Practice Reduces Call Volume and Sees an Increase in New Clients with PetDesk

See how this veterinary clinic was able to grow their practice while reducing phone call volume with PetDesk’s online scheduling system.

Meet St. Francis Animal Clinic!

St. Francis Animal Clinic was founded in 1967 by Dr. Dale Adourian. Dr. Adourian was a pioneer in the field then, being one of the first female veterinarians practicing in the Waterloo Region. The clinic operated on Frederick Street before the Pandora Avenue location was constructed in the early 1970s. Dr. Adourian continued to serve clients and their pets until 2011 actively. Dr. Patricia Weir took the helm of St. Francis in 2005, becoming clinic owner while continuing to work closely alongside Dr. Adourian. St. Francis Animal Clinic flourished under the guidance of these two inspiring women and their teams.

In October 2021, Dr. Weir passed the reins of St. Francis Animal Clinic to Dr. Anna Skorobohacz and Dr. Meredith Murphy. Dr. Anna and Dr. Meredith feel honored to carry on the tradition of keeping St. Francis a privately-owned, female-directed clinic dedicated to serving the Kitchener-Waterloo community and beyond.

Today, they are a full-service companion animal clinic. It is their commitment to provide quality veterinary care throughout the life of a pet. Their services and facilities are designed to assist in routine preventive care for young, healthy pets, early detection and treatment of disease as pets age, and complete medical and surgical care during their lifetime.

‘Our phones were ringing constantly’

When we spoke to Meredith, co-owner of St. Francis Animal Clinic in Ontario, she told us how the phones were ringing off the hook when she and her partner acquired the clinic in 2021. The vet techs, instead of helping them with surgeries or other important things, were constantly running to answer the phones.

“We’re a small clinic and my techs would constantly be leaving me to grab the other lines that were ringing. There would be times when I would be standing around waiting for a tech to come help me with a blood collection or something but no one was free. Everybody was on the phone.”

‘Personally, I don’t like to call anyone to book appointments anymore’

In her daily routine, Meredith likes to use websites to browse for anything she needs. When convinced with the look and feel of it, she books online or purchases the product.

“I don’t like calling anybody. A website provides a lot of information and people look at it. I get clients who come in and reference something from the website that they looked at before making a decision.”

Meredith finds that PetDesk’s online scheduling system has changed the efficiency within the clinic and made it smoother than it was. Their appointment slots are now filled, booking almost 330 appointments last year, without having to talk to people on the phone and she sees that as a big positive.

“I now have my technicians available to me more than I would have before so that has improved efficiency and just allowed people to book appointments or make a change themselves instead of calling in.”

‘We have seen a reduction of 15-20% in phone call volume and a 20% increase in new clients’

By implementing PetDesk’s online scheduling system, St. Francis Animal Clinic not only experienced a notable decrease in phone calls but also achieved significant growth in its practice.

“It is not so much about the percentage reduction but about the growth of the clinic. With PetDesk’s online scheduling platform, we saw a 20% increase in the number of new clients and I am happy about it.”

Some of the biggest impacts we have had:

We save 8 hours a month on average with PetDesk’s tech tools

Clients with a new or sick pet can now book an available slot, even when the clinic is closed.

The vet techs are now available to help with patients

‘The number of users we have on the PetDesk App is larger than I thought it was going to be’

When Meredith and her partner decided to implement PetDesk’s online scheduling system they realized that they probably didn’t need the client communication system, as a lot of their problems were solved by the booking tool. In fact, they discovered that over 450 users were happily using the PetDesk app, far more than expected!

“I feel like now it’s not something that I can’t just take away as most of the users have pets with chronic health problems and they keep requesting refills of medications or being able to see what their pets are due for. People with multi-pet households who need to contact us frequently really like the App. Even for us, it allows us to send our reminders more efficiently, which has been very helpful.”

‘PetDesk’s websites brought us under your umbrella of services’

When Meredith and her partner took over the business in 2021, the website was not pleasing at all. It looked outdated with no organization, a couple of staff photos, contact details and no social media integration. The team knew they needed a revamped website which would look visually appealing.

“When we used PetDesk’s website services, we were very happy with the website they designed. They were very responsive to our ideas and what we were looking for, probably even more than we had even thought about when we were first setting it up.”

With almost 42% of bookings coming from after hours, St. Francis Animal Clinic has been using PetDesk to scale their business and really focus on acquiring new clients and offering quality veterinary service that they promise.