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How 2 Real-World Practices Increased Efficiency with PetDesk

Published on 1/12/23

 

 

 

 

For most practices, increasing efficiency is always on their list of New Year’s resolutions. Practices are dynamic and complicated, so it’s easy to get overwhelmed and bogged down. 

If efficiency is on your list of resolutions for 2023, check out these two case studies from our service partners at PetDesk. Thousands of veterinary practices use PetDesk to assist their staff, expand their businesses, and guide clients toward better care. All for a less stressful, more successful practice. 

Interested in streamlining your communication and practice functions with PetDesk? We’ve partnered with them to help get your practice set up with a demo. Click here to schedule.

 

 

Case Study 1: Time Savings at East Padden Animal Hospital

How this rapidly growing hospital increased front desk efficiency and saved time.

 

Let’s set the scene:

In 2014, East Padden Animal Hospital in Vancouver, WA was a smaller practice that saw 7,607 appointments per year. In 2018, they saw 19,352 appointments, an increase of 154% over 4 years. Normally, a practice experiencing that growth will encounter significant growing pains as they add capacity to their facility, hire brand new staff members at every level, and engage with their clients on a larger scale.   

 

Their problem? A huge volume of phone calls threatened client experience as their practice rapidly grew.

Dr. Tracy Thompson, East Padden’s owner, was committed to pet health and her clients’ experience. Her plan focused on delivering care by upgrading her facilities and hiring 6 veterinarians and 40 support staff over the four years. But thinking about both her clients’ experience and her employee’s efficiency, Dr. Tracy knew that her practice would need more than just the phone and automated emails to support her future hospital. 

 

How did PetDesk help? It used a simple yet effective technology to streamline client communication. 

The clinic team came to understand, over the course of their four years with PetDesk, that if they trained their clients to use the app and respond to digital confirmations, they could make their front desk’s time more productive and keep their clients satisfied.

For the clinic, PetDesk acts as a critical tool for client communication in the practice. Not only does it automate confirmations and health service reminders, it provides clients a channel for appointment requests that doesn’t require a phone call, is not dependent on open hours, and - most importantly 
- is simple to use for the front desk team and clients.

 

Finally! Relief for the front desk and dozens of hours of phone time eliminated.

As the hospital grew, the PetDesk’s benefits increased at the same speed -- all while the price stayed the same. 

On average, East Padden receives 216 appointment requests and 803 appointment confirmations per month through PetDesk. Using East Padden’s own estimation, that translates into a total time savings of 72.3 hours per month, or approximately 8 hours of time savings per CSR. Staff savings totals $867.60 in payroll every month. 

From the point of view of the front desk manager, PetDesk is like a “part-time receptionist” and “grows with us.”

 

Case Study Highlights: 
-    72.3 hours saved per month
-    216 PetDesk appointment requests per month
-    803 PetDesk appointment confirmations per month

 

 

Case Study 2: PetDesk Texting Saves Time at Care-Pets Animal Hospital 

How a practice saved their team time by switching manual callbacks and confirmations to text.


Let’s set the scene:

Care-Pets Animal Hospital, located in Sellersburg, Indiana, is a mixed animal veterinary practice offering a variety of services including diagnostics, surgery, dentistry, and laser therapy. With so much activity happening at the hospital on a day-to-day basis, Care-Pets needed a partner that could provide time-saving relief for their staff and increase their efficiency so that they could provide exceptional care for clients and their pets. 

 

Their problem? More phone calls meant leaving and receiving more voicemails, which rarely got returned.

Like many veterinary practices, Care-Pets relied on phone calls as their primary method of communication with their clients to relay information such as pet health information updates, appointment reminders and confirmations, and test results. Of these phone calls, more than 70% went straight to voicemail, with very few callbacks from clients. 

Upon learning about PetDesk, Care-Pets’ longtime Practice Manager, Todd, found that PetDesk’s mobile app and PetDesk Texting capability could bring significant positive changes to his practice in how they communicate with clients. For one, the mobile app would offer Care-Pet clients access to their pets’ health records instantly, and the PetDesk Texting capability would allow his staff to replace outbound phone calls and help eliminate unreturned voicemails. 

 

“PetDesk Texting has saved our team so much time for callbacks and confirmations!” 
- Todd, Practice Manager

 

How did PetDesk help? It facilitated PetDesk Texting to manage most communication, which meant less time on the phone and more messages returned.

Just as COVID-19 impacted the U.S., the Care-Pets staff received a speedy, customized training session with the PetDesk team, and the practice was up and running. “The setup process was easy as pie!” said Angel, Lead Veterinary Technician at Care-Pets. 

As the practice adapted to curbside appointments, the entire staff used PetDesk Texting to manage their call volume with the easy-to-use tool. 

 

The best part? With multiple hours of time-savings each month, they saw a significant ROI.

Before PetDesk was implemented, only 30% of phone calls reached clients without having to leave a voicemail. Now, with PetDesk’s mobile app and PetDesk Texting capability, about 80% of texts are answered by clients within minutes. What’s more is that the Care-Pets staff estimates PetDesk Texting alone saves at least two hours every day for a total of 12 hours per week. 

Automated communication for appointment reminders and confirmations via text and email have also saved the staff time and helped provide better care for their clients’ pets. In just one month, the Care-Pets team saved an astounding 19 hours! 

Within just the first seven months of using PetDesk, these significant time-savings capabilities generated a total of $163,260 incremental revenue.

 

Case Study Highlights:
-    12 hours saved per week with PetDesk Texting
-    19 hours saved per month with automation
-    +$163k incremental revenue over 7 months
-    80% of text messages are answered by clients, often within minutes 

 


Could you relate to the problems of these two clinics? Maybe PetDesk could be the solution. To learn more about Penn Vet’s partnership with PetDesk or to sign up for a demo, click here

 

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