Thank-you VetBilling!!!!
We have been utilizing VetBilling in the veterinary practice I manage for about 3 years. Initially, we were concerned that if we marketed our willingness to offer payment plans we would attract clients with limited financial resources from near and far. We hesitated for 2 years to market our partnership with VetBilling due to this fear. In 2019, we felt we needed to offer payment plans to a wider spectrum of our client base to see if we could improve compliance, particularly with regard to dental health. We also began marketing Pet Health Savings Accounts through VetBilling, hoping to see more clients set aside funds for future veterinary care.
We have noted a couple of interesting trends in 2019, and we heavily attribute our partnership with VetBilling to these trends.
First, we have noted a positive shift in our reviews since we began offering VetBilling. Our reviewers are mentioning that we are not about the money, that we work with their budget, and that we were able to offer help when they had been turned away by other practices. We’ve had clients burst into tears of relief when we have extended a VetBilling payment plan to them! Even in instances when we’ve haven’t been able to extend a VetBilling payment plan, clients have been thankful for the efforts we made to find financing and negative on-line reviews have become very rare. (To date, we have NO defaults on the payment plans we have in place!)
Second, we have increased our dental compliance by just over 25% from 2018. And not one single dental client has utilized a payment plan. . . . Not one!
As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know, until you show how much you care.” And if we can’t care for the client (and their financial needs), we’ll always be limited in our ability to provide care for their pets.
Has this created more work for my team? Yes. Is my team happier because they have multiple tools to reach for when a financial discussion begins? Yes. Have we eliminated outraged clients? No, but we have dramatically reduced the number of them! And that means my team isn’t berated or belittled in person or on-line, and that has had a significant impact on the level of stress we have to manage. Our time is spent proactively working with clients instead of reacting to their anger and disappointment. AND our practice has experienced double digit revenue growth!!!!!
If you manage or own a veterinary practice, I cannot emphasize enough how beneficial we have found partnering with VetBilling to be for us and our practice. Ease of use, zero cost to the practice (REALLY!), and stellar customer service that has aligned so well with our practice’s values made this partnership an extremely simple business decision.
