How Veterinary Practices Can Use Online Booking, Automation, and AI to Improve Client Experience Without Losing the Human Touch

00:00:00.151 --> 00:00:05.551 Veterinary practices are adopting more technology, but it does not always mean less

00:00:05.610 --> 00:00:09.150 work for the team or a better experience for the client.

00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:14.070 Welcome back to the "Veterinary Business Podcast." I'm your host, Dan Adisha.

00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:19.230 Today, I'm joined by Joe Cicciariello, head of sales at Checkvet, with more than a

00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:23.130 decade of experience in practice software and marketing.

00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:28.800 We're discussing how veterinary practices can use online booking and automation to

00:00:28.830 --> 00:00:33.661 reduce team pressure while keeping the client experience personal.

00:00:34.411 --> 00:00:39.151 This episode is brought to you by Eko Marketing. Joe, welcome back to the show.

00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:44.401 Joe, a lot has changed in veterinary practice operations over the past year.

00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:48.571 From your perspective, what is the biggest client engagement or perhaps even

00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:51.750 workflow challenge that practice owners are facing right now?

00:00:53.401 --> 00:00:56.850 Well, okay, so the biggest challenge isn't that practices are not adopting

00:00:56.910 --> 00:01:01.080 technology or lacking technology. Most practices have plenty of technology.

00:01:01.110 --> 00:01:06.525 The problem is that every tool solves one narrow piece of the client journey, and

00:01:06.571 --> 00:01:08.940 none of them really understand what the others are doing.

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.690 So as an example, online booking lives in one platform.

00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:16.200 Your reminders come from somewhere else. Forms are in another platform.

00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:18.420 Texting happens in another inbox.

00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:22.605 Reviews and marketing attribution are all separate, and the practice management

00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.730 system remains the source of truth, but staff, people that work in the office that

00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.780 are doing these things, are constantly reconciling everything around that.

00:01:30.870 --> 00:01:34.830 So it creates two major problems, I would say.

00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:39.660 One is that the client experience itself becomes fragmented, and the second is that

00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:43.455 the employees, as anybody that works at a vet practice that's listening to this

00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:47.730 will recognize right away, the employees themselves become the human integration

00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:52.771 between all of those systems. So we talk constantly about staffing shortages,

00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:58.590 right? But we don't talk about how much skilled staff members are having their time

00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:02.400 consumed by software that was supposed to save them time. Does that make sense?

00:02:03.301 --> 00:02:04.891 Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense.

00:02:04.950 --> 00:02:07.426 And also, it's just like a cognitive load, right?

00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.785 Because you're task switching a lot-

00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:10.965 Yes

00:02:10.980 --> 00:02:12.915 ... to get one thing done.

00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:17.610 Exactly. And to me, I don't know, client engagement isn't how many texts you send.

00:02:17.655 --> 00:02:22.740 It's how easy do you make it for the pet parents to actually take the next

00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.921 appropriate action. What do you want them to actually do?

00:02:26.010 --> 00:02:30.930 Let's look at that instead of all the bells and whistles of whatever software

00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:32.700 solution you're looking at. Oh, it can do this, this, this.

00:02:32.730 --> 00:02:35.970 It's like, okay, when it comes down to it, is it making it easier for the pet

00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:38.400 parent to do the thing that you want them to do or no?

00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:39.570 That's what it boils down to.

00:02:40.141 --> 00:02:42.960 And what do we want them to do? Book an appointment.

00:02:43.305 --> 00:02:43.305 Yes.

00:02:43.351 --> 00:02:47.070 What is your preferred method of going about doing that?

00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:48.900 Oh, online booking for sure.

00:02:50.101 --> 00:02:55.290 Phone calls are never going to go away entirely, but you can reduce the volume

00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:59.760 dramatically by offering online booking, and it makes a much better experience for

00:03:00.150 --> 00:03:03.090 everybody involved. It's better. The clients are looking for it.

00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:06.750 They're expecting it now as a standard rather than as a value add.

00:03:06.780 --> 00:03:08.370 It's not a cool thing to have anymore.

00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:11.055 Now it's like you're just in the game if you have this.

00:03:11.101 --> 00:03:12.855 It's what they call table stakes, right?

00:03:14.101 --> 00:03:17.445 You've got the ability to do so many other things online.

00:03:17.490 --> 00:03:19.740 If you go to book a flight, you're doing it online yourself.

00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.531 If you go to book a reservation, I book my haircuts online.

00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:27.031 There's any other aspect of life you can do all these things online, and for some

00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:32.910 reason, the veterinary field is a little hesitant on recognizing that that is a

00:03:32.970 --> 00:03:35.190 universal kind of thing. You know what I mean?

00:03:37.230 --> 00:03:43.125 Perhaps that — Well, one of the reasons that we found out is because overlap in

00:03:43.201 --> 00:03:48.870 scheduling can happen, and that is the primary concern that we have heard

00:03:49.201 --> 00:03:54.120 from our veterinary practice owners with regards to this particular issue, that

00:03:54.150 --> 00:04:00.120 they're not sure. How can we really align the scheduling from online

00:04:00.150 --> 00:04:04.500 to not overlap from just day-to-day scheduling in the PIMS?

00:04:05.220 --> 00:04:09.855 Right. That is far and away the most common question that everybody has, and it's

00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:14.025 because a lot of practices evaluate online booking as just a website feature

00:04:14.041 --> 00:04:17.490 instead of an actual scheduling workflow.

00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:20.910 A basic form that just requests an appointment is not online booking.

00:04:20.940 --> 00:04:26.100 If you have even a Google Calendar, like a simplistic calendar that exposes open

00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:30.031 slots without understanding all the practice rules, that can actually be even worse

00:04:30.451 --> 00:04:35.685 because you're creating what a client or pet parent would think is a better

00:04:35.701 --> 00:04:37.994 interaction, a better workflow to begin with. They're excited.

00:04:38.145 --> 00:04:41.234 "Oh, this practice offers online booking, so I can do this real quick," right?

00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:42.570 But then they book an appointment.

00:04:42.630 --> 00:04:48.510 It doesn't actually work with the way that the practice operates and might be

00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:51.510 double-booked into the wrong column as an example, right?

00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:57.390 So now the practice has to then call that person back and try and fix

00:04:57.420 --> 00:04:58.290 that appointment. "Hey, you know what?

00:04:58.440 --> 00:05:01.740 Sorry, Don, actually, you booked for 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.

00:05:01.830 --> 00:05:03.180 We actually don't have that available.

