Is your practice afraid of Online Booking? “Giving up control” so to speak, and letting your prospective clients book themselves? It’s time to take another look! There are now tools that let you remain in 100% control while still letting clients book themselves, and the whole process works fully automatically.

Did you know that pet owners rate “convenience” as the #1 factor in scheduling a veterinary visit?

Consider some stats:

• 81% of pet owners prefer to schedule their appointments online

• 59% of millennials would SWITCH practices for better online access

• 38% of all appointments are scheduled after hours and on weekends

• 51% of pet owners now expect digital communication, online booking, and text messaging as a standard, not a value-add (how is this so low still?)

Enabling online booking can raise your marketing conversion by anywhere from 35%-70%. If you’re generating 20 new clients/month through digital marketing currently, you could be picking up as many as 14 more, simply by giving your targeted audience an easier CTA!

Phone calls aren’t going away. However, it’s worth noting that 63% of phone calls are placed on hold at least one time, and it takes an average of 8.1 minutes to schedule over the phone.

What if all the phone tag from online appointment requests went away, and your CSRs could focus on the clients that are in the office?

What if they got an average of 8 hours a week back, equivalent to another full working day of productivity, while making their lives easier by inputting all that new client data for them?

The Checklist for Online Booking is as follows:

• Does the system integrate bi-directionally with my PIMS in real-time?

• Does the system create the client record AND write the appointment in for me, or are there manual steps required by my team?

• Is it fully customizable, and able to handle all of my unique scheduling rules?

• Does the system allow both new AND returning clients to book?

• Does the system verify the client’s contact information and match existing patients to my PIMS?

• Is there a low barrier to entry, or are there extra steps like creating an account/accessing a portal to book with me?

• Can I utilize this system across all my marketing channels (e.g. website, social media, texts & emails)?

• Can I track how many appointments are coming through each channel so I can calculate my own ROI?

Think about the last time you booked a flight online. Did you call and talk to an airline over the phone, or did you just go book it yourself on AA.com?

Is the airline is showing you everything across their entire schedule, or are they only showing you just what’s relevant to you in that moment? Do you think they consider that “giving up control,” or are they just automating the process for their team, and giving you a better user experience?

The time to adopt Online Booking is now. It’s the standard in every other industry, and only a matter of time before the veterinary space catches up. It will increase your growth and marketing conversion, save time for your CSRs, and improve the client experience dramatically.

Feel free to comment, share, or ask questions - I’ve heard them all! If you’re ready to adopt Online Booking at your practice (along with some other really helpful stuff Chckup does), give me a shout!