ARC VETS
Boosting veterinary service quality through effective feedback management
Animal Referral Centre (ARC) is a specialist and 24-hour emergency care service. Since its inception in 2016, ARC has experienced rapid growth and in 2023 expanded to include a second large multidisciplinary hospital. Managed by over 150 team members across two locations, ARC offers eight specialty veterinary care services to ensure every animal in its care has a comprehensive treatment plan in place.
The Opportunity:
Dr Rachel Gebbie, ARC’s Relationships Manager, emphasises the importance of staying connected with their dual customer base—pet owners and referring vets. "Managing feedback effectively ensures we meet customer needs with best practices and outstanding outcomes," says Rachel.
Rachel continues, “Managing feedback easily and using it constructively means everyone wins – happy customers help to build our growing reputation in the market, our team is always boosted by the positive feedback and it gives us the chance to identify where we need to make changes to improve our services.”
ARC Vets needed a streamlined method to gather customer feedback easily, identify areas for improvement and enhance service quality without overwhelming their customers.
Customer Radar on the radar…
Rachel initially searched Google for solutions, but it was a conversation with a referral hospital that put her in touch with Customer Radar. After initial contact with the team, Rachel had a demo and signed up for a free trial before deciding to implement the solution.
“I can’t speak highly enough about the service we received from the team at Customer Radar – they really cared, took time to understand what we wanted to do and showed us how to do it. They were genuinely interested in our business and we felt the solution was being developed just for us and our customers”.
Customer Radar made it easy to manage the process using smart feedback and reputation management technology. Rachel found the solution easy to understand and use. “I needed something simple because if it was complicated, the value for me would be lost”.
Says Rachel “We were keen to get the solution up and running quickly to give us a centralised platform to manage the feedback process.”
ARC started simply, setting up their two clinics first and then adding dermatology and hydrotherapy services enabling them to bring all customer feedback into a centralised platform.
The Process:
“Feedback shared with the team generated an added surprise and one we weren’t expecting – seeing the team’s faces when they read the feedback has been a huge boost. Our team takes such pride in their work, that to get thanks and special recognition is amazing.”
Considerations to getting it right…
Customer Radar’s integration with ezyVet Practice Management Software made it really easy to set-up an automatic process for inviting customers to give feedback. An hour after an appointment, customers automatically receive an email asking for feedback. System settings ensure that they only receive one invitation in a 60-day period.
Clinics usually let customers know they will receive a feedback email and assure them that the emails are read and actioned wherever possible. ARC found that letting customers know to expect an email increased the chances of them responding.
The integration with ezyVet allows ARC to manage the customer experience at a customer level and ensures that interaction with pet owners especially after the more difficult and emotional visits, is managed sensitively.
Making a difference…
Before Customer Radar was implemented, the only feedback ARC received was direct or through Google reviews. And there was no market measure such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), to track performance The new solution through Customer Radar allowed them to do NPS plus ask the customer for more detailed feedback about their experience…
Being able to assure customers their feedback was important, it would be read and reviewed and, wherever possible, acted on in a timely manner was a key success factor for the business.
Feedback and action…
Customers receive an email or text message with a request for feedback. The customer clicks the link and gives their feedback - responding to a single question with a 1-5 star rating and also adding free form text which enables them to share about their experience in their own words. They are then invited to give a Google review if they wish to.
If a customer gives a low score, it also goes straight to a manager’s inbox. The manager is alerted and can liaise with Rachel and the team to understand the situation then respond and manage the situation immediately for service recovery.
Rachel can see all the feedback immediately from the privacy of her Customer Radar dashboard. She can view and also respond to the customer from the dashboard. The customer’s appointment details are also pulled through with the feedback making it easy for Rachel to understand all relevant details. If more of a personal touch is required, Rachel will often phone the customers and record notes about the discussion in the dashboard too, as well as EzyVet where it is accessible to all involved with a case.
Rachels says “being able to proactively seek feedback, receive it immediately, be alerted to low scores and action them quickly and in a personal way when needed has most likely reduced the number of rare unhappy or upset customers taking to social media. Customer Radar gives us the chance to make contact and resolve the situation”.
The Impact:
“Managing feedback easily and using it constructively means everyone wins – happy customers help to build our growing reputation in the market, our team is always boosted by the positive feedback and it gives us the chance to identify where we need to make changes to improve our services.”
Purrfect results
Initial responses were incredibly positive and plentiful, with a greater number of customers responding to the invitation for feedback than previously. Rachel believes it was due to the fact that the emails were timely and were quick and simple for their customers to do.
In the first six months of using Customer Radar, ARC Vets received feedback from over 500 customers. Using this feedback, Rachel sends regular comms to the ARC staff with updates, relevance news and stats plus feedback summaries. Using functionality in Customer Radar, Rachel shares the word clouds of the feedback to share with the team - highlighting special words from customers which always boosts them. To make reporting easy, Rachel can click on a specific word (ie Friendly) and the system surfaces all the customer feedback that mentions that word.
An unexpected result
Reviews and feedback come from many other sources including Google, email, handwritten cards and phone calls. Rachel monitors and manages them all – and one unexpected benefit has been being able to share wonderful feedback with members of the ARC team, especially when they are mentioned by name. “This has been a lovely surprise and one we weren’t expecting – seeing the team’s faces when they read the feedback has been a huge boost. Our team takes such pride in their work, that to get thanks and special recognition is amazing. We do encounter low times in the clinics with some sad stories, but many of the team print out the feedback, or file it away in a folder on their computer, and read it when a little boost is required.”
It’s about the team as well as the customers…
Continues Rachel, “It’s our people that make the experience. It is the friendliness, the caring professionalism and our strong communication that we can be most proud of. These are the things that resonate. The feedback we collect shows that every single member of the ARC team contributes to the overall customer impression. Customers comment on interactions with reception, accounts, nursing team and the vet team. And also the cleanliness of the clinics. So, every person and every exchange contributes to a customer's experience.”
Benefiting the Business
There have been several benefits gained using the Customer Radar solution:
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Regular and structured feedback helped ARC continuously refine their services, leading to higher customer satisfaction rates
- Improved Service Delivery: Insights from feedback allowed for targeted improvements, ensuring ARC maintained high standards of veterinary care
- Strengthened Market Reputation: Positive feedback and improved service outcomes have enhanced ARC’s reputation, attracting more customers and referrals from other vets
- Employee Engagement: Sharing positive feedback directly with team has increased team morale and commitment to service excellence
* NPS is a single survey question asking respondents to rate the likelihood that they would recommend a company or a service to a friend, family or colleagues.