00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:05.414 Can we put you in at..." And name three other times, right?

00:05:05.490 --> 00:05:08.250 Well, now you're having the phone call that the person was trying to avoid in the

00:05:08.281 --> 00:05:12.045 first place by booking online. And what happens when they do that?

00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:14.010 Because they're never calling at a convenient time.

00:05:14.055 --> 00:05:15.870 It's right in the middle of your workday, right?

00:05:15.930 --> 00:05:19.710 So you call the person at a time that they're not available to answer the phone

00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:23.130 because they're working. So you leave a voicemail. You send a text.

00:05:23.190 --> 00:05:26.640 Maybe you send a text, and it's like this phone tag that goes back and forth.

00:05:26.701 --> 00:05:29.295 So I don't know, I guess I'm getting a little off track, but the part where you

00:05:29.341 --> 00:05:32.744 were asking about how you make sure that it works is you have to have a system that

00:05:32.760 --> 00:05:38.265 is intelligent enough to understand all of the nuances that are at every single

00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:41.670 office that a practice would be implementing it.

00:05:41.730 --> 00:05:47.580 So if you talk to any practice, I promise you, any front desk team, any

00:05:47.610 --> 00:05:52.560 CSR team, there's always one person who knows all of their little nuance scheduling

00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:56.970 rules, and they are not written down anywhere. It's all in that person's head.

00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:01.650 So if you're setting up online booking, you want the system to, during the setup,

00:06:01.710 --> 00:06:04.740 that's the person who needs to be setting it up and putting in like, okay, Dr.

00:06:05.070 --> 00:06:06.735 A always gets 10 minutes longer than Dr.

00:06:07.050 --> 00:06:11.010 B for the exact same appointment type because Dr. A is really chatty and Dr.

00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:14.490 B is really quick. We double book these columns but none of the rest of them.

00:06:14.550 --> 00:06:17.760 We never want more than three of this type of appointment in the same day.

00:06:17.820 --> 00:06:20.010 We also have doctors who move offices on different days of the week.

00:06:20.281 --> 00:06:22.260 All of that needs to be understood.

00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:26.341 The blockouts that are in the system, planning guides in Easy Vet or templates of —

00:06:26.939 --> 00:06:30.420 all that type of stuff. But as long as you can get all that in the back end, it's

00:06:30.451 --> 00:06:30.901 beautiful.

00:06:33.210 --> 00:06:38.970 Now, Joe, what controls should be in place before a practice truly turns online

00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:39.600 booking on?

00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.180 All the things I just mentioned for sure.

00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:42.451 But

00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.710 you want to test it before it goes live.

00:06:47.250 --> 00:06:52.245 So in my experience, we've worked with thousands of practices

00:06:52.320 --> 00:06:55.350 over the last many years, right?

00:06:57.390 --> 00:07:02.655 One of the funnier things that comes up is there'll oftentimes be a conversation

00:07:02.701 --> 00:07:05.745 with somebody who's hesitant around online booking, and they always have

00:07:07.140 --> 00:07:12.899 a million hyper-specific questions for scenarios that seldom happen in real life.

00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:16.425 Like, what happens if this and then this, and because of this, and then the doctor

00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:19.395 is out, and the other person put a block in at the wrong time.

00:07:19.545 --> 00:07:23.820 It's like okay, how often does that scenario come up?

00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:27.555 It's going to be less than 1% of the time, right?

00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:31.320 So anyways, after a million of these conversations, I always find them amusing,

00:07:31.380 --> 00:07:36.195 right? But one of the funnier things that happened was I met a girl at a conference

00:07:36.195 --> 00:07:41.311 that I had had several of these conversations with, and she was so excited.

00:07:41.341 --> 00:07:45.510 She came up and gave me a hug. We had met on video a couple times, but months

00:07:45.570 --> 00:07:47.341 earlier, so I didn't even recognize her at first.

00:07:47.565 --> 00:07:50.100 And she tells me who she is, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh." We were like, "I remember

00:07:50.190 --> 00:07:55.951 we talked about this." I go, "What wound up finally making you okay with turning

00:07:55.980 --> 00:07:59.850 this on and doing it?" And she goes, "You know what we did was we sat around the

00:08:00.091 --> 00:08:04.230 lunch table, like a table during the lunch hour, and we tried to break the system."

00:08:04.290 --> 00:08:06.720 She goes, "I had my whole team go in and try and sneak in appointments where they

00:08:06.780 --> 00:08:09.510 don't belong and see what we could pull off.

00:08:09.990 --> 00:08:13.680 And then we built in some rules around some of the loopholes that we found, like

00:08:13.710 --> 00:08:16.591 for instance, somebody misspelling a word or something like that.

00:08:17.520 --> 00:08:22.425 And once the whole team was comfortable with it, then we went live." So all the

00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:25.740 controls, it's all the nuance. It's all the little details that you want in the

00:08:25.770 --> 00:08:29.026 back end. It's knowing which doctors on which days, what columns do we use, what's

00:08:29.130 --> 00:08:30.960 a technician appointment versus a doctor appointment?

00:08:31.230 --> 00:08:33.211 Do we want to allow surgeries to book online?

00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:36.181 Probably not, unless they've already been into the practice and you're sending a

00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:40.561 one-off text, right? But the crux of it, I think, even for a practice that's really

00:08:40.591 --> 00:08:44.520 hesitant, is once you have it all set up, try it before you turn it on for the rest

00:08:44.580 --> 00:08:45.120 of the public.

00:08:46.395 --> 00:08:50.160 I love that. Intentionally breaking the system during lunch hour.

00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:55.035 I think that's really critical because otherwise people like we really tend to

00:08:55.110 --> 00:08:57.645 overcomplicate, overthink everything.

00:08:57.690 --> 00:09:00.105 Like you mentioned, the scenarios are endless.

00:09:00.690 --> 00:09:05.895 Now, Joe, the other part of the question here is how can we protect the human

00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:11.130 relationship? What should be automated and what should truly remain human?

00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:13.365 You mentioned surgical there once, but-

00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:14.700 Yeah.

00:09:14.790 --> 00:09:15.630 And elaborate.

00:09:15.870 --> 00:09:20.100 It's a really good question, and I think that that's a common — So I don't know who

00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:25.815 coined the phrase, "the personal touch," but every office manager that I have

00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:29.220 ever talked to, probably not every, but a lot of them are like, "You know what?

