When it comes to taking payments for animal health services at a veterinary practice, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the process has remained unchanged for a long time: Fido’s pet parents entered the clinic, Fido was examined, and the pet parent checked out and paid by cash, credit card, or check at the front desk.
The veterinary profession evolves, embracing new innovations from concierge/curbside services to total operational restructuring, enhancing efficiency and client service.
One aspect that is essential to practice operations but seldom reviewed or considered is credit card processing. Online options, portable equipment, and the ability to conduct business with minimal contact have become increasingly important, offering practices a more efficient way of operating and streamlining services. Here are three of these simple but effective changes that scores of veterinary practitioners have adopted in the last 18 months, and how they are here to stay.
Online Payment Tools on your Veterinary Practice Website
Websites are no longer just simple marketing tools with a clinic description, images, and contact details. They’re becoming a powerful tool for booking appointments, taking payments (like our handy integrated and standalone e-commerce solutions), and ordering through online pharmacies.
An easier way to accept payments Practice Managers in brick-and-mortar clinics are finding that they can quickly and easily bill and collect payments from their pet parents with little hassle – and without the need for them to be physically present. Whether integrated with your PIMS or not, the benefits of reduced accounting errors, recurring billing, dashboard management, and additional client tools can assist in making practices more efficient and payment savvy. Most importantly, you can achieve more secure payments. Moreover, as pet parents are scheduling appointments with multiple practices in order to be seen quickly, then failing to cancel the other appointments once seen, you can take a non-refundable deposit to reduce your loss with no-shows.
The benefits don’t stop at in-clinic payments. Equine and Mobile Veterinarians are reducing missed appointments, bounced checks, and credit card payments. Online payment tools are giving mobile vets the ability to take deposits before appointments, and store customer credit card data to take payments for services wherever they work.
About Gravity Link
Using the Gravity Link tool, you can input and save customer information, set up recurring billing, and even manage invoices and receipts for easy documentation. Plus, you can integrate it directly with your website. To find out more about Gravity Link and Gravity’s other payment tools for small businesses, click here.
NB: Here’s a useful article about preparing your site for e-commerce!
Text to Pay
Not unlike online payment portals, Text to Pay is a great way to bill customers wherever they are. Automatically generating invoices and payment links and sending via SMS has obvious time savings. However, it is also a way to operate a curbside or mobile service without the cost of wireless hardware.
Saving time with Text to Pay
Many popular veterinary PIMS integrate with Gravity’s SMS Text to Pay feature. This integration enables you to trigger a text, billing your customer directly from inside the management software. Animal caretakers/parents can easily access and pay the bill from their smartphone.
Decrease lost revenue / late payments
Text communications have a 98% open rate on average, compared with a 20% open rate with emails, getting in front of your customers. It keeps them up-to-date with their payments, and it keeps your cash flowing.
Using Mobile Point of Sales Devices
The likelihood is that there will be a new normal for our industry. POS devices like the Clover Flex can integrate into any situation. Clover Flex has become extremely popular by reducing the trips to clients curbside from as many as three to one. It’s also a sensitive solution to taking payments in an emotionally challenging environment.
Picture this: A terminally sick animal is brought into your practice to be euthanized. Taking payment for this crucial service is even harder. Delaying this process for days or weeks after the event will increase the likelihood of lost revenue. The Clover Flex wireless terminal is a great solution to this. It enables you to process payment in the privacy of the exam room or a client’s car.
Another mobile device that can make the mobile environment financially safer for the veterinarians is Swipe Simple, a small bluetooth card reader that fits neatly in in a pocket, allowing you to swipe, tap, or dip credit cards wherever you are. Any veterinarian that needs to travel and be able to charge remotely will appreciate this little device. Equine, Mobile, and traveling Specialists are carrying this small mobile-tethered terminal with them on their appointments. Swipe Simple is a small bluetooth card reader that fits neatly in a pocket. This small reader allows you to swipe, tap or dip credit cards wherever you are. We’ve found that it reduces the risk of bounced checks or credit cards.
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Maneuvering in this ever-changing environment can be frustrating. These small innovations in payment technology can help practitioners adapt to the new reality. Gravity Payments is delighted to offer these solutions in affordable standalone and integrated solutions with many popular PIMS. If you’re interested in seeing these products in action, or learning more about how you can improve the productivity of your veterinary practice with some of these solutions, get in touch! Our Veterinary Payment Specialists will consult with you to make sure your solution works best for your practice. get in touch! Our Veterinary Payment Specialists will consult with you to make sure your solution works best for your practice.
