At Vetster, we want to set our veterinary professionals up for success through every step of their virtual care journey. Vetster makes significant investments in our technology, support and marketing programs to connect pet owners to you through the Vetster platform. It is our expectation that you will deliver an excellent client experience for pet owners. Read this article to understand how to deliver that standard of service set out by Vetster.
Accept and confirm your appointments:
If your calendar is open on Vetster, we require you to confirm your bookings promptly when they come in. With Vetster’s flexible scheduling features, appointments should be declined only in rare, extenuating circumstances.
Please confirm as quickly as possible when a booking comes through. This secures the booking with the pet owner and lets our team know you’re committed to taking it. Acknowledging and confirming the booking right away confidently sets everyone’s expectations that the appointment is going to happen. Confirming quickly increases your chances for receiving future bookings, so doing so sooner rather than later helps you build your virtual client base.
Hot Tip: Head to your calendar settings to adjust your minimum booking notice. If you have your minimum booking notice set at the shortest possible value (15 minutes) and it’s unlikely that you will be checking your phone or computer regularly for appointments, you may want to extend your time up to more than 30 minutes or an hour.
Check your Vetster notifications:
All veterinary professionals using the platform are expected to check and be responsive to Vetster notifications. Select ‘Notifications’ from your account dashboard to see them all in one place. When your calendar shows you are available, you are expected to read and respond to all newly posted and incoming email or SMS (text) notifications about appointments. Please mark incoming emails from Vetster as ‘safe’ so they don’t end up in your spam folder.
Privacy, professionalism, and your video presence:
Delivering a professional, comprehensive virtual appointment requires that you consider the manner and environment in which you provide your services.
Clients deserve and expect your full attention and a personal connection during their appointment. At Vetster, all appointments must be conducted with your camera on, in a quiet, private location. Whenever possible, set up in a home office or another space that supports a professional experience, and use one of the Vetster virtual backgrounds if needed to maintain a polished appearance. If an unexpected situation requires you to take a call from a less traditional location, it’s essential to ensure your environment remains quiet, private, and free of distractions. Give your client a brief explanation and reassure them that they have your full attention. Appointments should never be taken while driving or multitasking, as your focus and presence are critical to providing safe, high-quality care.
To maintain a high standard of professional care:
- You must use your camera during appointments.
- Choose a quiet, private location free of distractions and background noise.
- Use headphones and, when appropriate, take advantage of Vetster’s virtual backgrounds and noise cancellation features (available on desktop).
- Ensure you are fully present, giving the pet owner your complete attention.
Good lighting is key when it comes to creating a professional video experience. Try finding a room that offers enough natural or artificial light (without appearing oversaturated) so you can be seen clearly.
Being clearly visible on camera during appointments is not only essential for providing an excellent client experience, it also provides a necessary security check, ensuring clients that they are seeing the credentialed professional they booked with. Vetster reserves the right to withhold payment if an appointment does not meet these basic standards.
Preparing for your appointment:
Prepare for your appointments. Review any information from previous Vetster appointments in the client’s record. If you have specific questions or require your client to share files/photos with you prior to the appointment, please reach out to support@vetster.com with your appointment time and Reference ID, and make a request for the client to add this information. Our support team will do their best to get this information added prior to the meeting, so you may review and prepare.
Maximizing Appointment Time:
It is important to be both punctual and reliable for all your appointments in order to deliver the best experience and instill client confidence. We expect Vetster veterinarians to be punctual. If you are running late, please let our support team know. Pet owners will leave calls within 2-3 minutes if you are late and these appointments will not be paid out. Please note you do not have to wait until the exact appointment time to join the call; appointments can be logged into ahead of time.
It is also important that you deliver full service for the appointment paid for. Even when the pet needs to see a veterinarian in-person, it’s important that you take a full history, guide the pet owner through next steps, and help to educate them on the care of their animal. Check out this blog post for additional information on how to deliver that great customer experience in a virtual setting. You’d be surprised at the differences!
Maintaining a professional and personal image:
Your face must be visible in your Vetster profile picture. Avoid blurry selfies and surgical masks, and please know AI generated photos or stock images are not permissible. This isn’t just about presenting a professional image, it’s also an important security measure. In a space where clients don’t meet you in person, a clear, accurate photo helps reassure them that they are speaking with the licensed professional they booked with. Just as riders check the photo of their driver in a ride-sharing app, pet owners rely on this visual confirmation to feel confident and safe in their virtual care experience.
Testing your device ahead of time:
Please make sure all software and hardware are working properly ahead of client calls. It's important to test your audio and video settings and to ensure that your device’s battery is fully charged ahead of time and that your wifi or data connection is stable. This will ensure you can appear on video and use audio for the best possible appointment experience. To do this, please log in to Vetster and navigate to Account, then Chat settings, to test your device.
Completing the medical record:
Once you’ve finished the in-call session of the appointment, you must complete the appointment record within 24 hours. This includes medical records, scripts (if any), and follow-up booking requests (if needed). Payment for completed calls is processed once the appointment record has been completed. Additionally, please be aware that if you do not complete an appointment record within 24 hours of the in-call session ending, your Vetster account may be paused and you may risk non-payment. We appreciate your consideration in this regard so clients can get the information they need as soon as possible, and we can ensure regulatory compliance.
Handling client no-shows/technical difficulties & insufficient appointments:
For client no-shows, please reach out to our support team within the first 5 minutes via chat or email so that we can help connect you. If, after our attempt to assist, the client doesn't show up for the appointment, please click the pop-up button 'My client didn't show up'.
If your client appears to be having technical difficulties joining the call session, reach out to our Customer Experience team immediately and stay on the call so our team can help the client connect.
In order to receive a partial payout for either of these instances, you must connect with our Customer Experience team within the first 5 minutes. Please note that you will have had to join the appointment on time in order to be eligible for a partial payout.
For the most updated information on this, click here.
Upholding professional standards for a positive experience
At Vetster, professionalism isn’t just a best practice - it’s essential to creating a consistently positive experience for everyone involved: you as the veterinarian, the pet owner, and the platform. We aim to support and empower our veterinary professionals, not penalize them. In order to maintain the high standard of care pet owners expect, however, Vetster reserves the right to manage veterinary accounts that do not meet these expectations. This may include, but is not limited to, withholding payment for unsatisfactory appointments, pausing accounts during an escalation or prioritizing veterinarians who do provide excellent service to new clients. Maintaining high standards ensures trust, satisfaction, and success for all of us.
Please note, these professional standards apply to all appointments on the platform - those clients we bring to you as well as those you secure directly on your own.
Thank you for contributing to a professional and enriching Vetster experience! We value our veterinary community and appreciate all that you do.