00:09:29.280 --> 00:09:32.835 We like the idea of this, but we want to keep the personal touch." The thing is,

00:09:33.901 --> 00:09:38.190 the role of technology, whether it's online booking or AI or whatever else, it's

00:09:39.510 --> 00:09:43.350 to reduce friction, gather the right information, handle all of the

00:09:44.790 --> 00:09:46.890 very repeatable type stuff, right?

00:09:47.010 --> 00:09:50.730 If you take away that busy work, though, the repeatable stuff that, like I said, if

00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:54.061 you have somebody that the expertise and the intelligence of somebody that's doing

00:09:54.090 --> 00:09:57.151 these menial tasks that a monkey could do, right?

00:09:57.210 --> 00:10:00.811 Well, if you give them all that time back, that means that they're actually able to

00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:06.300 provide a better experience to the client that's actually there in person talking

00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:07.950 to them and having that human interaction.

00:10:08.040 --> 00:10:12.030 So I think the best way to go about it is you automate the parts that can be

00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:14.610 automated that don't require any human interaction.

00:10:14.760 --> 00:10:18.690 Meaning the online booking, the automated reminders, confirmations, automated

00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:20.730 reviews, all that stuff you don't need somebody to send.

00:10:20.880 --> 00:10:24.284 It's going to be the same message essentially every time, right?

00:10:24.300 --> 00:10:27.960 But if you take away that busy work, then when somebody's physically in person,

00:10:28.230 --> 00:10:31.770 they can give them that world-class, what they call that personal touch while

00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:32.760 they're there. You know what I mean?

00:10:33.330 --> 00:10:37.290 Joe, what you've described is such an important reminder that the client experience

00:10:37.710 --> 00:10:43.681 truly begins long before the pet owner ever walks through the practice door.

00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:47.970 It begins when someone searches online, finds the practice on Google, reads the

00:10:48.061 --> 00:10:53.625 reviews, visits the website, and decides whether the practice feels trustworthy,

00:10:53.925 --> 00:10:59.190 accessible, and easy to connect. For every practice owner listening, here is an

00:10:59.250 --> 00:11:03.780 important question to consider. If a local pet owner discovered your practice

00:11:03.811 --> 00:11:09.135 tonight, could they quickly understand why you are the right practice for them,

00:11:09.780 --> 00:11:15.135 trust what they see, and take the next step without the unnecessary friction?

00:11:16.290 --> 00:11:20.730 When the answer is anything less than a confident yes, the Veterinary Business

00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:26.311 Institute, in partnership with Echo Marketing, are offering a complimentary

00:11:26.370 --> 00:11:31.620 marketing strategy meeting for our listeners to help you identify where prospective

00:11:31.651 --> 00:11:33.450 clients may be getting lost.

00:11:35.010 --> 00:11:40.380 During this one-on-one session, Lila Stone and the team will review your practice's

00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:46.095 local visibility, Google presence, website performance, search opportunities, and

00:11:46.140 --> 00:11:51.840 the journey of a prospective client before calling or requesting an

00:11:51.901 --> 00:11:57.270 appointment. They will then prepare a customized veterinary marketing plan showing

00:11:57.300 --> 00:12:01.830 what appears to be working, what may be limiting growth, and which opportunities

00:12:01.890 --> 00:12:03.510 deserve your attention first.

00:12:04.710 --> 00:12:08.955 It's a practical conversation built around your practice, your local market, and

00:12:09.061 --> 00:12:11.820 your growth priorities. There's no obligation.

00:12:12.270 --> 00:12:17.850 The goal is simply to give you greater clarity and a realistic direction forward.

00:12:17.910 --> 00:12:20.040 You can reserve your complimentary session at

00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:24.450 veterinarybusinessinstitute.com/msm.

00:12:24.660 --> 00:12:25.950 I'll repeat that one more time,

00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:31.651 veterinarybusinessinstitute.com/msm.

00:12:32.190 --> 00:12:36.750 Joe, let's bring this back to the practice owner who knows they need to modernize

00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:42.749 but is unsure where to begin. Let's imagine we own a two-doctor practice and

00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.510 have no formal technology plan, okay?

00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:45.630 Mm-hmm.

00:12:46.260 --> 00:12:50.580 What should I be examining Monday morning?

00:12:50.760 --> 00:12:52.230 Okay.

00:12:53.490 --> 00:12:58.065 Brand new de novo practice, I would say you start by mapping out the client

00:12:58.170 --> 00:13:03.450 journey. So start as the pet owner, not as a quote-unquote "software buyer." So

00:13:04.230 --> 00:13:10.051 walk through mentally or physically, whatever, how a client finds the practice, how

00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:15.329 they determine whether the practice can help, how they book or request care, what

00:13:15.390 --> 00:13:19.815 happens before the appointment, what happens when they physically show up, they

00:13:19.860 --> 00:13:24.255 arrive for their appointment, how the follow-up recalls, reviews, future

00:13:24.270 --> 00:13:29.565 appointments, all that happen. And then at each stage of that process, go, where

00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:34.260 does the client have to wait? Where does the team have to manually enter or

00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:38.760 re-enter or chase down information and kind of play phone tag, for instance?

00:13:38.790 --> 00:13:40.874 And where does any part of that process

00:13:42.301 --> 00:13:43.740 break after hours?

00:13:44.161 --> 00:13:45.030 Mm-hmm.

00:13:45.090 --> 00:13:50.056 So probably, it's kind of broad, but you have to have a practice management system

00:13:50.190 --> 00:13:52.290 first, but after that, that's probably where I would go.

00:13:54.151 --> 00:13:59.850 Why is it so important that we figure out why does it break after hours?

00:14:00.030 --> 00:14:03.195 What is the missing piece of information there?

00:14:03.570 --> 00:14:05.640 Is it just so that — Yeah, go ahead.

00:14:06.570 --> 00:14:07.215 Well, I feel like

00:14:09.690 --> 00:14:12.060 in a lot of instances, I think about this from my perspective.

00:14:12.181 --> 00:14:15.899 I have never worked in a veterinary practice, right? But I've owned many pets.

00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:18.765 If you are a pet owner,

00:14:20.220 --> 00:14:24.450 my guess is that the majority of people are figuring out or determining that their

00:14:24.510 --> 00:14:29.056 pet needs care after hours, because it's after they come home from work and then

00:14:29.070 --> 00:14:33.780 they're seeing the pet, right? And let's say I come home and my dog is, maybe he's

00:14:33.810 --> 00:14:36.255 limping or maybe he's not eating, right?

00:14:36.270 --> 00:14:39.901 But I don't know that until I've gotten home at, let's say 5:00, 5:30, and then

00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.630 it's like 6:00, 6:30, where I'm like, "Oh, this is a thing.

