At Vetster, we want to set our veterinary professionals up for success through every step of their virtual care journey. At the same time, we also need to 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 ask that you confirm your bookings promptly when they come in. With Vetster’s flexible scheduling features, appointments should be declined only in rare, extenuating circumstances and will be tracked.
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.
Hot Tip: Head to your calendar settings to adjust your minimum booking notice. If it’s unlikely that you will be checking your phone regularly for appointments, you may want to extend your time from 30 minutes to 1 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. Please mark incoming emails from Vetster as ‘safe’ so they don’t end up in your spam folder.
Privacy matters:
Veterinarians practicing on Vetster are known for their professionalism. When you’re taking an appointment, we ask that you find a quiet and private area. Provide clients with your undivided attention by steering clear of taking calls while driving or doing other tasks. Avoid taking appointments where other people may hear the conversation. Be mindful that a pet owner will not expect you to be taking a call from a public place such as a restaurant. Be sure to use your headphones, and use our virtual backgrounds and noise cancellation features (available on desktop only). Clients deserve a veterinarian's undivided attention and this helps to maintain a high standard of professional care.
Preparing for your appointment:
Depending on the amount of advance notice required for an appointment, it is advised to prepare as best as you can. 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.
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!
Lighting your space:
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.
Maintaining a professional and personal image:
Vetster clients are far more likely to schedule an appointment if they can place a face to your name. When it comes to your profile photo, avoid blurry selfies and use polished headshots instead. Similarly, we ask you to show up to appointment calls appearing just as professional as portrayed in your profile photo.
Testing your device ahead of time:
Please make sure all software and hardware is 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 all charged up ahead of time. This will ensure you can appear on video and use audio for the best possible appointment experience. To do this, please login 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 will need to complete the appointment record within 24 hours. Please complete medical records, complete scripts (if any), and send 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, we ask that you reach out to our support team within the first 5 minutes via chat or email so that we can help connect you. Our policy is that you remain on the call for at least 15 minutes. If your client doesn't show up for the appointment after 15 minutes, please click the “My Client Didn’t Show Up” pop-up button and immediately reach out to our Support team via chat or email.
If you note that your client appears to be having technical difficulties joining the call, reach out to our support team immediately and remain on the call for a minimum of 15 minutes so our team can help your client to connect. In order to receive a partial payout for either of these instances it is required that you connect with our support team. For the most updated information on this, click here.
Note that Vetster has the right to withhold payout if it is deemed that the appointment was insufficient or unsatisfactory.
Thank you for contributing to a professional and enriching Vetster experience! We value our veterinary community and appreciate all that you do.