July 20, 2023 - Kernow Vets Messaging

On the go support: How Kernow vets messaging dedicated veterinary answering service can benefit your mobile vet practice.

As a mobile vet practice, you may struggle to manage your own calls and administration.

Mobile vets spend a considerable amount of time driving to and from appointments, and so are often physically unable to properly manage incoming calls. This is where a dedicated call-answering service can be a valuable tool for your veterinary practice.

Using our call-answering service allows you to outsource your customer service and call management. We can manage incoming calls and ensure that clients are able to receive the attention they need as quickly as possible.

Here are some ways that a telephone-answering service can assist a mobile veterinary practice:

Answering calls

If you are on the road, constantly dealing with calls and customer services can be an uphill battle. A telephone-answering service can answer incoming calls from potential and existing clients, even during out-of-hours periods or when the mobile veterinary practice is unavailable. This ensures that your customer receives the best possible customer service and have their calls answered quickly at all times. It also means you don’t have to employ an in-house reception team and your clinical staff such as vets and nurses won’t have to handle calls, allowing them to focus on their clinical tasks.

Perhaps the most important benefit of an answering service is that no incoming calls will be missed during a super-busy day, after hours, on weekends, or on holidays. On average, we answer calls within 6 seconds. Answering calls quickly and with good customer service helps to create happy customers and reduces the chance of a customer becoming irate from waiting or dealing with poor customer service. This can be a huge selling point for your mobile vet practice.

Scheduling appointments

A telephone-answering service can schedule appointments on behalf of the mobile veterinary practice, reducing the amount of time the veterinarian needs to spend on administrative tasks. Rather than you having to organise your diary while out on a call with another patient, our team can handle all diary management and appointment scheduling. This allows you to give your full attention to the animal in front of you, rather than being distracted by constant calls and requests.

We are able to provide call-handling services to all types of vet practice including equine, small animal, and farm vets. Our industry experience allows us to help our clients create detailed processes that ensure we can manage your diary just how you like it.

Handling emergencies

In the event of an emergency, a telephone-answering service can take immediate action to contact the mobile vet or refer the client to an emergency veterinary clinic. At Kernow Vets Messaging, we provide a dedicated service specifically for vet clinics, which means that our team are extremely experienced in dealing with all manner of calls for your vet practice. We have been handling veterinary calls since 1993 and have over 400 vets working with us nationwide.

Our whole team has full and regular training on handling difficult and emergency calls to ensure we get all the appropriate information from the owner as quickly as possible while still providing a calm and reassuring voice for the stressed owner.

For overnight emergencies, this also provides a buffer for vets as they get themselves awake and ready to handle the emergency.

Providing general information

A telephone-answering service can answer basic questions about the mobile veterinary practice, including hours of operation, services offered, and pricing.

We find a significant proportion of calls, including out-of-hours calls, are to ask simple questions. If a vet was handling these calls, this could take them away from far more pressing issues, including emergency calls and clinical work.

By using a call-handling service, we can answer simple questions and handle these calls, but also ensure that calls that require clinical input are prioritised as a triage system. This ensures the most pressing issues reach the vets as quickly as possible. We have tight protocols, meaning your vets receive every message and our dedicated team handles all of your calls as if they were in your practice, so no animal owners are left waiting.

Overall, a telephone-answering service can help improve the level of customer service that a mobile veterinary practice provides, while also allowing the vet team to focus on providing high-quality care to their animal patients.