00:14:42.750 --> 00:14:44.940 I recognize this thing happening." Well, now it's 7:00.

00:14:45.151 --> 00:14:46.651 Practices generally aren't open.

00:14:47.010 --> 00:14:52.170 So there's, in a lot of the companies I've worked with, we've seen a lot of client

00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:55.996 interaction at practices that happens after hours, like in the realm of sometimes

00:14:56.040 --> 00:15:01.051 up to 40%. So I think that there's, particularly when you have a practice that

00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:05.310 doesn't offer online booking or some sort of after-hours answering service, you're

00:15:05.371 --> 00:15:09.585 just kind of stuck, right? And what happens is that becomes kind of a lost revenue

00:15:09.630 --> 00:15:14.070 opportunity for the practice because that means even if they're entrusted to you,

00:15:14.100 --> 00:15:16.500 or they've been going to you for a few years, but they need help right now.

00:15:16.590 --> 00:15:19.621 So they're going to get a hold of somebody that they can talk to right now, and you

00:15:19.681 --> 00:15:22.920 might lose a client to another practice just because of that convenience.

00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:23.310 You know what I mean?

00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:29.100 And that's not where we want to be losing out on just because our convenience-

00:15:29.161 --> 00:15:30.030 Generally, no.

00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:38.070 So, can you give us an example of an automation that actually makes the experience

00:15:38.130 --> 00:15:39.600 feel more personal?

00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:43.621 Yeah. So I think

00:15:45.569 --> 00:15:49.500 probably around client communications, having them personalized would be great.

00:15:52.830 --> 00:15:57.270 A perfectly written message can still create a terrible experience if it's sent at

00:15:57.301 --> 00:16:00.931 the wrong time, if it asks for something the client's already completed, or if it

00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:04.200 contradicts another system. So again, coming back to kind of having all these

00:16:04.260 --> 00:16:09.405 different fragmented solutions, I think if you have one cohesive workflow that

00:16:10.350 --> 00:16:14.700 you as a practice owner have walked through yourself and you understand the nuances

00:16:14.730 --> 00:16:18.480 and the questions and answers that come from using that workflow, right?

00:16:18.496 --> 00:16:22.755 If you make it that easy, all you need to do is make sure that it's kind of

00:16:22.801 --> 00:16:25.950 addressing kind of the most core specific need that the

00:16:27.151 --> 00:16:30.960 pet parent has. So whether it's a reminder and you have where it automatically

00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:36.151 pipes in their name. If you have some sort of a cause that you guys are very

00:16:37.530 --> 00:16:41.610 close to, maybe it's a local fundraising type, or maybe it's a rescue, right?

00:16:41.970 --> 00:16:44.520 And you include that in your marketing materials.

00:16:45.121 --> 00:16:49.170 You send little notes here and there based around whatever automation you want.

00:16:49.260 --> 00:16:51.000 Maybe it's a client education piece.

00:16:51.060 --> 00:16:54.990 If a German Shepherd is over the age of five, then on their next appointment, they

00:16:55.020 --> 00:16:58.020 automatically always get this piece that talks about how their hips are

00:16:59.250 --> 00:17:01.036 predisposed to probably be bad. You know what I mean?

00:17:02.850 --> 00:17:06.330 I don't know. There's a million ways you can make things a little bit more

00:17:06.361 --> 00:17:11.790 personal. But again, I think the most human client experience is often the one

00:17:11.820 --> 00:17:15.540 where the technology quietly handles the administrative stuff and the team actually

00:17:15.570 --> 00:17:17.040 has more time to be human with them.

00:17:17.130 --> 00:17:20.220 So does it have to be the most personalized message? I don't know.

00:17:20.280 --> 00:17:24.570 I think if you just automate kind of the admin part, then you make the rest of that

00:17:24.600 --> 00:17:29.730 experience that memorable, "I love this place" type thing. You know what I mean?

00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:35.940 I feel like I'm getting you because what you're alluding to here is that we

00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.660 might be overthinking personalization over convenience, right?

00:17:42.676 --> 00:17:43.170 Yeah.

00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:49.455 When you were giving that example, the reason why I was smiling is because I

00:17:49.500 --> 00:17:52.665 have a five-year-old GSD mix. And

00:17:54.584 --> 00:17:56.190 I am in the process of,

00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:03.615 we're going through some things on his health side, and that just

00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:06.750 made me smile because that's a complete real example.

00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:10.515 And I would've loved some reminders. I don't mind if it was-...

00:18:10.830 --> 00:18:15.121 super personalized, "Hey, Don, hope you're doing good," blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:19.554 The unnecessary details are not the Crux of it.

00:18:19.794 --> 00:18:24.475 It's letting me know, okay, here's your reminder. Are you able to make it?

00:18:24.954 --> 00:18:27.624 Simple things like that would've been really nice.

00:18:28.194 --> 00:18:29.184 Mm-hmm.

00:18:29.725 --> 00:18:31.854 It's the client journey that you mentioned.

00:18:31.944 --> 00:18:37.854 So I'm also curious as to, we're looking at areas where the experience drops

00:18:37.975 --> 00:18:38.709 after hours.

00:18:39.984 --> 00:18:43.914 Can you give us a metric, we love metrics, right?

00:18:45.774 --> 00:18:50.004 A real metric to track. What is the first metric you would suggest to track,

00:18:50.064 --> 00:18:54.624 really, during the process of going through and checking out, and mapping out the

00:18:54.654 --> 00:18:55.644 whole client journey?

00:18:57.774 --> 00:19:03.279 Man, there's a lot. The first ones come to mind are incoming call volume, missed

00:19:03.414 --> 00:19:06.894 and abandoned calls, number of appointments booked online,

00:19:08.394 --> 00:19:14.034 the percentage of them that are booked after hours, no-show and cancellation rates.

00:19:14.515 --> 00:19:17.634 Probably forward booking is a really important one a lot of people are focused on

00:19:17.664 --> 00:19:18.475 right now.

00:19:19.734 --> 00:19:22.284 Staff time that is spent per booking.

00:19:22.344 --> 00:19:25.104 So like the booking process, whether somebody calls in or whatever it is.

00:19:25.614 --> 00:19:30.054 How much time is a person required to put in to do that thing, to make that thing

00:19:30.084 --> 00:19:30.384 happen?

00:19:32.904 --> 00:19:38.064 Overdue client conversion. Production. I mean, production tied to everything.

