Attracting and Keeping Clients Who Care
Tricia Eagle, Ashby Animal Clinic 
Harrisonburg, VA
With a practice located in a rural area that is also home to three universities, finding a service that would appeal to "totally Internet-based people" like the area's many professors and students was key for Tricia Eagle, practice manager at Ashby Animal Clinic in Harrisonburg, VA.
"We're trying to attract people who care about their pets, not just the ones you see every three years for their rabies shot," explains Tricia.
Tricia first heard about the Vetstreet service service while attending a meeting sponsored by IntraVet, the veterinary software company. "They really talked you up one side and down the other," Tricia recalls. At the same meeting, Tricia spoke to several practices who confirmed her positive first impression.
Still, Tricia had her concerns. "I wasn't sure our clients would even bother to use Pet Portals," she recalls. As it turns out, Tricia's clients not only use their Pet Portals, they rave about them!
Plus, "when clients get their birthday emails, they love it," says Tricia. "I had one client who got her dog his own email account so he could receive Vetstreet emails!"
Staff time was another hesitation for Tricia. "I was fearful that my employees would [feel the service is] 'one more thing we have to do,'" Tricia recalls. But she has found that using Vetstreet is "not time consuming at all you just click on [the Vet Portal] a couple of times a day."
Right from the start, Tricia and her staff saw how the service streamlines communication, enabling them to provide their clients with even better care. "Now we have people who email us, instead of calling us. This gives us time to ask the doctors, instead of just putting them in the pile. And if [the question] is something we know about, we can answer it ourselves!"
Tricia and her staff were delighted to discover the convenience of using the the mail tool in the Vet Portal to communicate among themselves at the practice. "I set everybody up with accounts in the Vet Portal. It's been a great way to send messages to the whole staff."
The email reminders play a key role in the practice's reminder strategy. "We are still sending out regular mail reminders, but we don't do third and fourth reminders. Now I have Vetstreet doing that for me automatically!"
Even the practice's website has benefited from Vetstreet. "We have a website we went to a lot of trouble to design and get out there, and [the service] brings the website more attention, too."
Thanks to Vetstreet, Tricia has an easy way to attract and retain the affluent, tech-savvy young professionals, students, and university professors she knows the practice needs to grow. "I don't know of any kid today who picks up a phone book. They just go to Google to find whatever they need." And when they do, they'll find Ashby Animal Clinic waiting to serve them.