1. Texting builds genuine rapport with clients.
Pet owners have many options when it comes to selecting their practitioner. What will keep customers coming back to your business (besides, of course, your excellent standard of care!) are the relationships you build. Exchanging text messages with current and potential clients is a great way to rapidly establish a rapport and genuinely set yourself apart through creating personalized connections. Building these types of high quality, personal relationships is particularly critical in the current environment, where many aspects of care that were once highly engaging “face-to-face” moments with clients have moved to a contactless model of operation.
Whether you’re looking to add memorable pizazz to a fecal test result notification (“Good news, Marley’s fecal test came back negative! 💩”), or let a new client know how much their business means with an end-of-day gratitude message (“Thank you so much for visiting us today. We were so happy to meet you and Marley!”), having two-way text features like emojis and images at your fingertips makes it easy to let your personality shine, and encourages your clients to reciprocate.
2. Modern two-way text features let you keep work at work.
If exchanging “LOLs” with your clients has you thinking that perhaps two-way texting sounds a little too casual, don’t worry. While the text conversations are conducted using your phone, your personal mobile phone number is never displayed. Your practice is given a unique phone number, and that is the number that clients will always see. This will guarantee you’ll be spared from the receipt of any “Oops, that wasn’t for you!” texts, or accidental post-work butt dials.
Your personal texts and your work texts will remain separate, allowing you to fully relax and recharge for the next day.
3. Increased mobility means greater agility in adapting to new processes.
Telehealth, curbside care, contactless check-ins … COVID-19 has changed the way veterinarians do business and these new operating models demand greater mobility. You know, the kind of mobility that means you can’t be tied down to the phone cord at your front desk anymore. Two-way texting offers instant flexibility, allowing you to agilely meet the demands of rapidly evolving process changes.
You can bring your phone outside and continue customer conversations from anywhere. You can unlock valuable time by texting your clients a link to new client forms so they can fill them out (and text you back!) before they even arrive. You can increase efficiency by replacing unanswered appointment reminder voicemails with quick confirmation text messages. Plus, 64% of people prefer text over voice as a customer service channel, and the average consumer opens a text message within 90 seconds, which means texting will almost certainly decrease client no-shows. (If numbers are your thing, you can find 10 more surprising stats that will convince you to text with patients in this blog post!)
4. Visually based patient care updates increase understanding.
Many veterinary practices are switching exclusively to curbside care models, which means clients cannot physically be in the exam room while you conduct an appointment or discuss a diagnosis. Two-way texting allows you to keep your clients informed and engaged through visuals. You can snap and send multiple images, or even capture a quick video! This way, clients can save the pictures and reference them as often as needed, or send this media to other family members who may be interested in the updates.
Millennials in particular prefer to be shown information rather than told, and chances are they are a large part of your clientele. Having them be able to receive information visually through texting them multiple images of exactly what is going on with their pet (say, stuck-on plaque and swollen gums that would greatly benefit from a dental) means you can aid in client understanding, and increase treatment plan acceptance.
5. Blast out broadly applicable messages in batches.
The individualized, tailored communication that two-way texting promotes is great. But for certain messages that are broadly applicable to a large base of your clients, wouldn’t it be nice to send the same text to a large group? Some examples could include upcoming holiday hour changes, a COVID-19 service update, or a limited-time product promotion – anything you might ordinarily email, but in cases when you want to maintain that same, hyper-personalized element of texting (and take advantage of that 90-second open rate!). Client HQ’s multi-recipient feature allows you to avoid finger fatigue and easily send batched text messages all at once. You get to work smarter, while your clients get to feel valued.
6. Grow your social following and your brand’s reputation.
Since you’ll be snapping plenty of #PetPics during appointments, why not do double duty by curating exclusive content for your social media channels as well? If you capture any particularly cute moments during a pet’s visit, text the photo to the pet owner and grab their permission to share it on Facebook. This means fresh content for you, a new follower if the client wasn’t already aware of your social channels, and an all-but-guaranteed “share” of your post. Of course, if your client shares the post, that means more potential customers are being exposed to your brand.
Speaking of your brand, why not continue the “happy client cycle” by texting your loyal, satisfied clients and asking them to leave a positive review of your business? To make the process as streamlined as possible, text them a direct link to your platform of choice, be it Google Review, Yelp, or Facebook. The easier it is for them to do, the more likely they will be to follow through!
7. Texting is the method of communication preferred by your clients.
Ushering new technology like two-way texting into your practice isn’t just about the “cool factor.” And it isn’t even just about the ways it can help you and your team streamline your processes. Perhaps most importantly, it’s about doing business the way your customers want to do business. Recently, a whopping 89% of consumers have said that they prefer texting with businesses, particularly when it comes to appointments, services, and inquiries. With texting as the preferred communication channel for your clients, incorporating this service is rapidly moving from “nice-to-have” to “need-to-have” functionality.
8. Two-way texting is easier than ever to implement.
In some cases, a particular technology hasn’t progressed enough to seamlessly meet market demand. (Looking at you, flying cars.…) Thankfully, this is not the case with two-way texting. Client HQ’s two-way texting capability features a dynamic, intuitive user interface, so your technology transition can be effortless. As soon as you’re ready to activate this feature you can begin reaping the benefits of increased compliance, decreased no-shows, and improved client interactions.
Plus, Client HQ is available exclusively through Patterson’s own Market Hound, which means that the unrivaled service and support you’ve come to expect from us is included! Visit us online here, to learn more about ClientHQ and how to activate a free 30-day trial: PattersonVet.com/ClientHQ
From catering to client preference, to facilitating team flexibility, two-way texting has a lot to offer both veterinarians and their customers, and there’s never been a better time to embrace text as a customer communication channel of choice. #MessageReceived.