00:19:38.814 --> 00:19:43.464 What production are you creating based on, just in general, and per provider,

00:19:44.874 --> 00:19:50.259 per marketing channel. So if you're using, for instance, you've got a website,

00:19:50.334 --> 00:19:53.694 you've also got a Google business listing, Facebook, and you might be running some

00:19:53.784 --> 00:19:55.614 ads or doing some social media, right?

00:19:56.964 --> 00:20:00.204 Each of those individually should be tracked so you know how much production, not

00:20:00.265 --> 00:20:03.009 just how many appointments. A lot of people track appointments and click-throughs

00:20:03.024 --> 00:20:05.304 and all that type of stuff. That's what you get from a marketing company.

00:20:05.334 --> 00:20:08.904 What you usually can't get, unless you have a really sophisticated system, is the

00:20:09.024 --> 00:20:13.794 actual production numbers that came from all of those appointments booked.

00:20:13.884 --> 00:20:16.254 Like directly out of the practice management system.

00:20:16.314 --> 00:20:20.544 Like, okay, we booked 10 appointments through this ad online, but how many showed

00:20:20.634 --> 00:20:24.159 up? How many canceled or rescheduled? What was the production?

00:20:24.204 --> 00:20:25.794 Was it just for the promo that we were doing?

00:20:25.854 --> 00:20:28.134 Did they turn into a client and now we have them booked for the future?

00:20:28.194 --> 00:20:28.494 You know what I mean?

00:20:29.694 --> 00:20:32.424 There's the base level and there's a little more extended. I don't know.

00:20:32.904 --> 00:20:33.954 Does that answer your question?

00:20:35.094 --> 00:20:40.449 Yeah, that did. Can you please elaborate a little bit more on forward booking and

00:20:40.524 --> 00:20:41.904 why that is so important?

00:20:42.504 --> 00:20:44.964 Oh, yeah. So my background's all in human dentistry.

00:20:45.024 --> 00:20:47.604 I've been in veterinary, I told you this last time we met, but I've been in

00:20:47.634 --> 00:20:49.734 veterinary for the last three years.

00:20:49.794 --> 00:20:54.475 But the company that I work with is sort of the spiritual successor to one that we

00:20:54.504 --> 00:20:56.574 took to market in dentistry 10 years ago, right?

00:20:57.144 --> 00:21:03.054 And think about yourself, your own experience going to a dental practice.

00:21:03.204 --> 00:21:06.174 You never, ever leave the practice without them booking your next appointment.

00:21:06.475 --> 00:21:09.714 Even if you're not sure what time and day, is that going to work?

00:21:09.744 --> 00:21:12.864 And you just pick one because they're like, "Well, we'll just pick one.

00:21:12.894 --> 00:21:14.199 If you need to change it, let us know.

00:21:14.214 --> 00:21:17.169 We'll follow up." But you get that appointment booked, right?

00:21:17.274 --> 00:21:20.244 That is something that veterinary practices really, really struggle with.

00:21:21.414 --> 00:21:25.015 I believe this is completely a hypothesis of mine.

00:21:25.344 --> 00:21:31.148 I'm sure I'm not unique in this, but my theory on this is that about 50% of

00:21:31.194 --> 00:21:34.434 people that are in the veterinary world are in the veterinary world because they

00:21:34.464 --> 00:21:37.194 don't like people as much as they like animals, right?

00:21:37.254 --> 00:21:43.058 So they feel awkward sometimes when you're asking for a commitment to something

00:21:43.074 --> 00:21:46.058 that like, "Hey, you're here for this, this, this," and all you got to do is say,

00:21:46.104 --> 00:21:48.638 like, "Hey, when do we want to get my dog's, Rocket, when do you want to get

00:21:48.684 --> 00:21:52.704 Rocket's next appointment booked?" But practices feel weird doing that because they

00:21:52.734 --> 00:21:55.704 feel like it's a salesy type thing that they're doing, right?

00:21:55.734 --> 00:21:57.534 They're asking, they're putting the person out.

00:21:57.894 --> 00:22:02.679 The reality is these clients expect this, like I said, from their doctor, or I

00:22:02.694 --> 00:22:04.734 should say, from their dentist, who they know they're going to come back in for.

00:22:05.094 --> 00:22:09.294 It's the exact same thing. And dentistry derives a huge portion, if I remember

00:22:09.384 --> 00:22:13.164 correctly, it's between 40% and 60%, depending on the practice, of all of their

00:22:13.194 --> 00:22:16.015 revenue comes from forward booking their repeat clients.

00:22:16.374 --> 00:22:21.444 So it's just a huge missed opportunity for veterinarians if they have the data to

00:22:21.504 --> 00:22:22.899 know who to ask that for. You know what I mean?

00:22:24.204 --> 00:22:28.584 Is it a tough ask and is it more so even a tough follow-up?

00:22:28.704 --> 00:22:34.164 Do pet parents actually stick to the next

00:22:34.225 --> 00:22:37.134 appointment when the time comes too?

00:22:37.644 --> 00:22:40.734 For the most part, yeah. So if you get somebody forward booked, again, the majority

00:22:40.794 --> 00:22:45.354 of the time, they're going to either show up for their appointment as intended or

00:22:45.504 --> 00:22:47.004 they will reach out and reschedule it.

00:22:48.084 --> 00:22:52.464 It's a lot more rare than people think it would be that they just no-show or

00:22:52.494 --> 00:22:55.015 cancel, even just cancel, but no-show in particular.

00:22:56.725 --> 00:23:02.649 What I generally recommend, what we have seen a bunch over the last 10, 15 years

00:23:02.694 --> 00:23:06.654 in multiple companies is if you automate those reminders, and again, I'm going to

00:23:06.684 --> 00:23:08.334 go back to online booking again, right?

00:23:08.364 --> 00:23:12.369 But you automate what we call the recall, which is like, "Hey, Joe, it's been about

00:23:12.414 --> 00:23:15.804 a year since we've seen Rocket. Let's get him in for his next appointment." And you

00:23:15.864 --> 00:23:18.054 include that online booking link.

00:23:18.174 --> 00:23:20.994 Even better if you have a system that when you click on that, it pre-fills all your

00:23:21.024 --> 00:23:24.654 information. So it's literally click the link, click the time and date that you

00:23:24.714 --> 00:23:27.624 want, and it's done, right? Nobody's actually had to do anything.

00:23:27.654 --> 00:23:28.975 The front desk doesn't even have to ask them.

