. We get good support from the coaches when we’re in difficult situations and they show a good level of expertise. Also, PVA understands vets! We get helpful and clear advice from coaches, and they display great product and practice knowledge. Your coaches clearly understand clinical staff and client needs.
The retention training really helped staff speak to clients about what they would have paid if they hadn’t been on plan, and this has reduced cancellations.
Do you find it useful having a dedicated coach working with you?
Yes! We’ve never asked a question or made a request that they couldn’t answer or fulfil. The coaches are brilliant and that doesn’t get said enough! The training is brilliant – having an expert come in gets more buy-in from staff. Training is not just focused on financial benefits, everyone understands the benefits to pets, clients, and clinical excellence.
The PVA learning platform gives our practice staff the ability to complete courses on a wide range of plan related subjects, at a time that suits them. We ask our staff to complete relevant courses before our dedicated coach comes in to hold specific training sessions.
Why did you decide to add Post2Pet home delivery to all your healthcare plan members?
It was because of Covid, initially. We also have space constraints and Post2Pet has allowed us to reduce the volume of products we need to store.
We also wanted to reduce footfall! We don’t want clients visiting to pick up flea and worm products and Post2Pet was the solution. Due to less footfall, we’ve been able to reconfigure our layout. We’ve reduced the reception desk space and increased our waiting area.
Also, time is a crucial factor. We have reduced the number of phone calls, prescription set ups, and dispensing times thanks to Post2Pet.
What do your clients think about the home delivery service?
Clients really like it and it saves them a visit just to pick up products. It also makes the plans more attractive to new clients.
How has Post2Pet changed your practice?
Cancellations are down and sign-ups are up, so we’re financially better off. It has also freed up lots of time and we receive fewer client complaints about paying for uncollected products.
What, if anything, could we do better?
We do experience the occasional tech issues and prescription views for our home delivery plans could do with being a little larger.
Would you recommend PVA to other practice owners?
Yes, we would. I don’t believe any other provider comes close or can supply everything we get from PVA. Others are cheaper but I need the training support and repricing advice. These are things I’m not good at. Our previous provider told us to look at what competitors are charging for plans and make ours a bit cheaper!
If you would like to talk to us about how you can make changes to your current plan to reduce cancellations or improve sign-ups, just click here and one of our coaches will give you some tips one what you should consider for 2024.
If you haven’t been advised to review your plan prices in the last 12 months, contact us now – whether we run your plans or not – as the profitability of your plans may well be compromised and we can offer advice on what you can do.
