Pet Owners’ Demands Are Changing. Are You Keeping Up With What Pet Owners Want?

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, practices are striving to keep a loyal client base while battling the threat of online pharmacies, corporate practices, and the ongoing cost of living challenges. When it comes to your clients, what do pet owners want? Many go about this by encouraging maximum practice engagement through face to face and phone call interactions, assuming that pet owners still want to use these methods.  This approach also means that all incoming calls have to be treated the same and there is no way to prioritise which of these calls are more urgent than others.

Looking at today’s vet clients, many new pet owners are under 35 years old, highly value convenience, are more reluctant to make or take phone calls and do not want face to face interaction. Having spoken to older pet parents, their views are consistent with the findings mentioned above. We need to make sure that pet owners don’t feel that these methods create a lack of convenience for them, as this can lead to disengagement from their practice and, potentially, taking their pet health requirements elsewhere. 

Footfall has traditionally been a desirable outcome for vets, but pet owners no longer see value in visiting their vet without a pet that needs treatment. To keep clients loyal, practices need to move their focus to client engagement.

We know that vets are becoming more aware of these changes in client requirements and are starting to understand how important it is to deliver a great service and prioritise urgent care needs. With traditional methods of communication this is difficult to achieve and can lead to client frustration. So, what can we do to fulfil these growing pet owner requirements? 

Deliveries

We have talked many times about providing a delivery service for your healthcare plan clients, but it really does make a difference to your business, the pet owners’ experience, and their perceived value of being a plan member. The proof lies in the data.

Our independently verified data shows that offering a home delivery service increases the number of new healthcare plan joiners by 25% and reduces plan cancellations by 15%, so we know pet owners really value this addition to traditional health plans.

Home delivery also reduces the volume of calls practices receive, with several of the practices we work with saying that it has freed up so much time for other work which can traditionally be difficult to fit in. 

Read our recent blog on five reasons NOT to offer home delivery.

Online Booking System

This is a great tool for pet owners and practices alike. Again, data shows that having access to these systems helps build loyalty, due to the convenience they offer. 24-hour access means that pet owners can book appointments easily when they have the time to do so. Vetstoria’s analysis shows that 42% of clients used their vets’ online appointment calendar outside of surgery opening hours.

Customer App

Clients are demanding different ways to access their vet and a practice branded app is a perfect way to give them access to many services and information. An app that works in conjunction with or instead of your usual client communications is proving invaluable to owners and vets alike.

It reduces call volumes and makes space for more urgent requests, clients can receive hospitalisation updates without the stress of calling, sometimes more than once, to find out how their pet is. It reduces workload and staff stress and allows you and your clients to communicate in a way that they much prefer. The app automatically integrates with your healthcare plans, gives real time information about deliveries and current plan details and payments can be taken via the app, as well as allowing appointments to be booked or requested. There are many other reasons to consider the app and if you’d like to know more, just click below and we will provide you with everything you need to know.

Good online presence

Most practices have a website, and this is an ideal place to provide information about services, current medical news, or practice updates and special offers, including seasonal discounts, and online registration for healthcare plans. Some practices have an online appointment booking service, online shop, and chat bots. It is good to review your website and potentially invest in making it more dynamic and interactive.

Social media

These are great places to communicate with your clients and it is a good idea to dedicate a little regular time to making sure you post regularly. Have a look at other practices’ Facebook pages for inspiration.

How can you make changes to fulfil today’s client needs?

How can you provide what pet owners want?

You will have some of these newer ways to satisfy today’s pet owners already in place, and PVA can help you with implementing home deliveries, providing customers with your own customised app, online registration for health plans and other tools to keep today’s pet owners engaged. All you need to do is click below for more information.

If you need help with reviewing your plans’ profitability, staff training, or anything else, PVA is here to help.

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