00:23:29.424 --> 00:23:32.619 But I think it's good practice to ask everybody before they leave the practice,

00:23:32.649 --> 00:23:35.454 "Hey, let's get this set up," and then you're just kicking like whatever your

00:23:35.468 --> 00:23:40.404 normal cadence of reminders is. But yeah, we typically see online bookings.

00:23:40.854 --> 00:23:45.189 I should say, when a practice implements online booking, their no-show and

00:23:45.204 --> 00:23:48.564 cancellation rate typically drops by about 11% on average.

00:23:49.015 --> 00:23:51.189 So it's the same thing when you have somebody forward book.

00:23:51.234 --> 00:23:54.084 They're able to pick a time that works for their schedule, even if it's really far

00:23:54.144 --> 00:23:56.814 off and they need to reschedule, they're able to do that beforehand because it's

00:23:56.844 --> 00:23:58.284 already on the books. They're already expecting it.

00:23:58.314 --> 00:24:04.225 Yeah. It's much more easier compared to getting them to book it

00:24:05.544 --> 00:24:10.284 fresh or else waiting until there's a problem with their pet-

00:24:10.434 --> 00:24:10.689 Yeah

00:24:10.689 --> 00:24:14.124 ... to get it booked as well. So understandable.

00:24:14.154 --> 00:24:17.949 Because at the end of the day, we are always striving for the best outcome for the

00:24:17.949 --> 00:24:20.004 pet and that is a sustainable

00:24:21.294 --> 00:24:27.234 sort of care treatment plan. And accordingly it would be really nice to

00:24:27.324 --> 00:24:28.765 have the scheduling

00:24:30.144 --> 00:24:31.044 go in parallel.

00:24:31.644 --> 00:24:31.719 Yeah.

00:24:33.144 --> 00:24:33.384 Joe,

00:24:34.794 --> 00:24:38.664 what should happen during the first 30 days of such an implementation?

00:24:39.834 --> 00:24:40.494 Should happen.

00:24:41.544 --> 00:24:42.354 Do you mean like for-

00:24:43.194 --> 00:24:43.358 Online booking

00:24:43.358 --> 00:24:45.384 ... communications, the online booking and all that type of stuff?

00:24:45.475 --> 00:24:45.744 Yeah.

00:24:47.843 --> 00:24:53.559 Well, in my experience, you will know within 24 hours if you like it or not.

00:24:53.664 --> 00:24:59.529 And also in my experience, close to 100% of practices wind up loving

00:24:59.544 --> 00:25:05.094 it. But what you should expect in the first 30 days, you want to

00:25:05.544 --> 00:25:07.463 test it yourself. You want to make sure that it's working.

00:25:07.494 --> 00:25:11.484 You want to solicit feedback from your clients, whether it's verbal or written,

00:25:11.634 --> 00:25:14.934 just like as people are coming in, "Hey, if you saw that they booked online, did

00:25:14.964 --> 00:25:16.404 you like our online booking experience?

00:25:16.734 --> 00:25:18.518 Was there anything that you felt we could have done better?"

00:25:19.914 --> 00:25:22.719 You figure if you're doing online booking, you also want to have digital forms that

00:25:22.765 --> 00:25:25.704 go out with it. You want to have those go out automatically in the confirmations.

00:25:25.765 --> 00:25:29.034 You want to have reminders go out, and all of that needs to talk to one another.

00:25:29.094 --> 00:25:31.434 So you also want to track all those metrics we were talking about.

00:25:31.704 --> 00:25:35.934 How many times is this happening? What is the actual conversion?

00:25:35.994 --> 00:25:39.415 Are people showing up or rescheduling or canceling or no-showing?

00:25:41.034 --> 00:25:41.904 What is the

00:25:43.704 --> 00:25:47.665 actual production that we're generating from this?

00:25:49.674 --> 00:25:55.495 And probably gauge the practice's opinion on it

00:25:55.554 --> 00:25:58.299 too. Meaning like the people that work there that are doing it, right?

00:25:58.314 --> 00:26:03.715 Like ask the team members, is there anything that you want to adjust?

00:26:04.014 --> 00:26:08.034 Maybe we thought it was going to do this and oh, it turns out maybe we want to

00:26:08.064 --> 00:26:10.614 start slow. We only did nail trims online and that was it.

00:26:10.674 --> 00:26:15.249 But now, hey, we see that it works. Maybe we want to bring in new client exams and

00:26:15.324 --> 00:26:17.874 wellness exams and things like that.

00:26:19.254 --> 00:26:22.209 What else? Let me see. First 30 days, you want to check all your metrics, you want

00:26:22.225 --> 00:26:23.995 to make sure it's all working.

00:26:25.584 --> 00:26:28.584 And yeah, I think you just probably want to see what the increases are.

00:26:28.915 --> 00:26:34.359 In general, when a practice turns on online booking, their conversion from any

00:26:34.404 --> 00:26:39.174 place where they're being found by clients will typically go up by 35% to 70%.

00:26:39.219 --> 00:26:42.429 And it varies depending on things like your demographic and where you're located

00:26:42.475 --> 00:26:45.984 and how easily are you found online.

00:26:46.014 --> 00:26:50.620 But whatever channels you exist on that people are finding you now, you should see

00:26:50.814 --> 00:26:54.459 a jump in conversion, more people booking from them the minute that you've...

00:26:54.504 --> 00:26:58.764 Maybe not the minute, but sometimes it's overnight, you'll see more people booking

00:26:58.794 --> 00:27:00.355 through those channels. Do you know what I mean?

00:27:01.014 --> 00:27:05.725 So I would say probably just making sure that everybody's happy, that it's working

00:27:05.784 --> 00:27:09.730 well, and tracking what the differences are between one and the other.

00:27:10.884 --> 00:27:14.754 Nice. Joe, let's look a bit ahead, right?

00:27:15.415 --> 00:27:19.225 What do you think successful veterinary practices will do differently over the next

00:27:19.254 --> 00:27:24.024 few years when it comes to tech, client engagement, and operational efficiency?

00:27:25.524 --> 00:27:30.954 Calling back to the first question, without question, consolidating around

00:27:31.014 --> 00:27:33.864 workflows rather than like feature lists, right?

00:27:33.894 --> 00:27:36.788 The winners are not necessarily the ones with the most technology.

00:27:36.804 --> 00:27:40.165 They just have the least operational fragmentation.

00:27:42.069 --> 00:27:47.334 Making access available 24/7 critically without making staff available 24/7.

