We've discussed transformational service companies such as Amazon.com and Uber as examples of ways to look for opportunities to serve veterinary clients in a transformational manner to solve some long-held frustrations that might exist in the veterinary industry. Amazon transformed how we buy things online, how they are delivered, and when. Uber disrupted the longstanding government-taxi union monopoly that gave us few choices in how we hired a car for a ride. The taxi unions didn't care that their drivers were unfriendly, cars were filthy, fees were expensive, and it was difficult to arrange a car unless you were at a high traffic location.
We'll explore some companies in the coming weeks that are bringing some transformational opportunities to your ability to serve your clients even better. Innovation in veterinary medicine has typically come slow and most often involves a new diagnostic or treatment modality. Few innovations have come in service areas for veterinarians.
One such company is www.Ask.Vet. (Full disclosure: I am a President/Co-Founder of Ask.Vet) Ask.Vet is a digital veterinary company that provides text-based access to veterinarians by animal owners to get answers to general questions and assurance regarding when to go see a veterinarian. The frustration Ask.Vet is solving is the lack of access for animal owners to qualified veterinarians to ask general questions so that they know what is the right thing to do for their animal. Think about how most veterinarians work. They set up barriers in the form of receptionists, answering services, and limited service hours that prevent clients from getting their questions answered. And it's expensive for an average clinic to hire additional veterinarians to be able to answer questions. Ask.Vet provides this service free to clients. If you want your clients to have rapid (within 2 to 3 minutes) access to a veterinarian for general questions, Ask.Vet will serve your clients for a small monthly fee paid by the clinic to provide this veterinarian support to your practice. And after more than 12,000 successful text conversations to date, more than 70% result in a recommendation for a clinic visit. If it's your client, they would be sent to you.
Ask.Vet also sells a new client referral service in which they allow practices to purchase highly qualified new client leads. To date, half of the clients who text the service do not have a regular veterinarian.
This type of innovation has the potential to transform how veterinarians can satisfy the 'I want it now' mentality that consumers possess today for very little added cost. At the same time, it protects veterinarians' desire to not give out their private cell number, and it helps assure that your clients won't have to incur an unnecessary visit to an emergency clinic when you're not available.
