Excelling in Customer Service
Kathy Hennen, River Valley Veterinary Service 
Prior Lake, MN
"Our clinic's on a highway with three veterinary clinics within 10 miles of each other, so we try to be different," explains Kathy Hennen, practice manager of River Valley Veterinary Service, located in Prior Lake, MN, an affluent, fast-growing area about 25 miles south of Minneapolis and just steps away from the Mystic Lake Casino.
"We really like to do customer service--the 'fluff' is what we call it," says Kathy, outlining her strategy for staying ahead of the competition. "If there's something cutting edge, we want to do it. Especially if it's user friendly!"
It was a rave review from a member of a practice management group to which she belongs that inspired Kathy to start up with Vetstreet. "I had been interested in Vetstreet for a while," she recalls. "Hearing about it at a meeting just made me jump to the other side [and sign up]. I decided to bring it into our clinic."
Kathy knew from her own experience that her clients would appreciate having an easy way to access their pets' information at any time of the day or night. "That's something I can really relate to. I'm an online kind of person. I shop and bank online."
Getting started with Vetstreet was easy for Kathy and her team. "Our front staff is very computer friendly. They all really like email and things like that. So they were very easy to get on board. They thought it was cool!"
Benefits were immediate. For one thing, having clients send questions and requests via their Pet Portals is "very efficient," says Kathy. "The client knows she won't get an instant response, but she knows [her message] will be handled within 24 hours."
Another plus for Kathy has been the automatic email reminders included in the Vetstreet service. She especially appreciates the email notification she receives when the reminders are sent."It's fun to know that a batch of email reminders went out, and then see the requests for appointments start coming in shortly afterwards!"
Taking care of the requests and messages that clients send via their Pet Portals is fast and easy--so much so, that Kathy finds herself still in charge of this task--somewhat to her own surprise!
"I enjoy checking the Vet Portal, and the rest of my staff is busy doing other things," explains Kathy. "I check it twice a day. It takes five to ten minutes at the most, each day. It's just become part of my routine!"
Thanks to Vetstreet, more clients now visit the clinic's website on a regular basis. "Vetstreet drives more traffic to our website, which in turn pushes us to update our website, and that's always a good thing!" says Kathy.
"[Vetstreet] gives us a definite advantage over our neighboring veterinary clinics," is Kathy's advice to other practices looking to stand out from the crowd. "It's great, it's easy to manage, and our clients tell us they love it."