00:27:47.394 --> 00:27:50.574 So clients being able to schedule, submit information, receive answers,

00:27:51.804 --> 00:27:56.634 take that kind of next step after hours without requiring somebody to have their

00:27:56.694 --> 00:27:59.364 cell phone, like taking phone calls all day long.

00:28:00.654 --> 00:28:05.230 Turning operating roles into digital infrastructure.

00:28:05.334 --> 00:28:09.939 So when you're, for instance, choosing the system that you want to use for these

00:28:09.954 --> 00:28:13.868 type of things or if you're evaluating adding something else onto it, making sure

00:28:13.884 --> 00:28:18.594 that the practice's unique booking logic and communication standards and client

00:28:18.624 --> 00:28:23.694 journey and all that, won't just live in the head of one like head CSR office

00:28:23.784 --> 00:28:25.794 manager. It's built in systematically.

00:28:29.394 --> 00:28:32.004 Probably measuring like revenue around

00:28:33.654 --> 00:28:36.415 all the things that we had already talked about, but probably measuring it better,

00:28:36.534 --> 00:28:40.029 not just like vanity metrics, but like not how many texts did we send, but how many

00:28:40.074 --> 00:28:43.629 appointments resulted? What's our ROI? Where's our unused capacity?

00:28:44.934 --> 00:28:49.809 What marketing sources produce the most tangible results for us?

00:28:49.855 --> 00:28:53.334 Like that type of stuff. And I think the one other really big thing that probably

00:28:53.364 --> 00:28:59.049 more applies to groups rather than like individual practices is just consistency,

00:29:00.924 --> 00:29:06.415 around centralizing data and reporting and controls and standards, but preserving

00:29:06.475 --> 00:29:08.725 the individual location level differences.

00:29:08.754 --> 00:29:13.554 That's something we see all the time with enterprise practices where it's like they

00:29:13.584 --> 00:29:16.179 might be trying to consolidate on one practice management system,

00:29:17.394 --> 00:29:22.644 but that's a huge undertaking. So maybe it's better to consolidate the workflows

00:29:22.704 --> 00:29:26.064 regardless of practice management systems to create a consistent client experience

00:29:26.424 --> 00:29:30.475 and expectation that when a client, a pet parent goes to one practice versus the

00:29:30.504 --> 00:29:33.564 other versus a third one in the same network, that they're getting that same

00:29:33.624 --> 00:29:37.374 consistent experience, which is a familiarity thing that makes people come back.

00:29:37.404 --> 00:29:37.764 You know what I mean?

00:29:38.934 --> 00:29:41.245 As well as it's really amazing for staff as well.

00:29:41.304 --> 00:29:45.534 You can be moved from one location to the other depending on the need.

00:29:46.105 --> 00:29:47.364 Exactly.

00:29:47.424 --> 00:29:51.114 It's just plug and play at that point.

00:29:51.174 --> 00:29:55.614 Exactly. Yeah. So I think it's, I don't know, it's not about like digitizing one

00:29:55.644 --> 00:29:57.834 more task. It's more about connecting the entire client journey.

00:29:57.864 --> 00:30:01.495 And like I said, being able to provide that better experience for them because so

00:30:01.524 --> 00:30:04.314 much of that minutia is already handled, you know?

00:30:05.274 --> 00:30:07.855 It's a beautiful thought, really.

00:30:07.975 --> 00:30:08.215 I mean

00:30:09.850 --> 00:30:10.824 Beautiful in theory, right?

00:30:12.174 --> 00:30:15.174 Absolutely. Just smooth as butter.

00:30:15.294 --> 00:30:19.105 You just show up on your PIMs and maybe there is like already the marketing metrics

00:30:19.134 --> 00:30:23.725 are already plugged in. Good to go. That'll be the day.

00:30:23.769 --> 00:30:23.769 Yeah.

00:30:23.784 --> 00:30:25.194 That'll be the day.

00:30:26.424 --> 00:30:31.284 One other thing, so which practice habit do you think will become outdated first?

00:30:34.374 --> 00:30:39.834 Oh, man. I don't know. I talked to a practice — I met a practice one time and I

00:30:39.893 --> 00:30:41.303 called them to follow up with them.

00:30:42.204 --> 00:30:45.324 The doctor asked me, "Hey, call me next week and I want to talk about X, Y, and Z."

00:30:45.924 --> 00:30:49.194 And it was a rural practice in Montana.

00:30:49.734 --> 00:30:51.158 And on their voicemail

00:30:52.434 --> 00:30:57.429 it said, "Press one for," I don't know, "front desk, two for something else.

00:30:57.730 --> 00:31:01.779 And if you have a rotary phone, please call us back during business hours." Right?

00:31:01.824 --> 00:31:07.269 Now, I haven't even heard the term rotary phone in 20 years, so it's hard to say

00:31:07.284 --> 00:31:10.929 because it depends on the practice themselves and what demographic.

00:31:11.304 --> 00:31:15.475 One of the funny things about the dentistry world, human dentistry, that has not

00:31:15.534 --> 00:31:20.094 happened yet in veterinary, is dentistry had HIPAA go into effect back in like

00:31:20.245 --> 00:31:25.824 2013 or something like that. So by law, all practices had to

00:31:25.884 --> 00:31:29.634 digitize all their records, had to standardize what they were doing, and adopt

00:31:29.649 --> 00:31:31.179 these universal

00:31:32.394 --> 00:31:34.524 treatment codes or procedure codes, whatever they call them.

00:31:34.554 --> 00:31:40.029 So it was like everybody had to finally update past Windows XP and update to having

00:31:40.044 --> 00:31:44.154 their files digitized instead of paper. Veterinary has not had that yet.

00:31:44.245 --> 00:31:47.904 So there are still practices that operate off of paper.

00:31:48.564 --> 00:31:52.193 What do I think is probably the first one to die off?

00:31:53.844 --> 00:31:57.144 I hope it's the lack of adoption of new technology,

00:31:58.915 --> 00:32:00.984 but I really can't say, man. I don't know.

00:32:01.074 --> 00:32:06.924 I hope it's just more of an open mind and I hope it's like that reticence to talk

00:32:07.014 --> 00:32:07.254 about

00:32:08.484 --> 00:32:09.475 change management,

00:32:11.124 --> 00:32:13.120 but yeah, I'm not sure that that's realistic.

00:32:14.154 --> 00:32:19.824 I love the example you gave and that just speaks volumes as to the kind

00:32:19.855 --> 00:32:23.949 of flexibility we need when thinking about these things, right?

00:32:24.084 --> 00:32:28.404 Actually, you know what's funny? I'll give you the opposite.

00:32:28.554 --> 00:32:33.624 Instead of what I think is going to die off, something that is a revelation to me

00:32:33.715 --> 00:32:35.605 and the people I work with as of recently.

00:32:36.084 --> 00:32:39.504 I thought that postcards were dead, like completely dead.

00:32:39.624 --> 00:32:43.029 We are a technology company. We do online booking, client communications,

00:32:43.044 --> 00:32:46.899 reporting, analytics, metrics, reviews, like everything you could possibly want,

00:32:46.975 --> 00:32:52.434 right? We had like three practices that were asking for postcards and we were like,

00:32:52.465 --> 00:32:57.623 "All right, fine, we'll build postcards." I am not joking when I say that we have

00:32:57.699 --> 00:33:02.634 seen upwards of 40% conversion on postcard reminders.

00:33:03.324 --> 00:33:08.484 So absolutely mind-blowing. I was thoroughly against the idea of doing this.

00:33:08.574 --> 00:33:11.965 As a company, I did not want to do this, but we're seeing crazy results with it.

00:33:12.024 --> 00:33:15.594 And it's not necessarily that every single client is getting a postcard reminder.

00:33:15.684 --> 00:33:20.124 This is more of a last ditch, like if they haven't responded to your four text

00:33:20.215 --> 00:33:25.090 messages, your three emails, if they're not responsive to other things, postcards

00:33:25.134 --> 00:33:28.225 are actually working again. It's the wildest thing I've ever seen.

00:33:28.284 --> 00:33:32.605 So kind of the opposite of what you asked, but I think it's notable and very funny.

00:33:33.264 --> 00:33:34.584 Postcards are coming back in style.

00:33:37.254 --> 00:33:38.245 It's different.

00:33:40.225 --> 00:33:42.864 Yeah, I know. It's like you can't believe it, right? I'm telling you.

00:33:42.954 --> 00:33:43.884 So here's what happens.

00:33:44.544 --> 00:33:48.100 When you mentioned postcards, I was thinking, okay, postcards, sending them like a

00:33:48.444 --> 00:33:50.783 birthday reminder or something like that. That's sweet.

00:33:51.114 --> 00:33:55.600 That'll give a practice like that next level loyalty perhaps.

00:33:55.614 --> 00:33:58.809 But then you mentioned reminders and I was a bit blown away like.

00:33:58.884 --> 00:34:02.199 I can read it on your face. I'm telling you. So picture this.

00:34:03.144 --> 00:34:07.329 Back before the internet, for those of us listening that are old enough to remember

00:34:07.374 --> 00:34:12.564 that time, there was only what we refer to now as snail mail through the post

00:34:12.654 --> 00:34:16.344 office, right? And you would get all this junk mail and it was just a pain.

00:34:16.374 --> 00:34:21.564 So then the AOL comes along, the internet and email, and suddenly it's exciting to

00:34:21.624 --> 00:34:24.790 get an email. That's like, "Oh my gosh, like an email," whatever.

00:34:24.804 --> 00:34:28.915 Well, what happens 10 years later? Well, email it's all junk mail.

00:34:28.975 --> 00:34:32.064 Who checks their email, right? So now we move on to text messages.

00:34:32.214 --> 00:34:34.734 Text messages have a much higher open rate these days, right?

00:34:34.765 --> 00:34:38.694 The young kids, everybody wants text messages. What are you getting nowadays?

00:34:38.814 --> 00:34:44.064 Right now, today, I get multiple spam texts on an almost, if not daily basis,

00:34:44.544 --> 00:34:48.624 right? So now we've actually Mario'd it, gone so far one way to come back around to

00:34:48.654 --> 00:34:52.659 the front and postcards, it's like an exciting thing to get a real piece of mail

00:34:52.704 --> 00:34:56.469 again that's actually useful. So that's again, kind of a theory, but that's what I

00:34:56.484 --> 00:34:58.659 think has happened here. And I'm telling you, man, I was blown away.

00:34:58.674 --> 00:35:01.734 But we are seeing a ton of success with postcard reminders.

00:35:03.429 --> 00:35:08.334 That's so amazing. And that's a great place to wrap it up because novelty, it can

00:35:08.364 --> 00:35:14.034 come in many different ways. Even postcards are now a novelty in our

00:35:14.064 --> 00:35:20.004 context of this world drowning in AI.

00:35:20.964 --> 00:35:21.563 Exactly.

00:35:23.514 --> 00:35:26.514 Joe, where can our listeners find you and the work you do?

00:35:28.344 --> 00:35:30.339 Online, I work with a company called Checkvet.

00:35:30.414 --> 00:35:31.914 Does all the stuff we've been talking about.

00:35:32.034 --> 00:35:36.984 Online booking, communications, reviews, client portal, analytics, all these

00:35:37.014 --> 00:35:41.694 different things. It's checkvet.com, C-H-C-K-V-E-T.com.

00:35:42.324 --> 00:35:45.954 We're also all over social media. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram under Chicago

00:35:45.984 --> 00:35:48.744 Rockstar. Feel free to add me on any of those things.

00:35:48.775 --> 00:35:51.474 But yeah, if anybody wants to talk about Checkvet, I'd be more than happy to set

00:35:51.504 --> 00:35:52.883 you up with an eight-minute demo.

00:35:52.974 --> 00:35:55.224 Wonderful. Thank you very much, Joe Chiarillo.

00:35:56.034 --> 00:35:57.894 Thank you, sir. Appreciate you having me on again.

00:35:57.984 --> 00:36:01.719 That was Joe Chiarillo on building a more connected veterinary client journey.

00:36:02.514 --> 00:36:06.714 Remember, veterinary practice owners can book a complimentary marketing strategy

00:36:06.775 --> 00:36:12.234 meeting with Echo Marketing to identify opportunities to strengthen their online

00:36:12.264 --> 00:36:15.775 visibility and create more consistent practice growth.

00:36:16.674 --> 00:36:17.874 Reserve your session at

00:36:17.964 --> 00:36:22.944 veterinarybusinessinstitute.com/msm.

00:36:23.244 --> 00:36:25.419 I'll repeat that one last time,

00:36:25.419 --> 00:36:30.984 veterinarybusinessinstitute.com/msm.

00:36:31.074 --> 00:36:36.114 MSM for marketing strategy meeting. I'm your host, Dan Ndisha.

00:36:36.204 --> 00:36:38.934 This has been the Veterinary Business Podcast.

00:36:38.994 --> 00:36:41.034 Thanks for listening and keep on leading.